Cozy Pot Roast

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4

1.5 - 2 lb beef chuck roast

3 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

6 Yukon gold or fingerling potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/4 yellow onion, cut into thin slices

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1 bay leaf

1/2 Tablespoon paprika (smoked paprika preferred)

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1 Tablespoon Char Crust Roasted Garlic Peppercorn

1/2 cup beef bone broth or beef broth

1 can (14 or 15 oz) crushed tomatoes (fire-roasted preferred)

2 Tablespoons red wine or red wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Use an oven-safe pan that is at least as deep as the thickness of your roast. Heat oil in pan over medium high heat until just smoking. While pan is heating, rub top of roast with Char Crust, making sure to coat all of the meat’s surface. Flip roast and rub that surface of the roast with paprika.

Add roast to hot pan, Char-Crust-side down. Allow to sear undisturbed for at least 3 minutes, until a nice crust forms on the bottom, and the roast no longer sticks to the bottom of the pan. (There will be a moderate amount of smoke from the searing process, so make sure you have your exhaust fan on.) Flip the roast and sear other side for at least 3 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Add bone broth or broth to pan, then add the crushed tomatoes. Stir to combine, scraping bottom of pan to loosen the yummy browned bits on the bottom. Add celery salt, garlic, and bay leaf, and stir sauce again. Strew the onion slices over the entire roast and surface of the sauce. Cover with tight-fitting oven-safe lid or aluminum foil.

Place in oven and cook for 90 minutes. Use oven mitts and remove pan from oven. Uncover pan, flip roast over, and add red wine (or red wine vinegar), carrots and potatoes to pan. Stir sauce to coat vegetables, and ladle some sauce over the roast. Cover pan and return it to the oven. Cook for one hour. Meat should be fall-apart tender. If not, cook another 15-30 minutes.

Remove pan from oven, and serve. You can pull meat apart with two large forks, or remove from pan and slice the meat. Side suggestions: Butterflake rolls or cornbread, and a salad of radicchio, endive, apples, and blue cheese crumbles tossed in a vinaigrette dressing.