Have you ever had a roast that would just melt in your mouth! I always thought this was a difficult task to accomplish before I started cooking. Its really not! Its actually quite the opposite! This is one of those meals that you get going and leave it to cook for a couple hours (arent those the best) and come back to deliciousness!
Come join me on this step by step tutorial, and see how easy it is for yourself!
Ingredients
2 lb. chuck roast
onion powder
garlic salt
kosher salt
(can use whatever salt you have available)
cracked pepper
olive oil, couple Tbsp.
2 cups of beef broth
potatoes
(small rounds or you can cut up regular russet or golden potatoes into inch chunks)
carrots
For this recipe I prefer using a large heavy cast iron skillet that way I can transfer into oven easily. If you dont have one available to use, you can always start this in a regular skillet and transfer into a glass casserole dish, or fully prepare in a dutch oven.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 315 degrees.
First we want to get a very good sear on this hunk of beef! This will make for a deep rich ending flavor. Turn on burner at a medium high heat and allow cast iron to heat up till very hot (splash a drop of water in pan, when it sizzles its ready to go, 2-3 minutes).
While pan is getting ready, season up the meat. There really is no certain amount of seasoning to use, you just want a good covering. You can also add or take away seasonings to your liking. This is really a to your taste thing. I love using our basic seasonings, they literally work on everything! Make sure you season ALL sides.
When pan is hot, add in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or whatever oil you have available), swirl oil around pan to get a good covering and then add in the beef. Let sit on each side for a couple minutes to get a good crisp crust. Do this on EVERY side.
When done browning beef, remove from pan, and slowly (I mean slowly, this will sizzle, smoke and pop if youre not careful!) pour in beef broth, making sure to scrape all the yummy bits at the bottom of pan, thats straight flavor there!
Bring to a boil and add meat back into pan. Carefully (the pan is hot!) cover with aluminum foil, or oven proof lid. Put pan in preheated oven set to 315 degrees. It will cook for 2 hours.... Go outside and play with the kiddos, read a book, take a nap, whatever fancies you!When the 2 hours is up, carefully ( once again, pan is VERY hot) remove pan from oven. Remove foil, give the liquid a good stir. At this point, we will add in our potatoes and carrots.
(Note: You can also add other veggies if you want. We have had squash and zucchini and it was wonderful! You could also add in tomato paste to give this a tomato base flavor, completely up to you! If you do that, just add in 2-3 Tablespoons of the paste and stir very well then top with the veggies.)
Reapply foil, and put back into oven for another 30 minutes to a hour. I check after about 30 minutes, giving the potatoes a poke. You want the potatoes and carrots to be easily punctured with knife or fork. This took about 40 minutes for us this time. Totally a preference thing, if you like your taters a little tougher, by all means remove. If you like super soft, leave it in for longer. Make it work for you!
When veggies are to your liking, you can leave it as is, the juice from the meat is delicious as is OR you can do what we did and turn it into an Aujus gravy. To do this, remove the meat and veggies from the pan leacing the juice in the pan.
You can do this 2 ways, the really simple way using a packet mix or you can make your own using 1 Tbsp of beef bouillon and little corn starch/water slurry (You dont have to do the cornstarch part, but I like mine to have a little thickness to it.) Either way sprinkle in and stir well. Allow to go to a boil, stirring non stop until your desired thickness.
And thats it friends! Plate it up, add a little drizzle ( or a lot of drizzle ;) ) of the gravy and enjoy!!
