Stove-top Yankee Pot Roast

Today I am going to take a look at a classic New England home cooking recipe, the Yankee Pot Roast. This recipe works best for one of the cheaper oven beef roasts, like a chuck or blade roast, in the 2-5 pound range.




Unlike many pot roast recipes, however, I am going to do this one stove-top in a Dutch Oven.

Yankee pot roast is a terrific dish as the roast cooks in its own rich, tomato based gravy and cooks as well with vegetables that come out perfectly cooked as sides.

While, as any readers of my blog know, I generally like beef cooked rare to rare-medium, this is an example of a recipe where the beef is cooked for a longer period of time to make it very moist -- to the point where you can cut it with your fork!

To start you want to season your roast liberally on all sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then rub two tablespoons of olive oil and 4 minced cloves of garlic into the roast as well. Let the roast sit, seasoned, out at room temperature for 30-45 minutes.

When ready to cook heat some more olive oil in your Dutch Oven over medium-high heat and then brown the roast on all for sides for about 3-4 minutes a side. This will seal in the juices.

Remove the roast and set aside. Without removing any of the seasoning or liquid in the oven, add two medium chopped onions (and more oil if needed) and brown the onions for 6-8 minutes until golden, again over medium high-heat.

When the onions are browned, put the roast back into the Dutch Oven onto the bed of onions.

Pour in 3 cups of beef broth, 1/4 cup of ketchup and 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce and stir. Then add to this 4 - 6 canned whole tomatoes that you have halved. Do not add any of the liquid from the can. I like to use canned tomatoes as they are peeled.

Bring the broth mixture to a boil, reduce heat and let the roast simmer on the stove-top in the Dutch Oven, covered, for around 2 1/2 hours or until tender.

At this point add 4-6 halved or quartered red potatoes (not peeled) and 1-2 chopped carrots to the liquid, cover again and bring to a boil. Again reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Remove roast and let sit, in some liquid and with some or all of the vegetables, for 15 minutes.

Serve sliced with more of the broth gravy and the vegetables. Goes nicely with a side of some buttered egg noodles or rice, country style bread and, of course, red wine!

Enjoy!

See also: Beef Shank Potato Carrot Dutch Oven Casserole -- Revisiting an 80's Leftover Roast Beef Recipe 

See also: Caribbean Style Goat with Potatoes in a Dutch Oven