Moms Chuck Roast My Favorite Recipes

OLD FASHIONED POT ROAST

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat the Dutch oven on medium heat until it is hot. Add a little oil of choice and heat that too.
• Sear both sides of your chuck roast, about five minutes on each side. Just brown it.
• Remove the roast from the pan and set aside on a plate.
• Add the chopped onion and celery to the oil and juices in the pan. Cook for a few minutes while stirring. These will mostly dissolve during the cooking of the roast but they add tons of flavor.
• Add the roast back into the pan and add 1/2 cup of water or beef broth and cover.
• Place the Dutch oven in the oven.
• Cook for about two hours at 350 degrees.
• After two hours add peeled and quartered russet potatoes. The size of your pot will determine how many you can add. But allow about ½- 1 potato for each person.
• Cook for another hour. Remove pan from oven and check for doneness in potatoes. They should be tender and cooked through.
• Check that the roast is done. It should pull apart easily with a fork. If it needs to cook more, remove potatoes and return to the oven for another half an hour.
• Or if the roast is done and the potatoes aren't, remove the roast and cook the potatoes for more time.
• When the roast and potatoes are both done cooking, let them rest in the pan until ready to serve to keep them warm.
• Granny recommends cooking the carrots separately to retain their color and flavor. This is how to do it.
• Peel the carrots, and slice off tip and the stem. Cut in half, then cut each half into about four carrot sticks.
• Place carrots in saucepan with a small amount of water. Add a little salt and about a teaspoon of sugar. Cook until tender but not too soft, about 10 minutes.
• To serve, place the pot roast in the center of a platter and surround with the potatoes and carrots.

MOM'S POT ROAST

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Sear the meat all over, about 2 minutes per each side.
• Move the meat to the side (or remove it from the pot altogether if necessary), add the celery, carrot and onion and brown the vegetables, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.
• Add the garlic and cook for a minute or 2 longer. Add the wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the tomatoes, water and bay leaves (and the meat if you removed it). Bring the liquid to a simmer and taste for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Cover the pot and bake, basting the meat occasionally, until tender, about 3 hours.
• About 20 minutes before the meat is tender, bring a pot of water to a boil and salt liberally. Add the shells, give it a stir and cook until al dente according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta.
• To serve, you can pull the meat apart with a couple of forks right in the pot at the table. Serve with the pasta, plenty of sauce and vegetables, tossing them all together.

MOM'S CHUCK ROAST - MY FAVORITE!

Steps:

• Cut off the vast majority of the fat from the (NOT previously frozen) roast. For me, this usually results in maybe 4-5 variously sized pieces of usable meat culled from one roast.
• Place a layer of oil (to coat bottom) in a cast iron skillet on the stove over medium-high and while that's heating ----.
• ---- poke holes part way through each piece of roast meat with a knife tip a few times on each side. This simply provides more surface area for the flavor to cling to. Rub all meat surfaces well - first with Kitchen Bouquet, then with the chopped garlic.
• When the skillet is hot, add meat and sear on all sides until well-browned, about 2 minutes on each side or whatever achieves the nicest deep brown.
• Add water to almost cover roast (maybe 1/4" below top of roast) - somewhere between 1 and 2 cups.
• Continue to heat until water just starts to bubble, then reduce heat to low or simmering, cover and braise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Braising cuts down the connective tissue in tougher cuts of meat.
• At the end of cooking time when meat is tender, remove lid and boil water and juices in skillet until volume reduces by almost half.
• Turn off heat and move all of the meat pieces to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm.
• Remove oil from juices with a gravy separator. This is VERY important to making successful gravy. Doing it by hand with a spoon or bulb baster is a tedious job, so I just ordered a Trudeau gravy/fat separator to make life easier. ;).
• Return about 1 cup of the separated water/juice/gravy fluid to the skillet heated to medium-high.
• Mix the Wondra with just enough water to make a thinnish paste. While whisking FEVERISHLY, ~slowly~ pour the thin paste into the sauce to combine and prevent lumps from forming. Wondra flour in the tall blue can works Wondra-fully and is made for this purpose. (Hey, any opportunity I have for making stupid puns shall not go wasted.).
• For the next few minutes, continue whisking as though your very life depended on it, even after the Wondra/flour has incorporated into the sauce. Then, still whisking, slowly add the milk.
• When gravy is heated through, it's ready to pour over hunks of roast beast and boiled tater slices! Season *after* tasting as it may already be just fine. However, I highly recommend some finishing salt to bump that puppy right over the edge of heaven! Saltistry's "herb grey" is absolute bliss.
• Oh, and for leftovers, might I suggest a beef version of Breakfast Pork Hash (Recipe #170376?) :).

MOM'S ROAST BEEF

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat; brown roast on all sides. Remove from pan. Mix garlic and seasonings; sprinkle over roast., Add onion to same pan; cook and stir over medium heat until tender; stir in bouillon, coffee and 3/4 cup water. Add roast; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until meat is tender, about 2-1/2 hours., Remove roast from pan, reserving cooking juices. Tent with foil; let stand 10 minutes before slicing., Mix flour and cold water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until thickened, 1-2 minutes. Serve with roast.