This recipe would easily feed the whole family and an inexpensive satisfying meal on a budget.
Mom's recipe will work for a classic oven braise as well as in a slow cooker.
Our pot roast is braised beef in liquid slow-cooked and we add usually carrots and potatoes and then another Yankee-style pot roast is cooked and served with the addition of carrots, potatoes, parsnip, and turnip, and still slow-cooked.
The additions added can be whatever your family prefers vegetable-wise, we just like to keep it plain and sop up the juices with a nice loaf of hard-crusted Italian bread.
Later through the years, our recipe collection added Mississippi London Broil Pot Roast and Tavern Style Beef Roast both amazing in flavor slow-cooked, and perfect for sandwiches with leftovers.
Easy Steps
- Prepare and grease a dutch oven
- Sear the meat first and make small slits to stuff the meat with garlic then set aside
- Add the vegetables using to the pan and saute for 5 minutes
- Add the vegetables except for potatoes to the dutch oven and place the meat on top
- Season, add wine
- Bake for 1 1/2 hours covered then uncover add potatoes for another hour(6 to 8 hours on low using a slow cooker)
Traditional Meats and Vegetable Suggestions
- Classic Pot Roast's first choice was always a Chuck Roast (also called blade roast, arm roast, or 7 bone roast)
- Rump Roast
- London Broil
- Pork Butt
- Tri-Tip
- For the Vegetables:
- Carrots
- Baby Tiny Potatoes
- Parsnips
- Turnips
- Grape Tomatoes
- Green Beans
- Baby Pearl Onions
- Quartered Onion
- Whole or Sliced Mushrooms
- Stewed Tomatoes
- Red or Yukon Gold Quartered Potatoes
- Peppers
Vintage Recipes
Mom always used what we had but the classic is red potatoes or Yukon gold, onion, carrots, and mushrooms with a pot roast.
Back in the 1940s and 1950s money was tight and chuck roast was the least expensive meat to use and it was slow-cooked in the oven or a slow cooker.
The flavor usually came from all herbs she added and lots of garlic rosemary, oregano, fresh parsley, and a bay leaf which all gave the roast a magnificent taste.
As time went on we adapted the recipe from the classic and use other vegetables in the pan like peppers, and also use other meats, even pork butt but my favorite cut of meat remains chuck roast of london broil.
The Lipton Onion Soup Era
The recipe for pot roast was added to the Lipton instant onion soup package in 1958.
At about the same time, a similar recipe, but made with sour cream, was created in New Zealand that became very popular.
You may remember it by the name "French onion dip" which began to be used in the 1960s
- The "Lipton Onion Soup" recipe for making pot roast is still popular now in the 2000s and is a super simple recipe to make see below:
- 4-pound roast and sprinkle it with a package of Lipton onion soup mix
- add 2 cans of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and 1 - 1/2 cans of water (and add desired root vegetables(potatoes, carrots, etc.)
- Slow Cooker, for 6 to 8 hours on high. Stovetop low simmer for 2 hours or Instant pot for 45 minutes
Personally, I wasn't a big fan of the salt-laded content it produced but it was still a tasty easy dish for busy homemakers and still is today a vintage famous recipe.
Creative Serving Ideas
The roast was served as is and sliced and sometimes mom would make rice or pasta and pour the meat and vegetables over the top.
The recipe can easily be changed to feed a large family with those side dishes or even topping hard-crusted Italian bread with the vegetables and meat mixture.
Lesser cuts of meat need to cook very slowly to ensure tenderness and the chuck roast is cut from the cow's shoulder. It is a heavily exercised muscle, which gives the beef good flavor but it also makes it tough, hence slow cooking is highly recommended.
Using a slow cooker is great, set it and forget it, however, you still have to sear the meat first to get that deep-down beefy flavor on the outside of this meat.
Either cut of meat you use, this will be a delicious meal any day of the week and easy to make.
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Delicious and Tasty Chuck Roast
Thinking back to when we were kids, we really love chuck roast, tender, flavorful beef that really hit the spot on colder winter days in Utica, Central N.Y.
We would have this meal at least once a month budget permitting, and we were grateful to have a wonderful meal like this pure comfort food.
This roast recipe can be made on the stovetop in a dutch oven, baked in the oven, or made in a slow cooker or pressure cooker referring to booklet instructions from the manufacturer.
Classic Pot Roast
Yield: 6
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 2 H & 30 MTotal time: 2 H & 45 M
Classic Pot Roast from the 1960s made with added potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and wine. Perfect to feed a large family.
Ingredients
- 1 - 4 pound boneless chuck roast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 or 2 small onions cut into quarters
- 6 garlic cloves sliced thickly
- 1 cup sliced carrots or whole baby carrots
- (Optional: 8 ounces of any kind of mushrooms, whole or sliced, and refer to notes for any other additional vegetables)
- 2/3 cup dry red wine
- 2 1/2 cups beef broth ( more if roast starts to dry out)
- 2 fresh sprigs of rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons flat-leaf Italian parsley
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 4 peeled potatoes cut into quarters
- Alternative Cooking Method:
- Add all the ingredients after searing the meat to a slow cooker on high for 4 to 6 hours.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
- Lightly grease a dutch oven pan.
- Make small slits into the meat and add the garlic slices.
- Sear the meat on both sides in the olive oil and set aside (around 14 minutes on high heat).
- Add the onions, salt and pepper potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms to the pan and saute for around 5 minutes on medium heat.
- Add all of the vegetables except potatoes to the dutch oven.
- Set the meat on top of the vegetables and pour any juices into the pan from the frying pan.
- Add the broth, wine, parsley, oregano, bay leaf, and rosemary.
- Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours then remove the cover and add the potatoes.
- Cook uncovered for another hour or until the potatoes are soft when pierced with a fork.
- Add more broth if necessary and the roast begins to dry out.
- Let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing and removing the rosemary and bay leaf.
- Serve meat with vegetables.
- Other Cooking Methods:
- Stovetop: simmer in a dutch oven with all the same ingredients except using
- 3 - 1/2 cups of beef broth with vegetables on the bottom and beef on top.
- Place on a low simmer for around 3 hours.
- Add more broth if necessary and if the roast begins to dry out.
- Slow Cooker: Sears meat first then add and use the same recipe as the original, just place the vegetables first, meat on top, and all other ingredients. Set to high 4 to 6 hours or low 6 to 8 hours.
Notes
Traditional Meats and Vegetable Suggestions
- Classic Pot Roast's first choice was always a Chuck Roast (also called blade roast, arm roast, or 7 bone roast)
- Rump Roast
- London Broil
- Pork Butt
- Tri-Tip
- For the Vegetables:
- Carrots
- Baby Tiny Potatoes
- Parsnips
- Turnips
- Grape Tomatoes
- Green Beans
- Baby Pearl Onions
- Quartered Onion
- Whole or Sliced Mushrooms
- Stewed Tomatoes
- Red or Yukon Gold Quartered Potatoes
- Peppers
The "Lipton Onion Soup" recipe
4-pound roast and sprinkling it with a package of Lipton onion soup mix, add 2 cans of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and 1 1/2 cans of water added with root vegetables of choice to a Crockpot for 6 to 8 hours on high.
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