With its rich gravy and tender, falling apart meat, pot roast is a wonderful comfort meal especially in the winter months of dreary weather. It is also very easy to do with your slow cooker.
The most important ingredient is, of course, the beef roast itself. It is actually the most inexpensive roasts, like a chuck or cross rib, that produce the most meltingly tender meat because of the marbling in the meat. Any fat can be cut away and skimmed from the juices before thickening the gravy. Too tender a roast does not pot roast well – it becomes too dry. The roast in the picture is an inside round roast which contains much less fat and is considered a medium tender cut. It made a delicious roast but this type of roast cannot be overcooked or it will go too dry. It is done when a meat fork goes in and out of the meat easily. Sorry, I didn’t take it’s temperature but I will next time and let you know. If the meat does get too dry, simply slice it, put it back in the gravy and let simmer gently for a few minutes. Leftovers stored with the gravy poured over will be even better the next day.
Re slicing the roast, removing the roast from the liquids, covering it to prevent drying out and letting it sit for at least 20 minutes helps to create neater slices of pot roast. The round roast will slice the most neatly. I suspect that the perfect slices you might see in pictures are a result of cooling the meat completely before cutting. The most delicious pot roast may simply fall into succulent chunks when you try to cut it – that’s not a fault!!
Enjoy this roast with the deliciously rich gravy and mashed potatoes!!