You all know we have a bad habit of asking Mom what is for dinner every day at about four o’clock. She loves it. But recently, she started answering, “What are you making?” Um, what? Repeat with me: do not panic, do not panic. Well, I can tell you one thing. I am not making chicken. So, it was time to find a dinner idea. When we came across this recipe, it looked like it might just be a winner. It was time to see if kids could make an easy pot roast.
Start Pot Roast Early:
The thing about this kind of meal is that you have to plan ahead a bit. It takes a few hours for this to cook in the oven, but then you have all afternoon to play instead of making dinner, so it worked out just fine.
First, you need to start with big slab of cow. Sorry, but it does feel a bit gross when you pull the roast out of the package. We brought out the dutch oven and added a bit of olive oil to it.
Do you Really Need to Sear the Meat?
Next, we seared it on medium heat until it turned the edges brown, and then we flipped it and did the other side. When we asked my mom why we had to do this first, she said all of the recipes she knew made us do it. Well, that was not a good enough answer, so we did some research. While it seems as if it does not hold in the juices for cooking, it does create a caramelization on the outside, which sounded like a good reason to us!
Preparing Vegetables:
Vegetables. Seriously. This was a little nerve-wracking. Usually, we prefer our vegetables to be hidden so we don’t have to really mentally prepare ourselves for eating them. But what was so appealing about this recipe is that you barely need to chop anything! You just half your baby potatoes, roughly cut up an onion, and grab some baby carrots.
Putting it All Together:
Next up, we added all of the ingredients into the dutch oven. It felt like we were tucking the meat into bed. We added our beef broth and let it cook in the oven for about two hours.
The house smelled absolutely amazing when we came in from playing outside. We carefully pulled the meat out, and cut it into smaller pieces. It was so tender that it was very easy.
We put the meat on one side of a nice big platter and the vegetables on the other (hoping that we could ignore them.) At least they were not in tiny little bits that you have to dig out of a dish.
Making Gravy?
That is when the challenge came. Could we make a gravy? Although it seemed like the meat didn’t need it, we felt like we had nothing to lose and should at least try! The recipe suggested using a fat separator, and after digging through the cupboards, we realized we didn’t have one. So off to do some research.
We poured some of the juices from the dutch oven out to let the fat rise to the top while it cooled for a bit. And then we tried to use our baster to suck out the bottom liquid.
Well, it kinda worked. It also kinda made a huge mess. But then, cooking is supposed to be messy, right?
Next, we mixed some cornstarch and some water and heated up our fat-free juice for a couple of minutes. We were so excited! We made real gravy!
Overall, we were really surprised at how easy this pot roast was for kids to make.
How Kids Can Make an Easy Pot Roast
What happens when Mom quits making dinner? It is time for kids to make an easy pot roast!
Ingredients
- 3-4 lb Boneless Chuck Roast
- Salt and Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil or Butter
- 8 oz Baby Carrots
- 1 Large Onion (roughly chopped)
- 1.5 lbs Baby Potatoes (halved or quartered)
- 4-5 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 Can (About 15 oz) Beef Broth
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Season both sides of roast with kosher salt and pepper. Heat a large dutch oven on the stove top to medium heat. Drizzle in tablespoon oil or butter and swirl to coat bottom surface of pan. Sear roast for 2-3 minutes on each side, until a nice brown crust forms. Remove roast and set aside on a plate or large piece of foil.
- Add remaining tablespoon of oil or butter to pan and then add carrots, onion, and garlic. Saute 3-4 minutes, until slightly tender.
- Add the potatoes to the pan and then place the roast back in the pan and nestle it down so it's near the bottom. Spoon the veggies around a bit so some are on bottom and some on sides and top. Pour in beef broth and Worcestershire. Cover pot with lid.
- Cook for about 1 hour per pound. At the end of cooking time, check quickly to make sure meat easily shreds with a fork. If not, you may need to extend cooking time.
- When roast is done, remove meat onto a cutting board and veggies onto a serving dish and cover to keep warm.
- Strain the fat off the juices with a fat separator or using a baster. Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and then pour into the juice over medium heat until it thickens to a gravy.
Notes
Adapted from Our Best Bites