Braised Pot Roast—Low and Slow in the Oven

Braising a pot roast low and slow in the oven is the absolute best way to guarantee a fall-apart, moist, and tender pot roast. I have made a few overcooked dry pot roasts. So, I can tell you with absolute certainty, the foolproof way to prevent this is to braise the pot roast for 3 hours in a Dutch oven at 275 degrees. You’ll need to sear the meat and the vegetables to start developing the famous Maillard-Reaction, nestle the roast into a bed of onions, carrots, garlic and herbs, and add beef broth or stock until it reaches half way up the roast. Then a few hours later you’ll taste the best roast you’ve ever made.

What should I cook my pot roast in

I was curious if the type of Dutch oven could really make a difference to the end result. Spoiler alert. It made a huge difference! I tested this recipe using two different kinds of dutch ovens – a stainless steel as well as ceramic cast iron pot. The ceramic cast iron Dutch oven turned out the most tender meat, yet another reason why I love my Le Crueset. Both pots did a good job searing the onions and the meat. The Le Crueset did a better getting some browning on the carrots. After the 3 hour braise, the roast cooked in the ceramic pot was a beautiful fall-apart tender roast while the stainless steel version did not fall apart. So, I cooked it a little longer which helped, but it never reached the same tenderness as the Le Crueset version.

Braised Pot Roast—Low and Slow in the Oven
(Adapted from Pioneer Women’s “Perfect Pot Roast“)

This is a recipe for 1 pot roast—I doubled it for my experiment
1 (3-5) lb. pot roast
salt
pepper (omit for AIP)
olive oil
1 dozen baby carrots
1 onion, halved and cut in thirds root to stem
3 – 4 cups of beef broth, homemade beef stock, or a combination (I use a combination)
2 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1 bay leaf
2 – 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 – 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
tapioca starch, arrowroot, or potato starch (optional, omit for Keto, Low Carb, AIP)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 275 degrees. Set your pot roast out on the counter and pat dry with a paper towel.

2. Get all the other ingredients in place.

3. Cut onion in half and then in thirds from root to stem. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil or just enough to slightly coat the entire bottom of a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions on a cut side down. After a minute or two use tongs to flip to the other cut side. After another minute or two toss the pan and let sear for another minute or two. When you have a good amount of light browning remove the onions from the pot and set aside. Experiment notes: both the stainless steel Dutch Oven and the ceramic cast iron caramelized the onions equally well.

4. Add a dash more olive oil if it looks reduced. Add carrots and toss every two minutes for six minutes total. Remove the carrots with tongs and keep to the side with the onions. Note: the enameled cast iron pot did a slightly better job of browning the carrots.

5. Use a little more olive oil if needed—just enough to have the entire bottom of the pot slightly covered in oil. Generously salt and pepper both sides of the roasts. Sear front for two minutes, back for two minutes, and each side for a minute each. Set browned pot roast aside. Note: both pots did a good job of searing the meat.

6. All that browning of the onions, carrots, and meat equals flavor. So, the browning left on the bottom of the pot is flavor that we need to keep. Add 1 cup of beef broth or stock to the pot, as it heats up work on scraping the brown bits and work it into the broth. Let the broth reduce by half in order to concentrate and deepen the flavor.

7. Add a cup of beef stock if you have it for a more complex sauce. If you don’t have homemade stock skip this step and add more broth later. I’m only adding the stock at this point to melt it from a gelatin to a liquid state.

8. Place the browned pot roast in the center of the pot. Surround the roast with the browned carrots and onions. Decorate the roast with garlic, bay leaf, thyme sprigs and rosemary sprigs. Add more beef broth if necessary so that liquid comes half way up the side of the roasts.

9. Place the covered roast into the oven for 3 hours. Don’t open the oven. Do not peek until 3 hours have gone by. Otherwise, you’ll just have to wait longer for your roast to finish. After 3 hours it looks like this.

10. Remove the pot roast from the oven and do the “pull apart test” with a fork. If the meat pulls away easily with a fork it’s done. If the roast weighed closer to the 5lb mark it may need to go back in for another 45 minutes to 1 hour. Experiment notes: It was at this point I noticed a big difference in the roasts. The roast in the cast enameled pot was significantly more tender than the one in the stainless steel pot. I actually ended up cooking the one in the stainless steel pot for an additional 45 minutes and it still wasn’t as tender as the one in the cast enameled pot. The fat and bones are on the left and the pot roast pieces are on the right.

How to serve pot roast

When the pot roast is done braising, there are at least three serving options.

Option 1: when the roast is tender enough to pull apart, make large 4 oz pieces and serve it as is with the braised vegetables and a drizzle of au jus. For a heartier meal add mashed potatoes, noodles, polenta, or smashed cauliflower potatoes (my favorite).

Option 2: create smaller bite sized pieces and discard any fat or gristle (fat on the left and pot roast bites on the right).

 

Option 3: Make a gravy with the au jus. First, pour the cooking liquid into a fat separator. Then pour the cooking liquid, without the fat, back into the pot and bring to a simmer. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of cornstarch (or Whole30 compliant thickener) for each cup of liquid. Wait. Don’t add the thickener directly into the broth. Create a slurry with some water before you add it to the broth. Add the slurry to the broth to create a gravy.

Adjust the seasoning adding more salt and pepper to taste. Once the gravy is thick return the pot roast and vegetables back to the pot. To make this dish portable for a pot luck, place the bite-sized pot roast pieces, vegetables, and gravy into a pot or crock pot. Cover and store it in the refrigerator up to three days until the day you’d like to heat it up. P.S. I didn’t have any left overs.

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