Why am I making pot roast at 8:00 on a Wednesday morning? Because we have a kickball game at 6:00 and I can't seem to remember to plan ahead. So today will be different! We will have supper ready as soon as we get home from the game...just need to remember to make the mashed potatoes some time today!
This recipe is of my very own making. I have been trying different recipes and methods for years, and I sort of guessed at this technique and it was a winner. We like ours simple. We don't use wine or shallots or a melange of winter root vegetables. Meat. Fat. Flour. Beef stock. Garlic. Salt. Pretty simple, huh?
1 3# chuck roast, I like Angus, which is uniform thickness, well-marbled, room temperature
1 tsp. pureed garlic (jar is fine)
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp fat of choice (we use anything from olive oil to bacon grease, your choice)
salt
2 cans hearty beef stock/broth
Preheat your oven to 475. In a heavy dutch oven or other stove-to-oven heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid heat the fat on high heat. Dab any moisture off the roast with a paper towel and lay in the hot fat (yes, completely naked!). Do not move it for several minutes as you want a nice brown crust. Turn and brown other side for several minutes. Remove from heat and spread the garlic over the top and give it a generous pinch of kosher salt (or less generous of table salt). Sprinkle the flour around the edges of the meat into the fat in the pan, stirring so it mixes with the fat. Place this, uncovered, into the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and turn the oven down to 325. Pour in the beef broth and cover. Bake for 1 hour. If you like potatoes and carrots baked with your roast, add them now and bake an additional hour. If you just want the beef and gravy, continue baking and check after 45 minutes for doneness. This will keep for a while in the dutch oven after coming out of the oven, or rewarm on the stovetop.
I remove the meat to a platter and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pot and give the gravy a good whisking over medium low heat. Then I pour it into a fat separator and let the fat rise to the top, pouring off the gravy from the bottom.
Enjoy!!
