2 BIG Mistakes People Make When Making Pot Roast

Making pot roast in a dutch oven is by far superior for flavor development. You can get deep mallard crust on the meat prior to cooking it in a flavorful beef and wine broth.

When people make pot roast, they tend to forget or don’t know about two very critical steps in the cooking process. Luckily, both of these steps (techniques) are easy to do. The results are eye opening and people will be begging you for the recipe.

The first mistake is not seasoning the meat correctly. Not seasoning the meat well along with the other ingredients throughout the cooking process is a missed opportunity for flavor. I always used to say this to my cooks “if you season properly throughout the cooking process, you get food that is full of flavor with a perfect flavor profile. If you wait to season until the very end, you end up with salty tasting food.”

The second mistake is not searing the meat enough or at all. When you sear the meat first, you get the salt and meat cooking together getting that delicious mallard (browned crust) on the outside of the meat. That is another technique for flavor. Cooking pot roast in a dutch oven is a perfect vessel for this.

Ingredients:

2 lb beef chuck roast (915 g in video)

Kosher salt, calculated 1% of meat weight (about .5 to 1 tbsp, 9 g in the video)

2 tbsp tallow or avocado oil (high temperature)

1 tsp black pepper

1 glass red wine

1-1/2 c beef stock

1-1/2 c chicken stock

2 sprigs thyme

10 mini gold potatoes

1 shallot, rough chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, rough chopped

Tools needed:

Dutch oven with lid

Sharp knife

Cutting board

Paper towels

Measuring cups and spoons

Wooden spoon

Kitchen scale

How to make it:

First up, I am going to get very precise with the amount of salt needed to season the meat perfectly. There is no over or under salting it with this method. To do this, weigh out the meat in grams and multiply that by 1% to get the amount of salt needed. My preference is to use kosher salt as I like the crust it helps the meat get when it gets seared off. If you don’t have a scale, you can go with about 3/4 to 1 tbsp salt for a 2 lb cut of meat. I do urge you to invest in a scale if you don’t have one as this method I am sharing can be used with all meats using the 1% rule for salt. Sprinkle the salt over the meat evenly, cover and let sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This time with the salt sitting on the meat is very critical for getting the meat seasoned all the way through. The meat will change color slightly with a deeper red color and will absorb the meat seasoning it and tenderizing it to a point. About an hour before you want to make the pot roast, remove it from the refrigerator.

Cut the potatoes into quarters or in half depending on the size. Of course, always wash produce before cooking.

Preheat your oven to 300 F.

Heat up your dutch oven over medium high heat for about 1 minute. You want it to barely start smoking. This is to get a good sear on the meat.

That brown crust is all flavor with depth. Do not skip this step!

When ready, pat the meat dry with paper towels. Place 2 tbsp tallow or other high temperature oil into the dutch oven and sear off the meat 3-4 minutes per side or until a beautiful golden crust starts to form on the meat. Once the meat is fully seared on all sides, remove it from the dutch oven and set aside on a plate.

Reduce heat to medium low. Add the shallots to the dutch oven with a pinch of salt and sweat for 3 minutes. They are to be translucent and slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook the rawness off around 1 minutes.

Now, deglaze the dutch oven with to beef stock scraping the browned bits off the bottom with your wooden spoon. Add in the wine, the thyme, potatoes and the meat.

Crank up the heat to medium high to bring the cooking liquid to a boil. Kill the heat, place a cover on the dutch oven and place into the oven.

Cook for 3-4 hours or until tender. After an hour and a half of cook time, I check the doneness of the meat by trying to pull it apart. If it still has a lot of resistance and feels rubbery, go another hour and check again. The meat is to be able to pull apart with suggestive hints of resistance when ready.

I love to make the vegetables separately instead of tossing a bunch of carrots in. The reason for that is I find that all the ingredients sort of all blend together with no definitive flavor. The potatoes are great going in as they tend to be very mellow with flavor. They soak up the cooking liquid and get velvety smooth on the texture.

Pan roasted carrots going with the pot roast gives this dish a nice touch suggesting a strong sense of care for your ingredients and building flavor profiles.

When you cook carrots separately, for example, they taste amazing and give the dish a nice difference in flavor profile that also pairs well. Check out my recipe for awesome tasting carrots. They are my favorite to make for this dish. They are a chef quality, pan roasted carrot recipe that everyone will love!

Serve immediately over your vegetables and a piece of French bread.

Enjoy!

Logan