Pot Roast

Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 5 min
Total Cook Time: appx 4 1/2 hours

Growing up, one of my favorite things that my mom used to make is pot roast. She’d take a leathery and tough beef brisket and slow cook it for hours and hours until the meat practically disintegrated in your mouth. She’d serve it alongside some egg noodles covered in the pan juices that the meat produced during the cooking process. When I found out how easy this recipe is to make, I just had to try it for myself.

1 beef brisket – I used one that was appx 3lbs and sized so that it would fit into my dutch oven
3 large onions – roughly chopped
Note: this is all that my mom needed. I’ve added 3 other ingredients just to help out the sauce-making process
a pinch of kosher salt
1/2 bottle/can of dark beer – the darker the better
1/4 cup beef stock

I’ve found that the dutch oven is the ideal tool for making this dish, provided that it will contain the brisket you buy. My brisket just barely fit. If it wont, you can really use just about any really large pot so long as it also has a lid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place the dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat and let it come up to temperature for a few minutes. A brisket will usually have one side that is fattier than than the other side. Place the meat into the hot pan, fattier side down. Note that it is not necessary to use oil in the pot…the fat from the meat will start to render out, providing all of the oil you need. The meat should brown on this side for 5 minutes or so. If you try to flip the meat over and it is stuck to the bottom of the pan, it isn’t ready to flip yet. After you flip the meat, let the other side brown for another 5 min or so, then remove the meat and set it aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Turn the heat down to medium and add the onions to the pot (you might want to drain a little of the excess fat from the pot, but I didn’t bother to). Sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt over the onions and stir well, making sure to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pot. Let the onions cook, covered, for about 20 min or so…stir every 5 min or so. They should become tender and brown in color due to the beef drippings and oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 20 min, add the beer and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then add the beef stock and then place the meat back into the pot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Cover the pot and turn the heat down to low. The meat will need about 4 hours or so to cook through. It should be fork-tender when it is done. You’ll want to flip it over every hour or so. Note all of the additional jucies in the pan after the lengthy cooking process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remove the meat from the pot and slice it across the grain in 1/4 inch thick strips. After slicing, I return the meat to the pot and let it sit in all of the juice until I’m ready to serve. Like my mom did, I serve it with buttered egg noodles and a few healthy spoonfuls of pan jucies over everything. Oh yeah, don’t forget the horseradish on the side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also be sure to save some pot roast for the next day…the leftovers make for some damn tasty sandwiches.