Old Fashioned Dutch Oven Pot Roast

There are recipes that call out to be made in my Dutch oven. I think cuts of meat do wonderful in mine because of the basting spikes that the lid offers.  It flavors the entire dish continually while cooking low and slow...I do stove-top roast the vegetables and sear the meat before popping the entire dish into the oven for a good 4-5 hours.  This truly was 'fall apart/fork tender.
You can increase the beef stock and omit the red wine if you are so inclined but, the red wine does work well with the thyme and rosemary in this recipe. ~Enjoy! Diane 

Pot Roast {Dutch Oven}
Ingredients: 
3-4 lbs pot roast
salt & pepper
2 onions
6-8 carrots
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
olive oil
1 cup red wine, optional
2 cups beef broth/stock

Directions: 
Preheat your oven to 280 F. 
Peel and cut the onions into halves or quarters.  Wash and cut the carrots into large 2-3 inch chunks, add both to a large dutch oven, heated with 2 tbs of olive oil.  On your stove-top, over medium high heat, cook the vegetables a good 5-8 minutes until slightly browned, remove from dutch oven and set aside.  Sprinkle salt and pepper all over your cut of beef. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, to the dutch oven that had the vegetables in it, if needed. Sear your beef on medium-high on all sides until browned (about 3-4 minutes per side and 2-3 minutes on "ends.")  Remove beef and set aside.  To the already hot dutch oven, add your one cup red wine (or one cup beef stock, if no wine is being used) to deglaze the pan, scraping down sides and getting all the good cooked bits into the wine.  Add back in your seared cut of beef, placing the onions and carrots around the perimeter of meat.  Add the remaining beef stock/broth to the dish until the liquid comes halfway up the meat.  Lay your rosemary and thyme on top, Cover dutch oven with the heavy, tight fitting lid and place in the oven to cook for approx. 4-5 hours.  I remove my dutch oven from oven and test with a fork for tenderness. Once done, remove the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Remove meat and vegetables to a plate and keep warm while you prepare the gravy.  I use my fat separator and measure out the liquid from the dutch oven.  Usually the dish renders about 1.5 cups of liquid.  I add 1.5 Tbs butter and 1.5 Tbs flour to the dutch oven and stir until the flour browns and releases a slightly nutty smell, I then add back in my hot liquid slowly while whisking until the liquid thickens into a gravy.  Once the gravy is to my liking, I add back in the meat and stir to coat.  You can serve the meat and gravy separate. I just prefer to coat the meat in the gravy and serve my vegetables on the side.  

Note: if not using the 1 cup red wine, increase the beef broth.stock to 3 cups total. As well, larger cuts of beef will add time to your oven cook time. 

Recipe & Photos by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home