Before you begin I recommend you read my post on “How to Cook a Flavorful Pot Roast“.
For this recipe you will need the following ingredients:
7-bone chuck roast
canola oil
Better then Bouillon Mushroom Base (or any other mushroom soup base)
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 onion (your choice of type)
kosher salt
freshly ground cumin
flour, corn starch, or arrowroot (if you wish to make gravy)
A couple notes about these ingredients.
1.Better than Bouillon makes a wide range of soup bases. I use them all of time whenever a recipe calls for a broth. For this pot roast, I am using their mushroom base. You can use another brand if you want, but I think Better than Bouillon is better than the rest.
2. Buying whole cumin and grinding it yourself (check out my post on spice grinders) will provide you with the best flavor possible. Spices lose flavor over time, so who knows how long ago that pre-ground cumin was ground.
3. You may be wonder where are the carrots? Well I think if you cook the carrots along with the roast you just end up with carrot mush. But if you have to have the carrots, feel free to add as much as you want. I will cook my carrots separately.
To begin, I recommend using a 4-5 quart cast iron dutch oven. The best part about the dutch oven is that you will be able to brown the meat in it, cook the meat in it, and prepare gravy in it. That will save you some time doing dishes afterward.
First, you will want to season your meat. Liberally season your meat with kosher salt and cumin on both sides. Second, place a small amount of oil in the bottom of the dutch oven, just enough to cover the surface. Third, set your burner to it’s highest setting. Once it has heated up, place the roast in the dutch oven and let it cook for 4-5 minutes. Then flip over and let that side cook 4-5 minutes. Take your roast out and set it aside. You should have some nice brown color on each side.
Now you will want to soften up your onion and garlic. Chop up your onion and garlic cloves and place them in the dutch oven (turn the burner down to medium) and cook them for a couple minutes, just to soften and bring out some flavor. Be very careful not to burn them as burning will only add bad flavors to your final dish. Remove them from the pot and set aside.
Set your oven to 200 degrees. Place the meat back in the dutch oven. Add enough water to come about half way up the pot roast and then add in your mushroom base (if you use an already made mushroom broth, then just pour that it until your half way up the roast). Add the garlic and onion on top of the roast.
Place the lid on your dutch oven and set it in the center of your oven. Let is cook for about 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 hours. You will know it’s done when it is fork tender.
Now if you wish to make a gravy, take your meat out of your dutch oven, set the dutch oven on a burner that is set to high heat. In order to help the liquid thicken, you can use either corn starch, flour, or arrowroot. Just make sure you mix whatever you are using with some water first, so that you don’t end up with lumpy gravy. Cook your liquid until it thickens to your desire consistency.
For a side dish, mashed potatoes are the obvious choice (you have gravy ready to make for them). Read my post on how to make mashed potatoes.
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