What is the best way to cook a juicy pot roast........?

Question

and make it tender without over cooking it? And should I cook it in a slow cooker or the oven?

Answer 1

Pot roast refers to an inexpensive cut of beef that is cooked slowly in liquid. The best cuts of beef to use for pot roast are the various chuck cuts; try to stay away from the round cuts, except for the bottom round rump roast. If you choose one of these, you'll notice it has a flat end and a pointy, tapered end. Pick one with a long point - that point contains some of the sirloin muscles and is the most tender part. As for the chuck cuts, they all work well, so any of them will do. I bounce back and forth between the top blade chuck roast and the mock tenderloin. The top blade is slightly more tender, while the mock tenderloin slices more evenly for those great left-over roast beef sandwiches!

The pot used for the roast should be only slightly bigger than the cut of meat. It must have oven-safe handles and a tightly-fitting top. If the top is loose, the steam will escape, and with it some of the flavor and juices.

Pot roasts are cooked by a method called braising. This is where a cut of meat is browned in hot fat and then slowly cooked in a covered pot in a small amount of liquid. The key words here are slowly and a small amount of liquid. Where most people go wrong with pot roast is by using too much liquid and cooking the meat at too high temperature. When meat is cooked, the cells that make up the cut of meat expand. If they get too hot, they will burst and the juice inside transfers to the liquid in the pot. This makes a wonderful gravy, but makes the beef dry and stringy. Our goal is to cook it very slowly, so that the juice stays inside the cells, and we are left with a nice, tender and juicy cut of meat.

Now that we have a plan, let's get started. Marinading the roast is optional; I usually don't, except to let it sit for 2 or 3 minutes in a little Worcestershire sauce . You can season a pot roast with almost anything you like - I'm partial to garlic powder, minced onions, freshly ground black pepper. Don't salt the roast, though. It will cause it to dry out. Leave the salt out until the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Place the pot on top of the stove and put about 2 tablespoons of fat in it - you can use shortening, oil, bacon grease, or butter, depending on taste. Turn on the burner to medium, and when the fat is hot, place the roast in the pan and brown it on all sides.

After the roast is nice and brown, put about 1 1/2 cups of liquid in with the roast. The liquid can be just about anything. Water works, but needs a little kick of Worcestershire sauce to flavor it. I usually prefer red wine - I keep a bottle of inexpensive red around just for cooking, sealed with a nifty little device called a Vac-U-Vin. This is a little rubber stopper that fits in the bottle and a pump that you use to pump the air out of the bottle. This lets the wine stay fresh for an incredible amount of time - over a year! And remember, the cooking process gets rid of the alcohol, so you don't have to worry about anyone getting drunk off pot roast.

The secret to making the roast juicy is to cook it at very low heat for a long time. Ideally, you don't want to see any bubbles in the cooking liquid as the roast cooks. Make sure if the liquid does bubble that it is at the lowest possible simmer. At this rate it will take between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 hours to cook the roast, but I promise the results will be worth the wait. Check the roast after 1 1/2 hours with an instant-read thermometer. It should read 145 to 155 degrees at the center if you like it medium; for medium well 155 to 160.

Rick's Pot Roast
1-boneless beef pot roast, about 3 pounds
4 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. minced onion
2 Tbsp. broiled steak seasoning
2 Tbsp. oil or butter
1 cup red wine
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
Let roast soak in Worcestershire sauce for 2 minutes on each side, and reserve the Worcestershire sauce. Season with the onion, garlic powder, pepper and broiled steak seasoning. Brown on all sides in a 6-quart Dutch oven in the oil or butter over medium heat Add the wine and the reserved Worcestershire sauce and reduce heat until no bubbles are visible. Cook, turning every 30 minutes until meat thermometer registers internal temperature of 155 to 160 degrees.

Answer 2

I cook mine in the oven for about an hour and a half on 350. I thaw the roast...then melt some butter and put some kind of packet seasoning in with the butter....mix those 2 together in a gallon size bag.....then i stab the roast a couple times with a fork to let the juices soak in and put the roast in the bag. I then let mine marinate for at least 30 min. before i cook it......i put it back in the fridge to marinate. I line a pan with foil and put the roast in with the remaining butter and seasonings.....sometimes i will add more butter if there isnt enough juice or you can add some water. The more juice it's cooked in the better. Then i cover the roast with foil and bake it for about an hour and a half.
This probably isnt the most healthy way to cook a roast but that's the way i do it and everyone LOVES it. hope this helps!!

Answer 3

I put mine in a crock pot. That way it can cook all day, doesn't dry out and makes a wonderful 'juice' to use as a gravy.

I usually slice up 3 or 4 onions, put them on the bottom of the crock pot, then the roast. After about 4 hours on low, I flip the roast over. Cook another 2-4 hours.

Answer 4

the best way is to first, sear the roast.....that means rolling the thawed roast in flour, just barely coating the meat....just flour, then put it into a frying pan with about 1/4 inch of hot cooking oil....just barely brown just the outsides of roast all sides. then take the roast out of the frying pan and put it in a crock-pot. cut up raw potatoes and carrots, put vegetables in with roast. then add enough water to nearly cover roast and vegetables, add a good sprinkle of seasoned salt, and put on low, cover. let it cook all day/at least 8 hours or until meat is very tender, the key is to make sure there is always water in the crock pot while cooking, and to resist the temptation to remove the lid too much, if you keep removing the lid then moisture and heat escape..only once and hour, or once every two hours at the minimum. if you have no crock-pot you can use a large cooking pot w lid, or an oven safe casserole dish or pan..with cover or use aluminum foil to cover. if in oven cook at least 8 hours on 325 degrees or 350 degrees depending on size of roast.

Answer 5

Use a crock pot for about 8-10 hours...depending on the size of the roast. I also use Lipton onion soup mix. I pour one or two over the roast and let it cook into the roast. Delicious!

Answer 6

Open up the produce drawer in the fridge, celery, carrot, onion?
Ok now the Pantry, Red potatoes, Tomatoes, hey look, a single sweet potatoe, got to peel that baby. Chunk it all up and throw it on top of that seared roast, you did sear that roast in a hot skillet with salt and pepper didn't you? Good, over to the spice rack, where'd ya hide the Bay leaves, gimmie 2, over your right shoulder grab the Worshire.... can't pronounce it sauce, a couple 4 shakes will get it, got a cup of water? good I'm thirsty...and one for the cooker. Hey on your way back pick-up some of that sour dough bread you like that'll go good with this. What time ya gettin back? In about 5 hours? great! just enough time to heat that bread. Let the dog out when ya leave

Answer 7

Slow cooker. I also like to use a roasting bag, that makes a good juicy pot roast too.

Answer 8

All the before answerers had excellent suggestions-slow cookers, crock pots- I grew up with Mom using a pressure cooker- love it! Also fell upon the website for the beef industry and its a great site-suggestions for cuts,how to cook them and all.

Answer 9

Thaw the roast of course. Put it in some type of oven bakery with a lid. add baby carrots, onions, and potatoes(brown, or red skin), and fill the bake ware half way up with water. put it in the oven/or slow cooker on 350F let cook for 3hrs. the roast should just melt in your mouth like M&MS

Answer 10

I have found the slow cooker works best.. (all day on LOW setting...the slow cooking makes it so tender and juicy and it is perfect every time..you cant mess it up!