Friday, January 6, 2012

Classic Crock Pot Roast Beef

Now here was a meal that was a tasty surprise. I've mentioned it before, but I generally don't make a delicious beef meal, but with a few kitchen staples, this came together easily, and we both liked it. I still think there are few things better than perfect slices of rare, oven roasted beef, but I seem to be particularly challenged in that area.  For now, this suffices very well. Ole Sweetie-Pi loved this. Personally, I'm more into the mashed potatoes and gravy.

Crock Pot Roast Beef
(found on:  http://crockpotroasts.com/recipes/classic/)

1 2-3 pound boneless beef chuck roast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil **

1 14.5 ounce can beef broth
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce **
3 cloves garlice, diced

1 onion, roughly chopped
3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
3 carrots, peeled, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon red pepper **
3 bay leaves **

Trim the roast of excess fat and then salt and pepper.  Heat the oil to hot in a saucepan large enough to hold the roast.  Salt and pepper the roast and put the roast in the sauce pan to brown the roast on all sides, generally about two minutes per side.

Place all your vegetables on the bottom of the crock pot and then place your roast on top of them. 

In the same pan that you browned the roast, lightly brown the garlic, then add the broth, Worcestershire sauce,  and tomato sauce..  Reduce the liquid to about half and then pour over the roast beef.  Set your crock pot to low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours,or until the roast is done.

**MY NOTES:  I had bacon grease left over from that morning's breakfast, so I browned my roast in bacon fat.  I don't like a lot of Worcestershire, so I reduced the amount to about 2 teaspoons.  Same goes for red pepper, I omitted it.  The original recipe didn't call for bay leaves, but I sampled the sauce after the beef had been cooking a while and felt it was lacking a little something (probably the additional Worcestershire and red pepper, smiles) and threw in some bay leaves.  Perhaps a wee bit of ketchup for acid would be good?

This made quite a bit of gorgeous meat juice.  I scooped some from the pot and put it in a saucepan and made a slurry of two tablespoons cornstarch to about a quarter cup of water.  I added a splash of it to the roast beef juices and  cooked and stirred until I saw how thick it was going to be, adding small amounts of slurry and stirring until I achieved a desired gravy consistency.  Taste for seasoning.  I'm thinking the rest of the meat juices will make a mighty fine minestrone with some of the leftover roast beef and frozen mixed vegetables and little pastas thrown in.

10 comments:

  1. Delicious!! Pot roast is such a great go-to comfort meal! :)

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  2. Pot roast is one of my favorite meals Katy.Yours looks so delicious, especially with plenty of gravy.

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  3. Looks delicious Katy with that gravy! Cooking that meat for 8 hours on low temperature as you did, I'm sure it must be full of flavour. The longer it cooks, the better it tastes.
    Cheers

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  4. This looks so delicious, Katy. And then you can enjoy the leftovers for another meal or two! Just last week I made a beef roast with potatoes and carrots, comfort food indeed.

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  5. mmm, i absolutely love a good potroast!

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  6. We are right with you Katy, picky-picky husband would devour the roast beef and I would seriously stick with the mashed potatoes and gravy (and carrots). Your photo makes me salivate!! Well done.

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  7. My husband loves roast beef with all the fixins Katy. Yours looks fantastic!

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  8. Katy, I have never made a roast in my crockpot. I am more likely to use it for stew but this is really a wonderful idea.

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  9. Perfect now I know what I'll do with the frozen beef I have in freezer from Costco this weekend!

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  10. I've been meaning to make a pot roast in my crock pot. We've actually cut down on meat but this looks really good Katy. I'm potatoes and gravy too.:)

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