Your simple oven pot roast is guaranteed to be fork tender and absolutely divine! Pair with your favorite sides. Use as a ragu. Possibilities!
Dutch Oven Pot Roast
I typically use a chuck roast for my pot roast recipes.
However, in this recipe, I'm using a bottom round roast.
It's going to be cooked similarly as the chuck roast, but in less time.
The bottom round roast is typically used fo r roast beef but it makes an excellent pot roast.
This roast comes from the rear part of the cow. It is leaner than either the brisket or chuck, so without this fat, you'll want to make sure you have the liquid to help prevent it from drying out.
How to Cook a Roast in the Oven
Cooking a roast in the oven is the best way in my humble opinion.
It's the old-fashioned way of cooking way before there were multi-cookers, crock pots, InstaPots and other gizmos and gadgets.
This is also a great chance for you to invest in a Dutch oven! Here are some of my favorites. And, believe me, I use mine all the time!!
Yes, the Le Creuset is the deluxe "Mercedes" of the Dutch ovens, I think, and that's what I have. You keep these pots for a lifetime and even hand them down to other generations, kind of like cast iron skillets. There are other options! So check out each and see what you think.
Easy Oven Pot Roast
You can use this recipe in a slow cooker or multi-cooker. You might want to try the pressure cooker setting for meat. Check out this recipe!
Tavern Style Taco Pot RoastHow to Slow Cook a Roast in the Oven
Some of my basic tips for how to slow cook a roast in the oven:
- Cover the meat tightly.
- Make sure it's covered completely and there's ample liquid for evening cooking.
- Long, slow cooking with with liquid (braising) tenderizes the meat fibers.
- Use a heavy deep Dutch oven pot with a lid. I also put doubled foil on the pot, then the lid on top.
- Check occasionally to see if you might need to add liquid, water or beef stock/broth.
- Cut your larger roast into four to five smaller pieces. It cooks faster.
- Test your meat's tenderness with a large fork. The roast pieces should easily shred.
Juicy Pot Roast in Oven
Here are some more of my pot roast recipes. Yes, you can see, I love them!
Bourbon and Brown Sugar Pot Roast Blue Plate Special Easy Pot RoastDutch Oven Pot Roast with Gravy
There are a couple of ingredients in this recipe that might not readily be available in your pantry.
These 'secret' ingredients sure to elevate the flavors of this pot roast with the tasty broth.
If you want to spice the pot roast, you could add spicy V8 juice or red chili flakes. That will do the trick!
Roast and Potatoes
Nothing's more American and homestyle than roast and potatoes.
And, you can surely add potatoes this this roast if you'd like.
Just make sure you have enough liquid. No need to put the potatoes in until there's about 45 minutes remaining in the cooking process.
I'd recommend a Yukon potato and cut them in about 2-3″ chunks. They'll absorb the great flavors of the gravy.
Oven Pot Roast with Vegetables
It's easy to add vegetables to this pot roast. Of course, it depends upon the size of your Dutch oven. Mine is 5.5 quarts, and there's actually not enough room to add fresh hand cut veggies.
You could add frozen veggies, but again, make sure you have the space. And, frozen veggies won't take long at all to cook.
Pot Roast Meat
I'd think that you'd need at least a 7+ quart Dutch oven for larger hand-cut fresh vegetables.
A perfect alternative is to roast the veggies on a sheet pan while the pot roast is cooling. Then serve it alongside the roast.
Need a recipe for roasting the perfect veggies?
oven roasted garlic and herb veggies
How Long to Cook Pot Roast
For me, a pot roast should be cooked until it's about fork tender. That means you can basically you can use large forks and pull the meat apart.
There's just so much about this 'pot roast' that's not a 'pot roast'. What I mean by that is that while this is a cheap, relatively speaking, cut of meat. I mean it is a lowly chuck roast.
Pot Roast in Oven
The magic of this pot roast is its simplicity in number of ingredients needed for the roast.
Unlike chuck pot roasts which have more fat, the bottom round doesn't have that. But, that doesn't make is suitable for a pot roast!
Most of the differences in cooking related to time. That's it.
