Spare Spoons Kitchen
Pot Roast
The Sunday centerpiece — a chuck roast seared dark, then braised low with red wine, mushrooms, and a bouquet of herbs until fork-tender, with potatoes and vegetables in the gravy. Worth the afternoon.
Ingredients
Easier, if you like
- Slow cooker: brown the roast and vegetables in a skillet first, then braise on Low about 8 hours, adding the potatoes and reserved vegetables for the last 2 hours.
- Pre-cut stew vegetables and baby potatoes save the chopping — baby potatoes can go in whole.
Method
Cook's notes
The pot: one heavy, covered pot does the whole recipe. A 5.5–7 quart enameled cast-iron Dutch oven goes from stovetop searing to oven braising with the lid on — no pan changes. If you're building a kitchen, this is the investment piece that pays for itself for decades: it makes this pot roast, every stew and soup on this site, beans, and even the no-knead bread. Picks at every budget in the Tool Drawer.
Brown in stages — the roast, then the onions cut-side down with the carrots and celery. Those browned bits are the gravy's backbone.
Add the potatoes and tender vegetables later (for the second hour) so they cook through without falling apart.
Chuck roast is the cut — its marbling and connective tissue turn meltingly tender over the long braise. It's done when a fork twists easily.
Even better the next day; the gravy thickens and the flavors deepen.
Cut swaps + gluten-free
Sirloin tip roast is a surprisingly good stand-in for chuck — you'd expect it to braise up dry with less marbling, but it comes out tender and delicious. Same method, same timing. (Thanks to one of our first readers for this one.)
Gluten-free: thicken the gravy with cornstarch instead of flour, and use a gluten-free beef broth — everything else is naturally gluten-free.