Pot Roast and Gravy Recipe – How to Make it in 19 Simple Steps

Seasoned with garlic and Worcestershire sauce, our recipe for Pot Roast and Gravy is falling apart tender and deliciously savory. Although it takes several hours for the dish to cook, the low and slow cooking time transforms the roast from a tough piece of beef into a delicious treat.

To make a “grandma-style” pot roast, where the beef is falling apart and deliciously tender and moist, you will want to choose one of three cuts of beef. Generally, for a good pot roast, you should buy a chuck roast, a round roast, or a shoulder roast. These cuts of beef are tough when cooked improperly, but if you prepare them correctly, the meat goes from a chewy hunk of muscle tissue to a savory cut of beef.

How does this happen? Although we seldom think about it, remember that a piece of meat used to be an animal. When the butcher cuts apart a beef carcass, he is basically sectioning away different pieces of the animal’s muscle tissue. Muscles that are used frequently, like that on the legs, shoulders, and buttocks are tougher and stronger than those used infrequently, like those along the belly and spine.

Table of Contents Show

Pot Roast and Gravy Recipe

Equipment

Ingredients 1x2x3x

Pot Roast Ingredients

Gravy Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Pot Roast and Gravy Recipe

April Freeman

The fragrance of cooking beef infused with garlic and Worcestershire sauce is welcoming and soothing for a cool, damp fall day. Our recipe for Pot Roast and Gravy includes tender, falling apart beef, roasted carrots, and delicious red potatoes. All you will have to do is whip up the gravy, warm up some frozen green beans and set the table when you create this recipe for Pot Roast and Gravy.

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 4 hrs

Total Time 4 hrs 20 mins

Cuisine American

Servings 6 Servings

Equipment

• Large Dutch Oven
• Pan
• Tight Lid
• Medium-Sized Saucepan
• Jelly Jar

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Pot Roast Ingredients

• 4 pounds Chuck, Round, or Shoulder Roast
• Oil for Browning the Meat
• 2 cups Beef Stock
• 1/2 pound Baby Carrots or 3 to 4 large whole carrots, scrubbed, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 1 pound Red Tomatoes scrubbed with the skins on; chopped into large pieces
• 2 tbsp Minced Garlic
• Salt
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce

Gravy Ingredients

• 3 cups Beef Broth you can use the drippings from the pan as well
• 3 tbsp Cornstarch
• 1 tbsp Onion Powder
• 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 cup Cold Water

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
• Remove the meat from the wrapping and allow the roast to come to room temperature on a plate in the kitchen. Sprinkle it on all surfaces with about a teaspoon of salt.
• In a large Dutch oven, heat two or three tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat.
• When the oil is hot, put the roast in the pan and allow it to brown on all sides. It should take about five minutes per side to get a nice, dark brown color on the meat.
• Remove the meat from the pan to a plate. If the oil is mostly gone, add a little more to the pan, just enough to coat the bottom of it.
• Add the two tablespoons of garlic to the oil and cook the garlic until it is golden brown in color. This should take two or three minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat and return the meat to the pan.
• Around the sides of the meat, place the baby carrots and the red potatoes. Sprinkle the vegetables with salt.
  
• Add the beef stock along the sides of the vegetables. Pour the Worcestershire sauce over the top of the meat.
• Place a tight-fitting lid onto the Dutch oven and place it in the center of the oven.
• Bake the meat for about three to four hours. After this time the meat should be moist, tender, and falling apart.
• Remove the meat and vegetables from the pan to a platter.
• Now, move on to making the gravy. Reserve the drippings from the Dutch oven and add a bit more beef stock or beef broth to the drippings to make three cups of broth.
  
• Stir the Worcestershire sauce into the broth along with the onion powder and garlic powder.
• Place this mixture into a medium-sized saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
• In a small jelly jar with a tightly fitting lid, place ¼ cup water and the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. Put the lid on the jar and shake it well.
• When the broth mixture is at a full rolling boil, whisk this mixture into the saucepan of hot broth.
  
• Continue to stir and boil this mixture until it is thickened.
• Serve immediately over rice, noodles, or potatoes.
  

Notes

Cuts of beef that come from the infrequently used muscles are much more tender than those that originated in the muscle tissue that is frequently used. Beef tenderloin and grilling cuts of steak are from these tender meat cuts, and tougher pieces come from the tougher muscle groups.

That doesn’t mean that the tougher cuts are useless. It just means that they have to be carefully cooked. Remember, there is no “bad” cut of meat. There are simply cooking methods that are unsuitable for a particular piece of beef.

When you cook a shoulder roast, a chuck roast, or a round roast, cuts that come from frequently used muscles of a beef animal, you need to use a cooking method that helps dissolve the connective tissue that makes the meat tough and hard to chew. Low and slow is the way to go with pot roast recipes.

You have to cook the meat for a long period of time at a lower temperature than you would with some other pieces of meat. The connective tissue and the fat melt into a gelatinous liquid that keeps the meat from drying out and becoming stringy and dry.

Keyword Main Course, Pot Roast and Gravy, Recipe

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