Is there anything better than a slow-cooked, melt-in-your-mouth, buttery-soft pot roast to snuggle up to at the end of a long winter day? This pot roast is the perfect addition to your winter menu. It’s cozy, soft and packs a strong punch of flavor with every bite, not to mention nutrient-dense to keep the immunity strong during the chilly winter months.
Tips For Making Pot Roast:
- Slow roast: Slow roasting the meat in the oven throughout the day helps break down the collagen fibers into gelatin, and in turn, creates a melt-in-your-mouth, buttery texture.
- Maintain internal temperature of 195-205° F: Maintaining an internal meat temperature of 195-205° F is crucial to creating a soft and succulent texture to your meat. It will make the meat shreddable, but not ropy.
- Keep the lid ajar: Keeping the Dutch oven lid ajar, slightly offset, while the meat cooks is essential to maintaining a steady internal temperature in the meat over the long roasting time.
- Dry brine: Before searing the chuck roast, you want to do a dry brine on the meat, meaning that you salt all sides of the meat, then allow it to rest for 20-30 minutes. After 20-30 minutes. Pat all sides of the meat dry with a paper towel. This is going to help draw some of the moisture out of the roast and allow the meat to get a nice, crispy sear on it. Dry-brining also allows the seasoning to set in deep into the fibers of the roast, flavoring and tenderizing the meat.
- Bone broth: I recommend using homemade bone broth to make this recipe. It will add a lot of additional flavor and a ton of essential nutrients that your body needs such as collagen, magnesium, potassium, and much more.
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Ingredients:
- Chuck roast
- Sea salt
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Medium carrots
- Medium celery stalks
- Sweet onion
- Garlic
- Tomato paste
- All-purpose flour (sub for gluten-free for a gluten-free version).
- Butter (cold)
- White wine
- Worcestershire sauce
- Chicken bone broth
- Fresh thyme
- Rosemary
- Fresh sage
- Bay leaves
- Black pepper
Materials Used:
How To Make Pot Roast:
Begin by dry-brining the chuck roast. This will help bring some of the moisture out of the meat allowing it to get a crispy sear later on in the pan. It will also help flavor and tenderize the meat. Cover all sides of the meat in sea salt and allow the meat to rest for 20-30 minutes at room temperature.
After 20-30 minutes, blot dry the chuck roast with a paper towel on all sides. We do not want any excess moisture on the steak.
Over medium-high heat, add olive oil or avocado oil to the Dutch oven and sear both sides of the chuck roast for 6 minutes each side, pressing the steak down into the pan. This will allow the meat to get an even sear all the way across the roast.
Once the pot roast is seared on both sides, take it out of the pan and place it on a cutting board to rest while you work on cooking the veggies.
Roughly chop one sweet onion, 4 medium carrots, 4 celery stalks, and 5-6 cloves of garlic.
Turn the heat down to medium heat and add the veggies to the same Dutch oven used to sear the chuck roast. Allow the veggies to slightly soften.
Once the veggies are slightly softened, add in 1.5 Tbsp. of tomato paste and cook down until the tomato paste becomes rusty in color.
Next, add in 3 Tbsp. of all-purpose flour and 2 Tbsp. of cold butter to make a roux. This is going to help thicken the sauce later on. Continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes longer.
Note: If you are gluten-free, you can always sub out the all-purpose flour for a gluten-free 1:1 baking flour. I like to use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour.
Add in 3 cups of chicken or beef bone broth, 2/3 cup white wine, and 1.5 Tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce.
Deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up any bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring the sauce to a simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and place the roast back into the Dutch oven.
Add fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, and a couple of bay leaves into the pot.
Place the lid ajar, slightly offset, onto the dutch pot and bake at 275 F.
Bake for 2 hours. After two hours check the internal temperature. It should read between 195°-205 F. We want to maintain this internal temperature for the next 6 hours, so make sure to check every couple of hours to see what the internal temperature of the roast is. If the temperature rises above 205° F, lower the oven temperature by 5 degrees and finish out the roasting process. We want to keep a lower internal temperature as this is going to help break down the tough collagen fibers into gelatin and give a tender, buttery texture to the roast.
After 6 hours of total cook time, remove the pot roast from the oven. By this time, the collagen in the meat should have gelatinized and the meat should be buttery-soft, moist, and shreddable.
Allow the roast to cool and set for 20-30 minutes in the Dutch oven before serving. This will allow the pot roast to not only cool down, but also rehydrate and soak up the sauces in the pan.
Taste test for salt before serving. I typically do not have to add any additional salt to the sauce due to dry brining the roast at the beginning of the cooking process.
And there you have it! Buttery smooth, melt-in-your-mouth pot roast! It is the perfect meal to get you through these long winter days.
FAQ:
- Can I make pot roast in my Instant Pot instead of the Dutch oven? You can; however, I highly recommend using the Dutch oven and slow-cooking the meat throughout the day rather than the Instant Pot for a few hours.
The Instant Pot often times cooks at a much higher temperature, resulting in an internal meat temperature of 250° F. When cooked at a higher temperature, it does not allow the collagen of the muscle fibers the ability to gradually break down and turn into gelatin.
However, when you can cook at a lower temperature in the oven over a long period of time, the muscle fibers and collagen in the roast can take their time breaking down, maintaining a lower internal temperature of 195-205° F. This lower internal temperature is what gives you that nice soft, gelatin texture you are looking for in a pot roast.
In my experience, cooking a roast in the pressure cooker will create a shreddable roast, but oftentimes be ropy or stringy in texture, rather than the butter and “melt-in-your-mouth” texture that the Dutch oven provides. - Can I sub white wine for red wine? Yes, you definitely can sub the white wine out for red wine. I would just make sure that you are using a dry wine such as a cabernet.
- Can I use chicken stock instead of bone broth? Definitely! I just like using bone broth because it adds a lot of collagen, gelatin, and other essential nutrients in the meal.
My Favorite Weeknight Meals:
- Chicken Noodle Soup With Homemade Egg Noodles
- Healthy Basil Chicken Fried Rice
- Shredded Chicken Tacos
- Roasted White Wine Chicken Drumsticks
- Spaghetti Bolognese
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you would consider coming back to the site to give it a 5-star rating and tag me on Instagram or Facebook! Thanks so much 🙂
Winter Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 3.5 lbs. chuck roast
- 1 Tbsp. sea salt
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 4 medium carrots
- 4 medium celery stalks
- 1 sweet onion
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1.5 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour (sub for gluten free if needed)
- 2 Tbsp. butter (cold)
- 2/3 cup white wine
- 1.5 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
- 3 cups chicken bone broth
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 sprig fresh sage
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp. black pepper
Instructions
- Begin by dry-brining the chuck roast. This will help bring some of the moisture out of the meat and help it to get a crispy sear on the exterior later on in the pan. Cover all sides of the meat in sea salt and allow the meat to rest for 20-30 minutes at room temperature.
- After 20-30 minutes, blot the chuck roast dry with a paper towel on all sides. We do not want any excess moisture on the steak.
- Over medium high heat, add olive oil or avocado oil to the dutch oven and sear both sides of the chuck roast for 6 minutes each side, pressing the steak down into the pan. This will allow the meat to get an even sear all the way across the roast.
- Once the pot roast is seared on both sides, take it out of the pan and place it on a cutting board to rest.
- Roughly chop the sweet onion, carrots, celery stalks, and garlic.
- Turn the heat down to medium heat and add the veggies to the same dutch oven used to sear the chuck roast. Allow the veggies to slightly soften.
- Once the veggies are slightly softened, add tomato paste and cook down until the tomato paste becomes rusty in color.
- Next, add all-purpose and cold butter to make a roux. This is going to help thicken the sauce later on. Continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes longer.
- Add in 3 cups of chicken bone broth, white wine and worcestershire sauce. Deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up any bits and bring the sauce to a simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the pot from the heat and place the roast back into the dutch oven.
- Add fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, and bay leaves into the pot.
- Place the lid ajar, slightly offset, onto the dutch oven pot and bake at 275 F.
- Bake for 2 hours. After two hours check the internal temperature. It should read between 195°-205 F. We want to maintain this internal temperature for the next 6 hours, so make sure to check every could of hours to see what the internal temperature of the roast is. If the temperature raises above 205° F, lower the oven temperature by 5 degrees and finish out the roasting process.
- After 6 hours of total cook time, remove the pot roast from the oven. By this time, the collagen in the meat should have gelatinized and the meat should be buttery soft, moist, and shreddable.
- Allow the meat to rest in the pot for 20 minutes before serving in order to cool and soak up all the juices left in the pot.
Notes
- Slow roast: Slow roasting the meat in the oven throughout the day helps break down the collagen fibers into gelatin, and in turn, creates a melt-in-your-mouth, buttery texture.
- Maintain internal temperature of 195-205° F: Maintaining an internal meat temperature of 195-205° F is crucial to creating a soft and succulent texture to your meat. It will make the meat shreddable, but not ropy.
- Keep the lid ajar: Keeping the dutch oven lid ajar, slightly offset, while the meat cooks is essential to maintaining a steady internal temperature in the meat over the long roasting time.
- Dry brine: Prior to searing the chuck roast, you want to do a dry brine on the meat, meaning that you salt all sides of the meat, then allow it to rest for 20-30 minutes. After 20-30 minutes. Pat all sides of the meat dry with a paper towel. This is going to help draw some of the moisture out of the roast and allow the meat to get a nice, crispy sear on it. Dry-brining also allows the seasoning to set in deep into the fibers of the roast, flavoring and tenderizing the meat.
- Bone broth: I recommend using homemade bone broth to make this recipe. It will add a lot of additional flavor and a ton of essential nutrients that your body needs such as collagen, magnesium, potassium, and much more.
