Classic Beef Pot Roast
SERVES 6 TO 8 • TO PREP 5 TO 5½ HOURS • STORE UP TO 2 DAYS • TO FINISH 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: The ideal make-ahead dish is one that improves in flavor and texture from one day to the next. We found exactly that with our Classic Beef Pot Roast. The overnight rest not only made the roast more moist and easier to slice, but it also brought out deeper, beefier flavor. The key was to give the roast all the cooking time it needed on day one then let the proteins relax and the flavors intensify in the refrigerator. To start, we separated a boneless chuck-eye roast into two pieces, which allowed us to remove the knobs of fat that stubbornly refused to render and shortened the cooking time by about an hour. Next, we built a flavorful base with a mirepoix of onions, carrot, and celery plus garlic, tomato paste, red wine, thyme, and a bay leaf. Some recipes use water as the primary cooking liquid, but when we tried this, the gravy turned out as you’d expect—watery. We had better luck with beef broth. The resulting gravy boasted a rich, complex character. Sealing the pot with aluminum foil before securing the lid and moving the pot to the oven concentrated the steam for an even simmer and fork-tender meat. Chilling the whole cooked pot roast overnight made it much easier to slice before reheating, and the extra-long resting time improved the flavor of the meat and its gravy, which we made by blending all of the flavorful braising ingredients, not wasting an ounce of what went into the pot with the meat. The result—a meltingly tender roast sauced in savory, full-bodied gravy. See the sidebar that follows the recipe.
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1 |
(3½- to 4-pound) boneless beef chuck-eye roast, pulled into 2 pieces at natural seam and trimmed of large pieces of fat |
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Salt and pepper |
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2 |
tablespoons unsalted butter |
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2 |
onions, halved and sliced thin |
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1 |
large carrot, peeled and chopped |
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1 |
celery rib, chopped |
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2 |
garlic cloves, minced |
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1 |
cup beef broth, plus extra as needed |
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½ |
cup dry red wine |
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1 |
tablespoon tomato paste |
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1 |
sprig fresh thyme |
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1 |
bay leaf |
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TO FINISH AND SERVE |
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¼ |
cup dry red wine |
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1 |
tablespoon balsamic vinegar |
TO PREP
1. Season beef with 1½ teaspoons salt, place on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet, and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in broth, wine, tomato paste, thyme sprig, and bay leaf and bring to simmer.
3. Pat beef dry with paper towels and season with pepper. Tie each piece of beef into even shape with kitchen twine at 1-inch intervals.
4. Nestle roasts on top of vegetables. Cover pot tightly with large piece of aluminum foil, then cover with lid; transfer pot to oven. Cook until beef is tender and fork easily slips in and out of meat, 3½ to 4 hours, turning meat halfway through cooking. Remove pot from oven and transfer roasts to storage container. Strain liquid through fine-mesh strainer into 4-cup liquid measuring cup. Discard bay leaf and thyme sprig; reserve vegetables. Allow liquid to settle for 5 minutes, then skim excess fat from surface. Add extra beef broth as needed to bring liquid amount to 3 cups. Transfer reserved vegetables and liquid to container with roasts. Let cool to room temperature, 1½ to 2 hours.
TO STORE
5. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
TO FINISH AND SERVE
6. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Transfer roasts to cutting board, remove twine, and slice against grain into ½-inch-thick slices. Shingle slices into 13 by 9-inch baking dish, cover tightly with foil, and bake until heated through, about 45 minutes.
7. While beef heats, process liquid and vegetables in blender until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer sauce to medium saucepan and bring to simmer over medium heat. Stir in wine and vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon half of sauce over meat. Serve, passing remaining sauce separately.