This melt in your mouth Pot Roast is unbelievably fork tender and absolutely delicious,  a small batch perfect for two. This Pot Roast has been on my mind for so many years now and I am not exaggerating at all. A long time ago (about 10 years, that long), a friend of mine invited me to a holiday dinner and that was where I first met Pot Roast, and it was love at first bite. I cannot get it out of my mind, as you can see, until now I am still recounting that wonderful delicious experience.

Even for someone like me who do not eat too much meat, I fancy Pot Roast and Lamb Shank dishes so much. When I say fancy, I meant I love admiring and looking at them and eating a small piece of them. I always dream of making them at home, but never get to really put it to action. I think it was because I often get overwhelmed with the size, it’s nice and beautiful to look at the huge chunks of roast but finishing it up is a totally different story. I leave alone and you can just imagine how long it will take me to finish a 4 lbs of Pot Roast, and very rarely that can I find a small portion (1 .5 lb) being sold in the market. But  I found a solution to that so I was finally able to make this Pot Roast. The chunk roast that I bought was about 4 lbs, I divided it into 3 portions. One for Pot Roast, one for Phyllo Steak Pie and one for grilled steak, problem solved. I still think it’s looks more appealing making a huge batch but the portion that I did was just perfect for 2 serving. No leftover and that made me so happy. You know how I hate leftovers, I don’t like to waste food and for me nothing is better than eating a freshly cooked meals than frozen meals. There’s nothing wrong with freezing meals, but if I have time I always prefer cooking the meal the day I’m going to eat it.

This Pot Roast is tender, so tender, no effort needed to pull those nice chunks of meat. You heard the expression ” its fork tender”? , well this one is really fork tender. I would use fall of the bones expression too but this cut of meat doesn’t have bone in it so I’ll stick with fork tender description.

Low Heat, Slow Cooking & Some Sparkling Juice

Patience is a virtue when it comes to cooking Pot Roast. This is not a dish that you cook when you need to set the table in 1 hour or so.  It takes time to make Pot Roast but I am telling you it is definitely worth the effort. Wait until you serve it and all the wait time and long cooking process will be worth it once your friends and family take their first bite on it. Cooking time is about 2.5 – 3 hours for a 1.5 lbs of chunk roast, but it could vary depending on the size of the meat. The bigger the meat, the longer time you need to cook it. The success of the Pot Roast depends on how tender you can get the meat, and how flavorful and delicious the sauce. That is where all the herbs  and spices comes in, and my sparkling juice, I call it my secret ingredient although  maybe it’s not a secret because using wine in braising meat is not unusual. Since I don’t use alcohol in my dish, I used sparkling juice instead of using all beef broth. I used 1/2 cup of pomegranate sparkling juice and 1/2 cup of vegetable broth. It gave the meat a nice subtle sweetness which I love especially when it comes to braised or roast meat. The low heat and long cooking time gave the meat the chance to really absorb the flavor of the spices and the sweetness of the sparkling juice, and most importantly it gave the nice tender juicy meat. Alternatively, you can also use soda drinks like Sprite or any other that you have, it really adds a nice flavor so I hope you’ll give it a go. If you’re not feeling like it, just use all beef broth of vegetable. You can also use part water and add some beef cubes if you don’t have beef broth.

The Vegetables

The most common add-on to Pot Roast are tomato and carrots. You can use mini potato or a big potato and cut it into cubes. Do not cut the vegetables too small as it will be cooked with the beef for long hours, you don’t want a mushy vegetables. In my case, I only used carrots and mushroom since I planned to serve the roast with my Garlic and Cheese Mashed Potato and some mixed buttered vegetables, they’re perfect together.

Plan Ahead

Since cooking Pot Roast takes time, plan ahead. You cannot rush the process if you want to get a Pot Roast that will give you a standing ovation. If you do not have any bake ware that could stand a long hours of baking in the oven, you can cook this on stop top. Simmer in low heat and check every hour as stove top cooking is a little bit faster than oven cooking. Whether you are planning for a special dinner or want to make a regular day special, try this Pot Roast and guaranteed you will have a fantastic meal. Let me show you how I made it, let’s get started!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 pound (more or less about 560g) Beef Chunk Roast
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil 
• 1 tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 medium Onion – diced
• 1 large Carrot – sliced thick
• 1/2 cup Beef Broth 
• 1/2 cup Sparkling Juice or Soda Juice  (like Sprite, or you can use another 1/2 cup of broth)
• 1 teaspoon Salt  (add gradually)
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning (or combination of thyme and rosemary)
• 2 teaspoon Brown Sugar 
• 1/2 cup Mushroom – white, button or cremini

Instructions:

1. Season meat with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 tbsp flour. Cook each sides for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Using the same pan, add 1 tbsp butter, then add all vegetables except mushroom. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add the broth, sparkling juice or soda, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and sugar. Cover and continue cooking in the oven for 3 hours (make sure to use oven safe dish that could take long hours of cooking. I used dutch oven pan) After 2 hours, taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Add mushroom and continue cooking until meat is fork tender. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
   • Alternatively, you can cook this on stove stop in medium low heat. Check the tenderness of the meat every 1 hour as it cooks faster when done using a stove.

Serves 2

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