Real Roast Beef

So here is my first try at cooking something and putting the recipe on here. I will start by saying when it comes to measuring, if it's regular meal food, I do not measure. If it is baking, IT MUST BE MEASURED. Baking is a lot more complex than just a sprinkle of salt. So here goes this roast beef recipe.
The reviews of this recipe were great, I usually cook this type of meat in a crock pot that can be simmered on all day, but I was told I was not a real woman until I cooked a beef roast in the oven.  Challenge accepted, and it did turn out pretty good. Not as tender as a crock pot, but who has time to leave that thing in the oven for hours, not this girl! I hope I explain it well enough and I hope I put in enough pictures. Trust me, this was not hard at all.  Here goes:
I purchased a Chuck Roast, but any beef roast will do.

This one was about 2.34 lbs and fed 4 people very well.  I started by heating up a skillet with about 3 tablespoons of EVOO and got the pan pretty hot. Don't get it too hot though if so use vegetable oil or regular olive oil. EVOO has a lower burn temperature so you can burn it pretty easy if you are not careful. I just had EVOO on hand so that's what I used.

Let each side of the roast get a good brown, you are not cooking the roast, just getting a good stable place so the juices don't just run out when it is cooked.  They stay inside the meat.  Next I cut up onions and potatoes.  These potatoes are general red potatoes that my daddy and nephew grew in the garden. I always try to use fresh vegetables, never canned. The only vegetable I use canned is corn, just because when we grow it, it doesn't last long.  Anyway, use whatever potatoes you want, these were just available. Cut the potato in bite sized pieces and place in a 9x13 pan. Take your onion and just cut into strips. This is my favorite way to cut and eat an onion. It keeps its texture,  but it doesn't overtake the dish.

Lay them in the pan along with the potatoes. I save a couple strips to place on top of the roast when it goes in the pan. So that brings us to putting the roast in the pan.

After the roast is in the pan I sprinkle everything with seasoning. I used "Beef Stew" because it is what I had on hand by McCormick in the pre-packaged seasoning. I also sprinkled with salt and pepper then smeared a teaspoon of minced garlic in oil on each side of the roast as seen above.  This melds all the flavors together into almost a paste and it sticks to the roast.  Use whatever seasoning you like, these are just a few of my favorites for this.  Put 1-2 cups of water in the bottom of the pan. Next wrap in foil creating a dome to circulate the heat.

I baked this at 350 degrees for an hour, flipped the roast over, lowered the temp to 300 degrees, then baked another 1.5 hours.  I let the meat sit in the oven for about 30 minutes with the oven off to rest a bit. (Rather I was working on another project and wanted it to wait on me a few minutes.) I took it out and this is what I got along with my house smelling a little like heaven...

I had great reviews, but I feel it was not the best roast I had ever had.  I have this pre-determined criteria of what roast beef should be, which is falling to pieces, but that's not it at all.  It can keep it's shape, and this roast did.  It was tender and flavorful and the potatoes were AMAZING! There was nothing left but it fed us all well, we all had seconds.  

Don't be scared to try this recipe, it seems like a lot, but I promise it is super easy.  If you are going to be home cleaning all afternoon, or just be around the house and don't want a lot of fuss and muss over supper, but something filling. This is it. Comment below!

Go COOK!

Kaitlin