There is something to be said for the relative ease of making dinner with a crockpot. The “put it in and let it cook” method of making a family meal is really helpful when you’re super busy but need to make sure dinner is ready once everyone is home. It’s fast and easy to set up, and easy to clean. And it does all the cooking for you with no threat of a fire unless you’re a fictional television family.
However, there is something about cast iron that just hits different. The way it is seasoned, the way it cooks and retains heat, and the way it just feels in your hands. It’s heavy, yet requires care. If you have a cast iron dutch oven, you have a far superior means of making a pot roast that, while flavorful from a crockpot, just doesn’t have that same punch of flavor that cast iron somehow brings out.
This only takes three and a half hours, maybe four, to get from the oven to the plate, and it’s a classic, hearty meal.
Cast Iron Pot Roast
3-4 lb. chuck roast
3 Russett potatoes, diced in large chunks
5 carrots, chopped into large chunks
4-6 cups beef stock
5 tbsp. coarse sea salt
2 tbss. white pepper
2 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbps. cayenne
The night before, mix the spices and rub them all over the roast. Allow it to sit in the refrigerator overnight.
The day of, preheat the oven to 350 and set the cast iron dutch oven over medium-high heat for 30 minutes and then sear the roast one side for five minutes, and then the other for another five minutes.
Add 3-4 cups of the stock (depending on the size of your pot), until the liquid is about halfway up the roast.
Cover the pot and put into the oven for an hour and a half.
Remove from oven, add potatoes, carrots, and a little extra salt and garlic powder, and add the remaining stock. Cover and put back into the oven for another hour.
Remove and check roast for tenderness. Depending on how easily it’s pulling apart, put it back into the oven, but leave the lid on the pot cracked no more than a quarter inch. Cook for 30-60 more minutes.
When there are about 20 minutes left, if you want to serve it over rice, start rice cooker (if you don’t have a rice cooker, cook on stovetop but honestly rice cookers are really handy and definitely not cheating in any way).
When you take the pot roast out of the oven, you can also make a gravy by straining out some of the liquid into a saucepan, adding flour or some other thickening agent, and stirring until it’s ready.
Serve the meat and vegetables, as well as the optional rice and gravy.