Crockpot Pot Roast

In the south, nothing says Sunday-after-church-lunch like pot roast. We love it around here, and we’ve tried lots of different cuts of meat and ways of cooking. Our current favorite is this crockpot recipe. I love it because it is easy and can be prepared Saturday night and cooked all night. The family loves it because it tastes fabulous, especially when we come in from church starving.

Although this pot roast packs a powerful taste, there are relatively few ingredients.

All you need is the following:

A Bottom Round Roast
2 onions, peeled and halved
3 stalks celery, cut into 3 inch chunks
1 1/2 cup red wine
2 Knorr beef flavored homestyle stock* melted in 6 cups hot water (You can also use 4-5 cans beef broth)
2 tablespoons dried rosemary (Fresh would be better, but I didn’t have any)
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

*The Knorr homestyle stock comes in a package of four little tubs, each approximately one tablespoon. You melt the tub in 3 cups of hot water, making beef stock.

Heat a skillet (I use my cast iron skillet) on medium-high heat with the two tablespoons of EVOO. When skillet is hot, place onions flat side down and add celery chunks. Allow to cook 3-4 minutes and flip. Cook on other side 3-4 minutes until veggies have a nice, brown color. Remove veggies to the crockpot.

Season roast with sea salt, black pepper, and rosemary. Keeping skillet hot, sear roast on each side, about 5 minutes each side. This will seal in the juices and keep the roast from drying out.

Pour broth over veggies in crockpot, and remove roast to crockpot.

Keeping the skillet hot, deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add broth or water if necessary to get all goodies from the bottom of the pan. I use a wire whisk for this step. This is where much of the flavor comes from, so don’t skip this step!!

When pan is deglazed, pour mixture over roast in crockpot. If roast isn’t completely covered by liquid, add more broth or water so that roast is fully covered. I throw in a little more salt, pepper, and rosemary. Cook on low for 8 hours.

There are several ways you can switch up this recipe. If you want to add carrots and/or mushrooms, sauté them with the onions and celery. If you want to add potatoes, peel and cut potatoes into 1″ chunks. Add directly to bottom of crockpot before adding roast.

We’re having crockpot pot roast for lunch tomorrow, and my house smells pretty good right about now. Wish you all could come over for Sunday lunch and enjoy it with us!

Linking up today with Sweet Shot Tuesday at Life With My 3 Boybarians.