Ranch Pot Roast

           Pot roast makes me think of my grandma. We used to have a family lunch every Sunday at her house. The whole family would come and we would have, what my cousin refers to as, 'The Feast'. It consisted of roast, creamed potatoes with gravy and a whole smorgasbord of different side dishes. Creamed corn, fried okra, green beans, sweet peas, cornbread, candied yams, and potato salad all made appearances at one time or another. We still have family get togethers on holidays and special occasions, but I will never forget all of those wonderful Sunday dinners growing up in my family.
     This pot roast isn't the feast my grandma would serve, but it is delicious and a lot more reasonable for a weeknight or lazy weekend meal. You can serve this over mashed potatoes, or throw a few quartered red potatoes right in the pot.

Ranch Pot Roast

4-5lb chuck roast
olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 onions, halved
16oz bag baby carrots
button mushrooms
rosemary
thyme
1 packet ranch seasoning
2-3 cups beef stock
salt&pepper


Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

  Heat a couple of tablespoons olive oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion halves and brown on all sides, remove from pan and set aside. Repeat with carrots.
  Season roast with salt&pepper. If needed, add a little more oil to pan and brown roast on all sides. Add in garlic and cook another minute. Remove roast from pan and deglaze with one cup beef stock, scraping all the little bits of flavor from the bottom of the pan.
   Put roast, onions, carrots, and mushrooms back in the pan, along with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme.
   Mix ranch seasoning with remaining stock and add to pan, using enough to cover roast half way.
Put lid on and place in 275 degree oven. Leave it for 4-5 hours until roast is cooked through and tender.
   Remove roast from pan and shred using 2 forks. Serve, with vegetables, over mashed potatoes.

Yumm!
 

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

  

    We love, love, LOVE  pork shoulder (or Boston Butt) in this house. Brian always makes a dry rub for it and smokes it for hours on the smoker, basting it with homeade bar-b-que sauce. We serve it for a big group of family and friends with my famous white sauce. It is sooo good! That's why I was intrigued when I saw this recipe from NomNomPaleo for Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder. Roasting it in the oven with only vegetables and a simple rub, allowed the flavors of the pork to really come through and gave me the ability to serve it however I wanted. I served this with corn on the cob with herb butter and Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan. This dish made enough for two dinners in our family, so I will be using the leftovers for another meal.


Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
(adapted from NomNomPaleo)

3lb boneless shoulder roast (boston butt)
dry rub of your choice (I just grab whatever looks good from my cabinet)
vegetables (I had onion, carrot, and garlic on hand)


The night before, season pork with your dry rub. Really work it in, showing it some love. Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat your oven to 275 and let your pork come to room temperature. Cover a pan with foil and place your veggies on the foil with the roast on top of them. Wrap the veggies and roast in the foil. Put it in the oven and forget about it for at least 6 or 7 hours. ( I checked mine at this point with a meat thermometer and it was close to being done, so I unwrapped it and roasted it about another hour.) Your roast is done when it reaches 165 degrees and is fork tender. Yummm!

When it's done, pull it out of the oven and let it rest while you prepare the rest of your meal, at least 30 minutes. Then, pull it apart with your fingers or two forks.

You could use bbq sauce..or ranch...or whatever tickles your fancy. But it really doesn't need anything. We ate it plain.

I wanted simple sides to go with my simple roast. I wrapped corn on the cob in paper towels and microwaved them for 8 minutes. I chopped up some fresh herbs and stirred them into melted butter to brush over the top of the cooked corn.

We also had Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan which you can find here.


Voila!! Simple and delicious!