Best Pot Roast Recipe | Easy & Delicious

My sister Anna showed me how to make this classic pot roast and it was during a cabin trip and I have never seen 19 people wolf down something so quickly. I can't wait for you guys to try this and I'm craving some pot roast so let's get started. The traditional cut of meat here is a chuck roast but anything with a lot of fat and marbling will work well. All of that breaks down during the slow cooking process and it will be melt in your mouth delicious. You want to season the meat generously all over with salt and pepper then leave it on the counter for about an hour to bring it to room temperature. That way it'll cook more evenly. Also I'm using a kosher salt here and I have measurements for everything in the recipe notes. While that meat comes to room temperature we're gonna do a quick prep of the rest of the ingredients. It's more than two. Usually I just you know like and it looks cool. Peel five to six medium carrots. Slice your carrots into two inch pieces. You don't want to cut them too small because they're going to cook for a long time. Now on to the onions. You can use a large yellow onion or two smaller ones. Oh my it must be because I'm 40 now. Peel the onions then coarsely chop them up. There's no need for perfection because they disappear into the sauce. Oh my gosh I'm crying. Oh I thought I could do it. Oh set those aside and on to the parsley. Oh are you kidding me? What's going on today? Parsley is attacking me. My hair is attacking me. I'm crying. Coarsely chop up your parsley and you'll also need about six sprigs of fresh thyme. You don't have to take the leaves off the stems. They will come off in the pot. You can also substitute with dried herbs and I will leave instructions in the notes. Now peel four garlic cloves and coarsely chop them up. Again you don't have to spend too much time on this because the sauce will cook for a long time. Once you have everything prepped and measured out, it's time to hit the stove. Make sure you have your oven preheating to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then set a large Dutch oven. I'm using a five and a half quart over medium high heat. Add a tablespoon of oil then add in your roast. Let that cook on each side for about three minutes or until it's golden brown then flip it to the next side. Searing and caramelizing the meat this way is an important step because it adds tons of flavor so do not skip it. Once that's nicely browned on all sides, transfer it to a plate. Now you're going to reduce the heat down to medium and add the onions. Saute those for about four to five minutes or until the onions are soft and golden. Add the minced garlic and saute for another 30 seconds or just until it's fragrant. Now add the tomato paste. Stir that together for about two minutes or until the tomato paste is well incorporated with the onions and garlic. Next add some dry red wine. This adds tons of flavor to the dish but if you have to you can substitute with more beef broth and season to taste. Scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze and cook for two to three minutes or until a fourth of the wine has evaporated. Now you can add the beef stock, thyme, parsley, the bay leaves and season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Stir that together then add the roast back to the pot along with the carrots and bring everything to a boil. The carrots here are definitely tasty when they're done but I also like that they help raise the level of the liquid up the sides of the meat. This helps with even cooking. Once that's at a boil put the lid on and put that in the bottom third of your preheated oven and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about three to four hours. It's roughly one hour per pound of roast and remember when you're handling the pot that it is hot so use an oven mitt to remove that lid. Now there are two ways to test for doneness. You can use an instant read thermometer and it should reach between 200 and 210 degrees Fahrenheit or you can use two forks. If it shreds easily it's ready. Now I'm going to show you how to make the sauce thicker if you want it to be more gravy-like. It's super easy. Start by transferring the meat and the veggies to a separate dish. Set the pot back over medium heat and bring it to a simmer. The easiest way to thicken this is to add two tablespoons of cornstarch to two tablespoons of cold water. Stir that into a slurry then pour it into the liquid. Simmer for a few minutes or until it's thickened and to cook off some of that cornstarch flavor. Here's a great tip for shredding hot meats that I learned from my husband. Put on some cotton work gloves then cover that with disposable gloves. Now you can easily shred the meat by hand and you'll see it's just buttery and pulls apart so easily. All right now all that's left to do is put it back in the pot. Once you shred the meat you do want to put it back because then it absorbs those saucy flavors and it gets even juicier. I mean it's already fall apart tender but it gets even better I'm telling you. Okay we're gonna put that right back in. Oh don't splatter yourself like I just did. And then we're gonna add back in the carrots. Now you see how the thyme sprigs? I didn't have to strip the leaves, I didn't have to chop anything. You just take them out and throw them out when you're all done. Also get rid of those bay leaves because they're not meant to be eaten. Give everything a nice coating and now I'm gonna go and finish my mashed potatoes and we're gonna do the taste test because I feel like you have to have mashed potatoes with this. See you in a bit. Okay Vadim says no giggling allowed so I'm just gonna get it all out. Okay the potatoes are ready and I made my personal favorite mashed potatoes. These are the mashed potatoes that I make most often and it's like my little secret. It is the mashed potatoes, whipped mashed potatoes from my cookbook. These mashed potatoes are only in the cookbook. I'll have you know. I will link to this book in the notes. Take a looky look. All right you ready? You ready? Okay somebody already got into the potatoes. Oh wait no giggling. Very serious. Whoops sorry um Okay when I get started it's game over. Shoot. Anyway we were looking at the potatoes and I was gonna show you that when I make mashed potatoes I do like to put some pats of butter over the top. Okay somebody got into the mashed potatoes. We're not gonna talk about that right now but look at the swirlies of butter. Like beautiful right? Okay it keeps the top moist and it keeps it from forming that dry film. Okay and then oh my giggity. Look at this. Wait giggity is a teen slang. I shouldn't say that. I've been influenced by my teenager. Oh yeah no giggling. I'm serious. I'm trying to be serious. I'm look at all those. Oh my goodness. Look it's like a whole pool of potatoes. Okay here we go. On to the saucy beef and honestly if you ever go to a nice steakhouse and you order their short ribs. You know how it's like fall off the bone tender and then they have this sauce that is like. That's what this is but it's less expensive because we're using a chuck roast but the meat is just so meltingly tender and the sauce you guys. It's saucy. It's so so packed with flavor. Serve this up. Watch this. And the sauce doubles as a gravy. Look at how irresistibly beautiful. My husband's mouth is watering. I'm certain of these things. Okay one more. One more big old honking piece of beef and then a little more of this saucy gravy. Let's throw our carrot in there for good measure. Oh my. It should be a meme. Ready? Everybody grab your screenshots. My poor husband over there. Okay and I'm hot too so the sweatiest taste test I've ever done. Beefiness, sauciness. I'm ready. I've been ready. I was born ready. It's like so like tender that it's just like. Okay. Oh. Oh. It's a perfecto. 10 out of 10. 11 out of 10. It's really really something else. Wow. And served over mashed potatoes like this. It's like a hug in a bowl. It is so so comforting. Absolutely delicious. I cannot wait for my kids to dig into this. They are gonna love it. Actually I think that's what happened with the potatoes. Somebody got started when they got home from school. Honey come here. Taste test. Quick quick quick quick quick. Perfect timing. Hello. All right we've got. Oh wait look. No no no no. What's this plate? That is an empty plate. Do you know? Look that way for a second. Look. No no no. Okay you can have that once we're done with the taste test. You're kicking me out of here. We have a guest star here. It is Mr. Alfredo. Mr. Alfredo. Mr. Alfredo is here for the taste test but I want you to do the taste test madam. This is so good honey but okay I want I want you to tell me what you think. Got a little mashed potatoes. There you go. And? I don't like it. I love it. Ah you heard it from the whoop from the pro herself. She doesn't like it. She loves it. I have a feeling my taste test is over. Everybody loves this dish. Oh boy you're not gonna be able to chew that honey. Break it down. Break it down. Oh my goodness this is this is about to get messy. All right taste test is over. I hope you totally love this. Make it once you'll make it over and over. It is such a treasure of a recipe. Also let me know where you guys spotted sharky and I'd love to hear from you if you have any recipe requests. I'm excited for all the cooking we're doing in the new year. We'll see you on the next episode of Natasha's Kitchen. Okay mine. I finally get to eat this.