Oven pot roast is a standard in our family. I prepare three versions the exact same way. The only thing I vary is the meat: with chicken, I get coq au vin; beef chuck, boeuf bourgignon; and deer meat, uh, venison pot roast, no fancy french name for this one.
Ingredients (I really don’t measure – it’s whatever fits in my oval dutch oven):
- 2 – 3 slices of bacon
- 2 – 4 lbs meat – chicken leg quarters, beef chuck, or venison roast
- button mushrooms
- pearl onions
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 – 4 carrots, diced
- oil
- 2 – 5 tbsp flour
- 1 – 2 cups red wine, pinot noir or burgundy
- liquid – water, broth, or a combination
- thyme
- sage
- bay leaf
Directions:
- Heat dutch oven over stove on medium high. Add bacon and cook until crisp, flipping over once. Remove bacon and set aside on paper towel lined plate.
- Salt and pepper meat and sear on all sides. Remove meat and set aside.
- Add additional oil if needed. Saute pearl onions and button mushrooms until desired browness, about 5-10 minutes.
- Add carrots and diced onions.
- Continue sauteeing while scraping bits off the bottom of the dutch oven. Sprinkle enough flour to soak up all the oil.
- Add wine and bring to a boil.
- Return meat to dutch oven. Cover with enough liquid, broth and/or water, to barely cover the meat but no more than 3/4 the capacity of the pot or the liquid might spill over in the oven.
- Add herbs. Bring to a boil.
- Remove pot and put in oven, preheated at 350°F, to cook for at least 2 hours.
