MONDAY RECIPE POST - POT ROAST WITH POTATOES AND CARROTS

This week's recipe came from Cooking Classy, hosted by Jaclyn.  You can find the original recipe here, along with great tips and enjoyable photos. 

Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots
Servings: 6 

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Total time: 3 hours 45 minutes

Calories: 597 per serving 

1 (3 lb) boneless chuck roast

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic , minced

1 (14.5 oz) can beef broth

3/4 cup dry red wine (optional)

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf

2 lbs yukon gold potatoes, cleaned then diced into 1 1/2 inch pieces

6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. 

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. 

Season roast all over with salt and pepper, then add roast to the Dutch oven and brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side.

Transfer roast to a plate, add onions to your now empty pot, and sauté until they begin to brown, about 4 - 5 minutes, adding garlic during the last minutes. 

Carefully put your roast back into the pot, and pour beef broth and optional red wine over roast. Add thyme, rosemary and bay leaf to broth. Bring to a simmer, then cover with lid and carefully transfer to oven and cook 2 hours.  You notice I say carefully because I worry about these things.  

After the two hours - carefully - remove from oven, add carrots and potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cover pot, return - I don't have to say it any more do I? - to the oven and cook 1 to 1-1/2 hours longer until roast and veggies are tender.

Remove roast and shred or cut into large pieces, while removing fat, then return to pot. Remove bay leaf and herb sprigs. 

Serve warm and enjoy.

A great start to kick off the colder months. It was delicious but we made a few changes.  As we were still trying to get used to the pandemic, there were no trips to the store for leisurely walks up and down the aisles.  We made do with the things we had available.

I didn't have any beef stock, but there was chicken broth which we used instead.  

There were no fresh herbs and I used a teaspoon of dried thyme, and half a teaspoon of dried sage as I didn't have any rosemary.

As there was just the two of us we had 4 more meals to enjoy, and we ate them over the next couple of days.  Leftovers are great and ones which we enjoy for a nice and easy no-fuss-in-the-kitchen meal the next day, or two, and they only seem to get better as the flavors have a chance to develop.  

It was a very rich and delicious broth.  Fortunately I had a bottle of red wine left unopened from a dinner party before we all had to start being careful.  I added it to the ingredients and it was very nice to have a glass with our meal. 

The temperature of the oven is set lower than I normally use (275 deg. F), but the roast was melt-in-the-mouth tender. 

That's all I think.  Thank you for stopping by and enjoy your week.