The 12 Best Pot Roast Recipes Ever Developed in Our Test Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

What makes pot roast better? ›

The best meat for pot roast is a beef cut with abundant connective tissue, like chuck roast, beef brisket or bottom round roast. This connective tissue called collagen is what makes pot roast melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Chuck roast is one of the more popular slow-cooker options because of how tender and flavorful it becomes after several hours of cooking on low.

With lots of connective tissue (also known as collagen), these cuts can be tough if undercooked or hurried along in the cooking process. However, with slow-cooker pot roast, pressure cooker pot roast, or low-and-slow braised pot roast, the collagen breaks up for tender, succulent meat.

Brining Your Meat

Brining is a simple process: taking the chicken (or other meat) and submerging it into salty water (brine) and leaving it to soak. This adds flavour and moisture, meaning the meat will be much juicer when roasted. Remember, a brined chicken roasts 20% faster than a non-brined one.

Chuck roast: Chuck will turn out the softest and easiest to shred. The finished result is tender, juicy, and easily breaks apart. Beef brisket: Beef brisket is firm enough that it's sliceable yet tender. Round roast: Round roast is the firmest of these three cuts, but it's still easy to slice apart.

I love using fresh thyme, sage, oregano and parsley. Or use a premade herb blend such as Herbs de Provence. Score the beef and add whole peeled garlic cloves. This adds a beautiful flavor and aroma to your roast.

Because of beef's hearty, robust nature, flavor-forward spices like garlic and onion or herbs like rosemary and oregano are the best choices for an unforgettable beef dinner.

A perfectly cooked beef joint makes a wonderful centrepiece for a Sunday roast or Christmas dinner. To cook it until it's so tender it falls apart, you'll need to choose a joint like chuck and blade or beef brisket and either braise, slow roast or slow cook it for at least a couple of hours.

Why is my roast still tough after 8 hours? ›

There are several reasons why this could have happened even after so much cooking. First, your choice of a rump roast could be a factor since cuts from the hind quarter are very muscular and, since muscles are the most resistant to breaking, this cut is quite stubborn when it comes to becoming tender.

Yes, pot roast absolutely becomes more tender the longer it cooks. Roasts are generally made from tougher cuts of meat, such as chuck or brisket, which contain a lot of collagen, connective tissue, and fat. These tougher tissues require a long cooking time to break down and for the collagen to converts into gelatin.

It's delicious both ways. If you want to give your crock-pot a whirl, here's a slow cooker pot roast recipe for you. But pot roast is plenty easy to make in the oven! You do all the browning and roasting all in the same pot and it requires less time than in a slow cooker roast.

Insufficient Liquid: If there wasn't enough liquid in the crockpot, it could have caused uneven cooking. Potatoes need to be fully submerged in liquid to cook evenly. Old Potatoes: Very old or stored potatoes can become starchy and may not soften as well during cooking. It's best to use fresh, firm potatoes.

A little tomato paste, generous amount carrots to sweeten, garlic, onions, thyme, and rosemary to add flavor the roast. I love root vegetables like add parsnips, or white turnips and may add them for complex unique taste. Roast slowly on low heat in oven for a few hours until tender.

Yes, pot roast absolutely becomes more tender the longer it cooks. Roasts are generally made from tougher cuts of meat, such as chuck or brisket, which contain a lot of collagen, connective tissue, and fat. These tougher tissues require a long cooking time to break down and for the collagen to converts into gelatin.

Whether you cook your pot roast using a stovetop, oven, slow cooker, or pressure cooker method, you'll always get the most tender and flavorful results if you use low temperatures over a long period of time. That's what it takes to melt down the tough connective tissue in the meat until you can cut it with a fork.

The wrong cut of meat can derail the whole project, while excessive cooking liquid turns it into more of a soup than a pot roast. Other times, a home chef might forget to deglaze the pan, leading to bits of meat getting stuck on the bottom and burning or turning bitter throughout the rest of the cooking process.