Paula’s Pot Roast

So in the past when I have made a pot roast, I’ve dumped the roast in my crock pot with some potatoes, carrots, onions and celery.  Seasoned the beef with salt, pepper and garlic, added a half cup of water and let that bad boy cook all day.  It always tasted good, but was pretty standard.  Also, when it came to gravy the most effort I ever put out was to open a gravy packet and simmer it with water. <—-Pretty sure my mom just fainted.

So when our grocery store had their Beef Cross Rib Roasts on sale, I picked up a 3 pound one and figured I’d make it into something delicious!  I started scouring the internet (especially Pinterest) for delicious pot roast recipes.  Some many of them looked amazing but the problem was they included an hour for prep alone and ingredients like red cooking wine or cooking sherry (neither of which I keep on hand or have ever used before).  I was getting a bit overwhelmed and somewhat scared so I decided to go on without a recipe and hope it all worked out for the best.  One VERY common theme I found while looking at recipes was to season and sear the roast first.  When I brought this up to the other Housewives and some friends last night I was met with incredulous looks.  Apparently I was the only one who didn’t know about searing…color me embarrassed!  And mom just fainted again. :-/

I started my prep at about 11:40am and the roast and gravy were in the crock pot by Noon.  Much better than an hour + prep time!  So here we go!

Here is my 3lb roast just ready to go!

Put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil along with 1 tablespoon of coarse salt and 1 tablespoon of cracked pepper (I’m sure table salt and pepper would work just fine also).  Make sure your pan gets hot and then put your roast in.

Season the top of the roast, cook on each side for 3-4 minutes on medium heat.  While the first side is searing, finely dice about 1/2 of a small onion.

Flip your roast and sear the other side.  While you are waiting for that, take 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 1 can of beef broth, 2 teaspoons granulated garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper (you can use more if your taste prefers it) and  your diced onions and put them in a sauce pan.  Whisk them together to a soft boil.

To sear the edges of the roast I just used tongs to hold it up on each side for a minute or so.  Take half of your gravy and pour it into your warm crock pot.  Place the roast in the crock pot and then cover with the remaining gravy.

Put your crock pot on high and cook for 5 hours.  After that, place it on low until it’s time to serve.  Now about 1.5 hours into the cooking process your house will start smelling SO amazing that it will be hard to keep yourself from eating it!  You should probably run errands during this time. 🙂

Now it was my intent to remove the roast from the crock pot and let it rest for a couple of minutes, then slice it.  However, the roast was so amazingly tender that it shred very easily.  I served it with mashed potatoes, green salad and peaches.

We all devoured our dinner!  It was such a hit!  And SO easy too!

I hope if you give this recipe a try, you’ll let me know how it works out for you.  Our family LOVED it and it will definitely be going in our regular rotation!  Enjoy!

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