Ingredients
* 1 (4-pound) boneless beef chuck roast
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 onions, sliced
* 6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
* 1 cup dry red wine
* 1 3/4 cups canned beef broth
* 1/2-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
* 1 large sprig fresh rosemary, plus extra for garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Pat the beef dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the beef generously with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a heavy 6-quart roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes total cooking time. Transfer the beef to a bowl. Add remaining tablespoon oil to the pan, add the onions and saute until tender, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute 1 minute. Add the wine and boil 1 minute. Stir in the broth and mushrooms. Return the beef to the pan. Bring the liquids to a boil. Cover and transfer to the oven. Braise until the beef is fork-tender, turning the beef over halfway through cooking, about 3 hours.
Transfer the beef to a cutting board. Tent the beef with foil and let stand 15 minutes. Meanwhile, spoon any excess fat off the top of the pan juices. Transfer the pan juices and vegetables to a blender and puree until smooth. Combine the sauce and rosemary sprig in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Cut the beef across the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange the sliced beef on a platter and garnish with rosemary. Spoon the sauce over and serve, passing the remaining sauce in a sauce boat.
From:
Doubled the recipe with 2 4lb roasts and double everything else for Christmas 2010. Portion was perfect for 6 adults and 3 kids so that everyone could take plenty of left overs. The 2 roasts in the large black roasting pan worked perfectly. Used Perennial Vineyards American Wine Dog as the wine. The rosemary didn’t seem to add much and for the one sprig that this recipe needed, wasn’t worth purchasing. Started cooking about 8AM, had it in the oven by 8:30, turned the meat at 10:00, removed it at 11:30 let it rest until just before 12PM when it was cut.
This year made in the crock pot. Used two crocks, instead of doubling the recipe, just made two batches. Borrowed Buzz’s 2nd bigger crock because we only have one big one. Browned meat in pan first and transferred to crock. Added ingredients and started at 11PM 12/24. Woke up around 3:30-4:00AM with a stomach ache and turned the meat while I was up. Turned off around 9:00AM and let sit on counter. Turned meat and turned back on low at 11AM. Removed meat around 12:20PM and blended juice for gravy. Everyone seemed to enjoy. It seemed dry to me, but I didn’t put much gravy on. Did not use rosemary again because we didn’t have any at the store.
This year I realized we were going to be short on oven space, so I thought about trying the beef in a roaster. I borrowed Buzz’s and did some research. I had read that I could brown the meat in the roaster, so I didn’t use a liner and tried but couldn’t get it hot enough. I ended up browning the meat in a pan, one roast at a time, and then cooking the onions with the wine and garlic also in the pan. I then combined that with the beef broth in the roaster and added the mushrooms. This ended up working well, so next time I would use a roaster liner to avoid having to clean the roaster. I had the roast in the roaster by 8:10 AM and cooked it at 350F until about 11:30 AM. It was just about right, but might have been a smidge dry. I might go for 325F next time, but I’m not sure. I’d hate for it to be less tender. The recipe for roast beef in the roaster that said I could brown in it, also said to cook at 300F, but I’m not convinced that would have worked.
Started at 8:15 or so and got in the roaster at 350 around 9:00 AM, seemed like it was going to get done too fast, so I turned it down to 300 about 10:00 AM. It was only 195 at 1:00 when we wanted to eat, so I pulled it and let it rest. Everything I read said 205 to 210 is where you want roast beef for it to fall apart. It tasted fine but wasn’t as tender as I would have liked. I probably should have left it at 350 and if it got done early just pulled the meat and left it rest.