Look no further: We've rounded up the best pot roast recipes to come out of the Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen. Full of rich, savory flavor, it's no surprise these delicious recipes will make any dinner a success. From speedy Instant Pot to set-and-forget slow cooker ideas, these meaty meals are sure to satisfy.
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Pomegranate Pot Roast
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Talk about a holiday-worthy Dutch oven pot roast! This showy dish takes the rustic cut of beef and transforms it into an Instagram-ready entrée. Plenty of fresh herb stems (rosemary and thyme), vibrant and tangy persimmons, and ruby-red sweet-tart pomegranate seeds make the magic happen right before your eyes.
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Sunday Oven Pot Roast
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Whether it's a fancy family gathering or a simple sit-down meal, Sunday suppers are at their best when they feature a pot roast. As a bonus, no side dishes are required when you serve this all-in-one meal. Juicy, tender beef and a colorful medley of sweet potatoes, carrots, and parsnips fill out this tantalizing recipe.
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Classic Pot Roast
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Quite possibly the best pot roast recipe ever if you're trying to follow in Grandma's footsteps, this traditional recipe is full of everything you love about the hearty dish. Tender melt-in-your-mouth beef, caramelized onions, red potatoes, and sweet cooked carrots—the gang's all here, in one comforting dinner. Garlic, Italian parsley, and white wine give the pot roast its classic flavor.
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Chili-Style Pot Roast
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On those nights when you can't quite decide between spicy chili and rich pot roast, we say, "Have both!" This Mexican-inspired dinner starts with the traditional beef chuck roast, just like the rest of these top-rated pot roast recipes. From there, chili powder, pinto beans, Anaheim peppers, and cilantro infuse each bite with bold flavor.
"Best pot roast I ever made!" raves one BH&G home cook of this Dutch oven pot roast. We're guessing that's because it's surprisingly complex in flavor, due to instant espresso powder, crushed red pepper, allspice, garlic, and crushed pineapple in the braising sauce. The sweet heat will keep everyone coming back bite after bite.
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Pot Roast with Fruit and Chipotle Sauce
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Beef and dried fruit: it sounds crazy, but tastes crazy-good. With just six ingredients and 15 minutes of prep, this is one slow cooker pot roast recipe you'll want to make over and over again. Its sweet-and-spicy flavor comes from a tasty mix of dried fruit and chipotle peppers.
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Caliente Pot Roast
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Here's the best pot roast recipe ever—when you're crunched for time. Follow our Test Kitchen's lead and turn packaged pot roast into an impressive dinner in just 20 minutes. Fresh mushrooms, picante sauce, and sides like couscous and avocado add hints of Southwestern flair to the meal.
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Fight off the chill with this uber cozy and delicious pot roast recipe. The magic happens in the warm, bubbly broth. The hearty, savory stew is full of tender meat, portobello mushrooms, and chopped red bell pepper alongside a base of rich red wine and beef broth.
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Pot Roast Paprikash
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Rich, colorful Spanish paprika is at the heart of many Hungarian dishes, and this delicious pot roast is no exception. The spice adds a sweet, smoky flavor to the sauce, noodles, and beef. Roasted red peppers lend another smoky punch, while sour cream offers a nice balance and a luxurious creamy quality.
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Saucy Pot Roast with Whole Wheat Noodles
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Take a break from spaghetti and meatballs and savor this delicious pot roast recipe (plus pasta) instead. The best way to serve this meat-and-tomatoes dish is on a bed of cooked noodles to soak up more of the juices. Simply treat the tomato mixture like marinara sauce, and dig in.
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Spiced Pot Roast Recipe
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After just 15 minutes of prep time, this slow cooker pot roast is ready to set, forget, then savor four (on high) or eight (on low) hours later. The tender beef roast tastes like you worked on it all day, thanks to the unexpected sweetness brought by apple juice and dried fruit. Carrots, potatoes, and onions are delicious additions to this wonderful comfort food.
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Maple Harvest Pot Roast
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The secret behind the rich flavor of this Dutch oven pot roast? An irresistible gravy of Marsala wine, basil, garlic, and plum preserves. Potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, and onions add to the richness of this hearty braised beef.
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The best meat for pot roast is a beef cut with abundant connective tissue, like chuck roast, beef brisket or bottom round roast. This connective tissue called collagen is what makes pot roast melt-in-your-mouth tender.
The boneless chuck roast is among the most popular roasts on the market due to its incredible beefy taste, fat content (it's well marbled), and effortless cooking process. It comes from the shoulder primal (like the pot roast), just in front of the rib section.
Though you can use white onions, sweet onions, or red onions, we recommend using yellow ones because of their unique flavor profile. Yellow onions are a widely used onion type in the US and is great with meat dishes such as pot roast, roasted chicken, lamb rack, stew, and more.
Chuck pot roasts have more fat, and therefore more flavor, than those from the round. Beef round roasts suitable for pot roasting are round tip, round rump, bottom round and eye round roasts. Most beef round and chuck pot roasts can be used interchangeably, with only slight adjustments in cooking time.
It's all about cooking low and slow. With a cut of meat like this, a longer cook time will give you better, more tender results. Ideally, all roasted meats would be seared on all sides in a hot skillet to develop a golden, delicious crust.
I opt for basil, thyme, paprika, dried bay leaves, and black pepper. These add a lovely, almost Italian-inspired flavor to this pot roast recipe. Veggies. Including onions, garlic, carrots, and potatoes (all of which are also in my beef stew!).
Yes, pot roast absolutely becomes more tender the longer it cooks. Roasts are generally made from tougher cuts of meat, such as chuck or brisket, which contain a lot of collagen, connective tissue, and fat. These tougher tissues require a long cooking time to break down and for the collagen to converts into gelatin.
A perfectly cooked beef joint makes a wonderful centrepiece for a Sunday roast or Christmas dinner. To cook it until it's so tender it falls apart, you'll need to choose a joint like chuck and blade or beef brisket and either braise, slow roast or slow cook it for at least a couple of hours.
A leg of lamb is a classic option, but lamb chops or a lamb roast would also be delicious.For those who prefer poultry, a roast chicken is a classic and tasty option for a Sunday lunch. A whole roast chicken is easy to prepare and can be seasoned with various herbs and spices to suit your taste.
If your crock pot roast is tough, it is possible you didn't use a boneless chuck roast, in which cases some cuts of meat will never become fall-apart tender OR more likely, you did not cook your beef long enough. If your pot roast seems tough, cook on!
“Beef may be tough in the slow cooker if you haven't added enough liquid, or haven't cooked it for long enough,” Kristen Carli, M.S., R.D., owner of Camelback Nutrition & Wellness, tells SELF. “For cuts of meat, the fattier cuts are often the ones that get juicy and tender.
There are many different cuts that can be used for crockpot roast from bottom round, to rump roast, to shoulder roast to chuck roast, but for the best crockpot pot roast, use the boneless chuck roast.
Choose the right cut: Chuck roasts, short ribs, pork shoulders and lamb shanks (think fatty and tougher meats) become meltingly tender with the moist, low heat of a slow cooker. Leaner cuts like pork tenderloin tend to dry out. Likewise, dark meat chicken — thighs, drumsticks, etc.
Chuck is an inexpensive beef that comes from the muscle between the neck and shoulder blade of the beef cattle. That's why other names for chuck roast include blade pot roast. Roasts and steaks are most popular cuts of chuck.
Look for rump roast or bottom round roast. The leanest of the three most common pot roast cuts, it has a fine grain which makes it great for slicing, but it lacks the big, beefy flavor of the other two cuts.
Introduction: My name is Greg Kuvalis, I am a witty, spotless, beautiful, charming, delightful, thankful, beautiful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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