Perfect Pot Roast
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Truly the best melt-in-your-mouth pot roast, cooked low and slow and simmered until perfection. Serve with crusty bread!
Featured Comment
Cooked low and slow, this pot roast is perfect. Just perfect. The meat comes out incredibly tender and it is simply melt-in-your-mouth fall apart goodness. It’s ridiculous, really.
The secret is letting it simmer right in the oven for a few hours to make sure all the flavors really come together. Even the veggies soak up all that saucy goodness.
When ready to serve, make sure you serve with those precious leftover juices alongside some crusty bread and the leftover wine you had to use for the recipe. We don’t let anything go to waste here.
tips and tricks for success
- Patience. Making pot roast is a labor of love. Do not try to rush the process and increase the heat for faster results. Low and slow is the name of the game here.
- Use a heavy pot. A heavy bottom pot, such as a Dutch oven, is ideal here for slow cooking and even heat distribution. A tight fitting lid also traps all the lovely moisture inside, yielding the juiciest pot roast.
- Sear the meat. Searing the chuck roast – top, bottom, sides, everything and all around – over medium high heat will add all the extra, deeper flavors here, sealing all the juices inside.
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry red wine (cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir or merlot) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH POT ROAST
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Perfect Pot Roast: Frequently Asked Questions
We recommend using chuck roast for the best results possible. Brisket or rump roast (bottom round roast) can also be used.
Additional beef stock can be used for red wine as a non-alcoholic substitute. Stock will be less acidic and more mild in flavor than red wine.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
Yes! You can absolutely make pot roast in the slow cooker or Instant Pot.
Perfect Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 4 pounds boneless chuck roast, excess fat trimmed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 medium sweet onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup dry red wine*
- 1 cup beef stock
- 3 large carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 ½ pounds small Yukon gold potatoes
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Season beef with 2 teaspoons salt and 3/4 teaspoon black pepper.
- Heat canola oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add beef and cook until evenly browned, about 5-6 minutes per side; set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in tomato paste and garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in wine and beef stock, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the Dutch oven.
- Stir in carrots, mushrooms, thyme and rosemary; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer. Top with beef.
- Place into oven, covered, and bake for 2 hours. Uncover and add potatoes; place into oven, covered, and bake until beef is fork-tender, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- Let stand 15 minutes. Remove beef from the Dutch oven; shred, using two forks.
- Serve beef, potatoes, carrots and mushrooms with juices immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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This pot roast recipe is absolutely amazing! The meat is so tender and flavorful. I followed the instructions exactly, and it turned out perfect. Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe!
This perfect pot roast recipe is just what you need! Made with tender and juicy beef, carrots, onions, and potatoes, this dish is slow-cooked to perfection, creating a rich and flavorful gravy that’s sure to impress.
The secret to this recipe is searing the beef before slow-cooking it, ensuring a tender and juicy roast every time. Serve it up with some crusty bread and a side salad for a delicious and satisfying meal that’s sure to warm you up from the inside out.
This was amazing! I have made many roasts but none were ever this good.
Additionally the timing for the potatoes was right on.
I did double the sauce as per other comments.
I was a bit concerned if the amount of time I put into this would be worth it.
Ahem it was absolutely worth it! I can’t wait for lunch today for left overs!
Thank you for a great instructions.
This is the best Pot Roast I’ve ever had. The wine, mushrooms, and fresh herbs make it stand out from all of the other recipes I’ve tried. We’re going to double it next time so we can have lots of leftovers! Excellent recipe!
I made this for dinner tonight. It was excellent. I was so happy with how it turned out. I did not have fresh thyme or rosemary so I used dried but it was still perfect and so so tender. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
This was Damn Delicious! I’m making again tonight and I plan on doubling the jus and mushrooms. So, so good!
I love this pot roast – it’s now my go to. What would you recommend as an entree ahead of this? I’m planning on serving it as part of a menu for a cozy night in with my parents.
It looks amazing! Gonna follow your recipe and try to make on this sunday!
I’m just making this now and roast is in the oven – should the roast stay sitting on top of veggies and should I turn it over so the top side is submerged in liquid?
This was incredible! I was used to my mom’s pot roast recipe which always involved cream of mushroom soup – let me tell you, this is soooo good! I did double the sauce
Looking forward to trying it.
This pot roast recipe was the best. I did make some slight changes. I used beef broth instead of stock but added 1 1/2 teaspoons of better-than-bouillon roast beef flavor. I also added a teaspoon of Aleppo pepper flakes and a teaspoon of smoked sweet paprika for an extra kick.
After it was all done, it was the best-tasting, most tender chuck roast I’ve ever made. I left the beef whole and just sliced it where ever it would fall apart.
Next time I make this, I will add more broth and wine. After the potatoes were added, they sucked up quite a bit of the liquid so didn’t have as much gravy as I would have preferred.
What kind of bread did you serve with it?
I always add ribs of celery and 3 peeled parsnips to my roast for flavor. I remove the celery at the end of cooking. The parsnips make for an incredible gravy from the pan juices and are good to eat. Great recipe!
I added 3 stalks of celery and omitted the parsley. It was delicious!
This was a fabulous pot roast!! Melt in your mouth?? OH YES! And addition of wine (I used a merlot) made the broth rich and it tasted wonderful! The meat was tender and fell apart on the plate. I used mini Yukon golds and they were so creamy! The carrots were tender as well. When I make it again (and I will!), I’ll add more onions when I put the potatoes in, as the ones that you sauté at first pretty much disappear when the dish is finished. I love to have onions to eat with the rest of the meal.
Holy smokes! I will never make pot roast any other way again! This was the best pot roast I’ve ever had. We like green beans so I added some frozen string beans (cuz that’s what I had!) the last 20 minutes. Thank you for sharing, we loved it and it will be in my dinner rotation!
Yesterday was a chilly rainy Sunday in Massachusetts and I made this for my family for the first time. Years ago I had tried a different Pot Roast recipe which was rejected by all. This recipe was a HUGE hit!!! My son got up in the middle of the night to warm up a second helping as he couldn’t stop thinking about it. I saw one of the reviews suggested doubling up the liquid to make more broth – I did one and a half times (1 1/2 cups of red wine and broth), which worked well for us. This morning my husband woke up saying how much he enjoyed dinner last night – this recipe will definitely be one that we make again!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Delicious ! I thought I’d give this a try looking for a recipe “for company”. I needed to adjust the temp and time due to not having one 4 lb roast ( there were two equalling 4.5 lbs). This recipe was absolutely delicious . Our guests ( who just dropped by ) loved it and I could not stop taking seconds, thirds and reaching for more. You can’t go wrong with this champion of a recipe. The meat temp my husband said needed to reach 190 degrees………. it ended up being 200 but still turned out wonderful.
Hello, I have two roasts equaling 5.5lbs and won’t fit in dutch oven…I’m wondering what you cooked yours in and also how much longer I should expect the cook time to be for two roasts? Thank you!
I made this tonight, but doubled the gravy because my husband and I love gravy and I like to make sure I have enough for the leftovers. It was absolutely delicious. One of my favorite pot roast recipes. The gravy was so tasty. Once again, we had a damn delicious meal!
excellent! Far cry from dry, tough, pot roast in the 70s. Was a major hit….only thing I’d change? More gravy, was so tasty. Might try to double liquid ingredients next time.