Recipe of the Week: Pat’s New England Dutch Oven Pot Roast

The following recipe for New England Dutch Oven Pot Roastis from SurvivalBlog reader “Pat Pending.”

In this recipe, beef is browned in bacon fat! and then baked for several hours at low heat. Typically, chuck roast is used, but any beef roast will suffice. Other vegetable can be substituted for the listed vegetables, depending on what you have available.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound of thick-sliced bacon, chopped into coarse chunks
• 1 4-to-5 pound beef chuck roast
• Salt, to taste
• Ground pepper, to taste
• 1 minced yellow onion
• 3 sprigs of rosemary or thyme
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 2 cups of beef broth
• 1 pound of small potatoes, halved, or larger potatoes, quartered
• 1/2 pound of carrots peeled and chopped to 1.5-inch long pieces
• 4 celery stalks chopped to 1.5-inch long pieces

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large Dutch oven, fry the bacon over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp. Transfer the bacon to a plate or tray covered with paper towels to drain. Set that aside.
3. Season the beef with salt and pepper, and place your beef in a dutch oven or a roasting pan. (Either must have a fairly tight-fitting lid.)
4. Increase heat to high and cook, turning with tongs, until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per side.
5. Transfer beef to a plate.
6. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pot.
7. Reduce heat to medium and add the minced yellow onion
8. Season the minced yellow onion with salt and pepper.
9. Cook the onion — stirring occasionally — until onion is lightly browned — about 5 minutes.
10. Add wine to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until the wine has been reduced by one-half.
11. Add the beef broth.
12. Season with rosemary, thyme, or a combination of both.
13. Return beef to pot along with any juices and bring it up to a simmer over higher heat.
14. Cover it and transfer to oven, and cook it at 325 F until beef is nearly tender, about 3 hours.
15. Remove pot from oven and place potatoes, carrots, celery, and the reserved bacon around the roast.
16. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for one additional hour, until vegetables and beef are all tender.

SERVING

Remove the beef from the pot and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then carve it against the grain, to the desired serving thickness. Place those pieces on a large serving platter with vegetables and drizzle it with the braising liquid. Note that if the liquid is too greasy to suit your taste, then you can put it into a fat separator ^[1] before pouring it over the meat. Garnish with parsley and coarse salt if desired.

STORAGE

Can be cooked a day in advance and re-heated, and it will taste just as good, if not better!

—

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail ^[2]. Thanks!