It’s winter time, and we are all gaining a little hibernation weight. Since that’s the inevitable, might as well make it worth it by eating good (notice I said good, not well LOL). And how do we eat good around these parts? Well, that starts with the perfect pot roast recipe. As usual, I won’t hold you too long, so it’s just a brief scroll down to the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 3-4 lbs chuck roast
• 1 large yellow onion (chunked)
• 1 lb baby red potatoes (halve them)
• Handful or two of baby carrots
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 cups of beef broth
• 1 package of brown gravy mix
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 cloves of fresh garlic, coarsely chopped
• 5-6 sprigs of thyme

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Season roast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
3. In a large dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Sear the roast on each side until browned, about 4 minutes per side adding more oil if needed. Remove from dutch oven.
4. Place onion chunks, halved potatoes, and carrots in dutch oven and sauté for 3-5 minutes (add more oil if needed)
5. Add in wine, broth, & bay leaf and let simmer for 2-3 minutes
6. Add roast back to dutch oven, laying it over the top of the veggies
7. Once the broth is back simmering, cover and place in the oven and bake 2 hours. 
8. Remove the roast from oven, and take 1 cup of roast juice from the dutch oven, pouring into measuring cup
9. Mix the package of brown gravy with the juice from the roast, adding additional beef broth as needed. Pour the mixture over the roast and bake for another 1.5 hours
10. In a separate pan, combine the butter, thyme sprigs and garlic. Stir until the butter melts and the mixture becomes fragrant. About 3-5 minutes – DO NOT BURN GARLIC (low/medium heat)
11. Remove the roast from the oven, and pour the butter mixture over the top of the roast. Then break the roast up with a fork, mixing the butter mixture with everything in the dutch oven. Bake the roast (4lb) another 30 minutes.
12. Remove roast. Discard bay leaf & thyme sprigs, then serve