Recipe: A Pot Roast I Actually Like!

I am pretty sure that at some point in the past, my wife, who likes pot roast, asked me to come up with a recipe for it. Since most pot roasts I have encountered over the years have been some combination of dry, tough, and flavorless, I procrastinated, not confident of a good reward-to-effort ratio.

But I did not forget about her request, and serendipity came to my eventual rescue in the form of my running into a recipe for "Mississippi Pot Roast" at Belle of the Kitchen.

This recipe promised everything I hoped for: simplicity, ease, and flavor. At least I won't have to kill myself to make something boring I thought.

This recipe overdelivered: I like the end result and look forward to making it again. I recommend it for its superior flavor and extreme tenderness. In fact, immediately after cooking, the meat will be too tender to cut and will have to be shredded.

This is all on top of it being one of the easiest complete meals I now know how to make.

As usual, I'll present my version below. The main differences between it and the original are that (1) I use a combination of beef bouillon and spices instead of an au jus mix packet, which I simply couldn't find, and (2) I explicitly include the side vegetables, which are only mentioned as options in the original recipe.

We got six servings and enough leftover beef for a couple of sandwiches out of this.

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Preparation Time is 10 minutes plus an addition step near the end of cooking.

Ingredients

• chuck roast, 3-4 lb.
• ranch dressing mix, 1 packet
• beef bouillon cube
• onion powder, 1 tsp
• parsley, 1 tsp
• garlic powder, 1/2 tsp
• pepper, 1/2 tsp
• butter, 1/4 cup
• pepperoncini, 4-5
• baby carrots, 1 lb.
• baby potatoes, 1.5 lb.

Directions

1. Place chuck roast in bottom of crock pot.
2. Crush bouillon cube.
3. Sprinkle dressing mix, bouillon, and other spices over top of meat.
4. Place butter and peppers on top of the meat.
5. Cook on low for eight hours.
6. At six hours, dump carrots and potatoes into pot, and allow to cook for the remaining two hours.

Notes

1. It does not matter if the liquid in the pot does not cover the vegetables: They will cook anyway.

-- CAV