HOW TO: make pot roast in the oven (without a crock pot)

This recipe was inspired by my wife who asked me when the last time I had a real vegetable. When I said something like two weeks ago, it got me thinking about pot roast. This was a classic recipe from my childhood.

We always used to cook it in the crock pot, and if you've got one, you're golden. You just put it all in, let it cook for 8 hours and it's ready.

But what if you don't have one?

I started with a roast that was a little over two pounds. I rubbed the whole thing with olive oil, salt and pepper. And then I browned it in a big pot with more olive oil. Even though it was so big, it only takes about 5 minutes to get a nice brown crust on each side.


Meanwhile, I added my seasonings to 3/4 cup of water: onion powder, garlic powder, seasoning salt, montreal steak seasoning, and basil. I poured most of it into my roasting pan. Then I transferred my browned roast into the pan, and poured the remaining seasoning bath on top, making sure to get all the wet bits on top.


I covered the meat with foil (wet heat is key here) and put it in the preheated 300 degree oven. While that's in there, I prepped my veggies. I peeled and cut 5 carrots and quartered 3 potatoes. I took the meat out after 1 hour, 20 minutes, and added my veggies.


Recovered with the piece of foil, I put it back in the oven for another 1 hour, 10 minutes. I like my veggies on the tender side, but generally they will always need about an hour. If you have a bigger piece of meat, you'll need to cook it by itself for a longer time.

This is what it looks like when it's finished roasting:


What I love is how the liquid, which started as water, is now a delicious meat juice that flavors the veggies. I serve it by smashing the potatoes with a fork and covering everything on the plate with some nice spoonfuls of juice. The meat is fork tender and everything tastes delicious. This is a dish that could be served to company, yet it's super easy, and pretty cheap. My meat was $5.50, the veggies I used were each a dollar. So for 8 bucks, you can feed a table of four a high quality meal.

The only thing I'd do differently, is trim of some of the fat on the outside before I started. Coming from the background of steaks, I figured any marbling would be a good thing. But the slow cooking didn't render the fat. It was easy to trim off on the plate, but if I was serving to guests, I'd do it before hand.