menu plan Monday, recipes

How to make the perfect pot roast

4 Comments

Sundays are our Big Family Dinner day. Rockford’s parents come over, and Don and his family frequently join us as well. I often default to something seriously simple — like Sandwich Night — on Sunday, but I’m going to make an effort to do less of that and more actual cooking in the coming months.

Yesterday we had pot roast, and it really wasn’t all that much more difficult than making a sandwich. My mother-in-law gave me this recipe when Rockford and I were newlyweds. There are only three ingredients, the roast comes out fall-apart tender, and it makes its own gravy. I really don’t know why we don’t have this for dinner every night.

Perfect Pot Roast
Ingredients
  • 3-4 pound boneless chuck roast
  • Lipton’s onion soup mix
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out enough heavy-duty aluminum foil to make a giant packet for your roast — I like to use the extra-wide for this — and put it in the roasting pan.
  2. Put the roast in the middle of the foil. Sprinkle onion soup mix over the roast and rub it in just a bit. Spread the mushroom soup over that. Seal the foil most of the way around, leaving one end open. Fill the soup can about 1/3 of the way with water, pour it into your giant roast packet and seal it up.
  3. Cook at 350 degrees for 4 hours.
  4. Open the foil really carefully; it’s going to be very steamy. Lift the roast out and put it on your serving platter. Seal the foil back up so you don’t accidentally spill gravy on yourself. Get the gravy boat ready. Hold the foil packet above the gravy boat, then use your scissors to snip a hole in it. And voila! Gravy boat full of gravy!

I’m not always brand-loyal, but I think Lipton’s does make a superior onion soup mix. That feels like a dopey thing to say, but it’s true. I’ve tried the off-brands, and they seem to have an off-flavor. So in this case I’ll just stick with the one I know and like.

We usually have this with mashed potatoes and some other kind of veggie. I didn’t have the potatoes thought that I had, though, so I resorted to a box of instant mashed potatoes. They were fine and much simpler to make than “real” mashed potatoes. I also made some of Emeril’s maple-glazed carrots. Poppy told me awhile back that she likes maple-glazed carrots, but yesterday she said she doesn’t like them on Sundays. Go figure.

“But hey,” I’m sure you’re saying to yourself. “It’s Monday! Where’s the menu plan?”

We’re having a Rather Hectic Week, and I’m not sure what our evenings are going to look like, exactly. I’m thinking it’ll be something like this:

Monday: Fast food
I’d like to say we’ll be eating an organic farm-to-table meal, but I’d also like to tell you the truth. It’ll be Taco Bell or McDonald’s, probably.
Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner
Possibly pancakes for the kids! And probably an omelet for me.
Wednesday: Poppy’s birthday!
Exactly what we’re going is up in the air for now, but it’ll be something A Bit Special.
Thursday: Sandwiches
Possibly from Subway. We’ll see.

 

4 thoughts on “How to make the perfect pot roast”

    1. I don’t think I’ve tried it in the CrockPot, but I’ll bet it would work! I couldn’t find specific temperatures for High and Low on the CrockPot website, but it says a 3- to 4-pound beef roast takes approximately 8 hours on low or 5 3/4 hours on high. I might try it the next time we have pot roast.

  2. I’ve made that in a crock pot. It works VERY well. Just put it in in the morning, and set it on low. I tried it on high for shorter time, but it works better on low for about 8 hours, in my opinion.

  3. I ALWAYS do mine in a CrockPot and it’s perfectly moist and delicious. Your recipe is JUST like my grandmothers (read: perfect).

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