Good Old-Fashioned Yankee Pot Roast with Red Wine & Thyme Gravy

Prefer to see photos with a recipe - I've included a link below.

I’ve had a real ‘hankerin’ for Yankee Pot Roast recently. The delicious smells wafting from the pan as the chuck roast is seared reminds of Sunday mornings when I was a child. My mother would brown the roast and then simmer it for hours to serve for our Sunday dinner (or ‘din-na’ as my mother used to say with her Boston accent.) And she always served her pot roast with creamy mashed potatoes, which I highly recommend! (We always had mashed potatoes – and I mean always – even with Chicken Pot pie because my father was a Mashed Potato Freak!)

I discovered this recipe in a cookbook called ‘The New Best Recipe’ from the editors of ‘Cooks Illustrated’. It really is a jewel of a cookbook. Every single recipe was prepared over and over again until they arrived at what they believed was the absolute BEST.

This Yankee Pot Roast so tender you can cut it with a fork – no kidding! The secret, according to ‘The New Best Recipe’, is in cooking the chuck roast in the oven at 300F, and for a longer time than most pot roast recipes call for simply because the long, slow cooking breaks down the collagen which can make some cuts of beef, like chuck, tough. They also discovered cooking a pot roast in the oven maintains the same temperature far better than can be achieved on top of the stove.

‘The New Best Recipe’ makes a great read because they inform you what they did and how they did it… and what they didn’t like and why. I did make few changes, such as adding red wine to the cooking liquid, and thickening the gravy because, personally, I like my gravy to ‘stay where I put it’.

INGREDIENTS & METHOD

• 3 1/2 lbs. Chuck Roast OR Chuck-Eye Roast ++ I purchased a 2 1/2 lb. roast

• salt and pepper – to sprinkle on all sides of the chuck roast

• 2 Tbs. olive oil

• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped

• 1 small carrot, roughly chopped

• 1 small celery rib, roughly chopped

• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced

• 2 tsp. sugar

• 1 cup chicken broth

• 1 cup beef broth ++ I didn’t have beef broth, so I used 2 cups chicken broth

• 1/2 cup dry red wine

• 1 – 1 1/3 cups water ++ Liquid should come up to the middle of the roast. If your roast is small, you may not need much water at all.

• 1 sprig fresh thyme ++ Or 2 tsp. dried thyme – not ‘crushed’. If you do use crushed thyme, use less.

For the Gravy

• 1/4 cup dry red wine

• 2 pinches dried thyme

• 1/4 cup cold water

• 2 Tbs. cornstarch

• salt and pepper to taste

   *Oven at 350F* 
  

Place rack in middle of oven…. (I had to lower my rack to accommodate my Dutch Oven).

For a smaller (2 1/2 lb.) roast – cook for about 3 hours.

For a larger (3 1/2 lb) roast – cook for about 4 hours

METHOD

Generously sprinkle roast – on both sides – with salt and pepper. (I like to press the S & P in.)

Heat 2 Tbs. olive oil in a large Dutch Oven over medium-high heat. (Don’t have a Dutch oven – use an oven-proof skillet and cover skillet with foil.) Brown meat on all sides. The meat will produce some steam as it cooks. Don’t confuse steam with smoke BUT if your pan does smoke, reduce the heat immediately. And don’t worry if the bottom of your pan blackens. Mine does but it’s not ‘burnt’.

Remove meat to a platter while you cook the vegetables.

Reduce heat to medium. Add 1 medium onion, roughly chopped, 1 small carrot, roughly chopped and 1 small celery rib, roughly chopped. (Don’t add the garlic and sugar just yet.) Continue cooking vegetables, stirring, until they begin to brown.

Add in 2 medium garlic cloves, minced & 2 tsp. sugar and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup chicken broth and 1 cup beef broth – or 2 cups of either chicken or beef broth, it won’t matter all that much in the end!

Now add 1/2 cup dry red wine, salt and pepper to taste and a sprig of thyme (or 2 tsp. dried thyme.) Return the roast to the pan. Add 1 – 1 1/3 cups water – just enough to bring liquid to the middle of the roast. (There was no need for me to add any water.)

Bring contents to a simmer over medium heat. Cover Dutch Oven and place in 300F oven.

Cook, turning roast every 30 – 40 minutes, until fully tender. Remember, the longer the roast cooks, the more tender it becomes. (Meat should be very tender. A fork or knife should slip easily into the roast.)

Remove roast from Dutch Oven and place it on a platter. Cover with foil while you make your gravy.

Making the Gravy

Get out all the ingredients for the gravy while the pot roast is cooking.

• 1/4 cup dry red wine

• 2 pinches dried thyme ++ As I mentioned above, if you are using crushed thyme, use less

• 1/4 cup COLD water

• 2 Tbs. cornstarch

• salt and pepper to taste

Pour pan juices through a strainer to remove cooked vegetables & sprig of thyme. Allow juices to sit about five minutes so any fat rises to the top. Using a large spoon, remove as much fat as you can. Put pan juices in a medium-sized saucepan. Cook over medium heat until reduced to about 2 cups or so. (May take several minutes.) Add 1/4 cup dry red wine and 2 pinches dried thyme and continue to reduce until you’re back to about 2 cups.

In a small measuring cup mix 1/4 cup COLD water with 2 Tbs. cornstarch until smooth. Slowly add to hot pan juices. Start whisking (or stirring) right away. Bring liquid to a boil and boil for about a minute until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Slice roast into thick slices – or use a large fork and break meat into large chunks. Transfer meat to serving platter. Pour about half the gravy over roast and pass the remainder separately. And don’t forget those creamy mashed potatoes. Enjoy!!

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bon appetit