Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast

 
So I have this delicious family recipe for a mushroom roast. I'm guessing many families have the same one. It involves mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, and Lipton Onion Soup. I love that recipe with all my heart, but most of my family doesn't like mushrooms. So I went on a quest to find a tasty, non-mushroom roast idea. I found a starting point with Chef John's Slow Cooker Pot Roast recipe (cited at the bottom). I had two problems. One, it uses mushrooms and two, I'm lazy. Searing the meat bits on this stretches my patience as it is. However, the result is worth it so I go with it. The rest of the steps got thrown out because it's a roast and it's suppose to be simple. That's my philosophy at least. So, here is the modified recipe and I've had good results both from family and friends. Hope you like it!

Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast

• 1 (3 - 5 pound) pot roast
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 – 3 onions, quartered/cut into chunks (optional if you like slow cooked onions with your roast. If not, then mince half an onion or use onion powder to get that flavor added to your broth/roast.)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 c beef broth
• 3 - 5 medium carrots, cut into chunks (optional if you like slow cooked carrots with your roast)
• 2 – 3 potatoes (optional if you like potatoes to cook with your roast)
• 1 - 2 stalks celery, cut into chunks (or small pieces if you don't like celery – for broth flavoring)
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme (½ tsp dry)
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary (1 tsp dry)
• Cornstarch (optional if you want to make broth into gravy)

Directions:

1. Cover the roast in salt and pepper. I don't recommend to taste as you shouldn't taste raw meat generally speaking. I'm generous on this. Then I sear the meat in the vegetable oil in a skillet. *Check out my detailed notes below if you want how I actually do this process.

2. While sides are searing, I put two cups of water into the crock pot and add two beef bullion cubes. However you do your beef broth, get two cups in and turn the thing to high so things start warming up. Toss in all the stuff. From onions down to rosemary. **More notes on how I “toss it all in.”

3. Get the seared roast into the crock pot, cover it and cook it on low for five to six hours. Eat it.

4. If you want, put the broth into a pot, bring it to a boil, add a cornstarch slurry (maybe 1 Tbsp cornstarch to ¼ or ½ cup cold water) to thicken it and boom – gravy.

Notes on how I like to do things:

*Cutting the meat and salting/peppering it: You can leave the roast whole or cut it into pieces. I cut it into pieces so it gets more seared on pepper/salt goodness. I sprinkle salt and pepper onto a plate. I then take my fist-ish sized pieces of meat and dab each side onto the plate to pick up the salt and pepper. I find it easier than trying to sprinkle pepper and salt onto the meat. So, I press all the sides of my smaller cuts onto the salt and pepper, one chunk at a time. I add more salt and pepper to replenish the plate as needed for the pieces. Generally, I get 1 – 2 pieces per plate sprinkling. Then I sear the sides of the pieces in the vegetable oil.

**A lot of times, I toss half the thyme and rosemary into the broth, then I toss in everything but the onions and stir it up. After stirring, I put in the onions so they don't fall apart from stirring. Then I put the seared roast in and sprinkle the remaining thyme and rosemary on top. This is just me and not really a necessary complication.

This was adapted from Chef John's Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast. (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/220125/slow-cooker-beef-pot-roast/)

I took out a lot of steps because it's a roast and I don't want to spend all day on it. Also, while I love mushrooms, many in my family don't. So, this is my simplified version and it tastes great – so thanks Chef John because I needed your recipe to find mine. :)