Chuck Roast and Mushroom Braise is a great way to ease into the darker, colder months – the months when coming in from the bracing chill to a warm house that’s welcoming you with this tender, beefy embrace is all that you want and need.
And if you’re only cooking for two, buying a two-pound roast ensures that you don’t end up with more than you want or need. It’s not that we don’t like left-overs, it’s just that left-overs are risky. We may or may not get around to finishing them – one can only eat so much in a day, after all, and two meals a day rather than three is becoming the norm around here. I hate throwing things out; I hate waste.
For the longest time I rarely cooked big cuts of beef. I’m not a latent vegetarian or anything like that – I just didn’t know what I was doing, and I was loathe to repeat my failures. My mother’s roasts were always tender and flavorful. Ron tells me that his mother’s roasts were always tender and flavorful. Roasted beef to be something that everyone had mastered except me. I know, like anything, improvement takes practice. But I hated the tough stringy results I was getting along the way. Ruining a beautiful piece of meat was much more wasteful than neglecting to polish off the left-overs!
This Chuck Roast and Mushroom Braise recipe brings it all together for me. The results are reliably succulent, tender, and rich; the flavors meld and mingle. I like serving this roast with mashed potatoes, butter-braised carrots or zucchini, and a green salad. It’s simple, yet tantalizing. Which creates a circular problem – it leaves us reliably wanting for more! Regardless, I prefer buying smaller roasts unless someone is joining us for supper. So, who’s coming for dinner next Sunday? Come in from out of the cold. You’ll be glad you did.
Chuck Roast and Mushroom Braise
Equipment
- large oven-safe, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chuck roast
- 12 ounces hearty mushrooms (portobellos, crimini, button, and/or oyster mushrooms)
- 4 cups beef broth or stock
- 1 large carrot
- 1 large onion
- 2 T tomato paste
- ½ cup red wine
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 T Dijon mustard
- 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
- 2 T cornstarch
- 2 T water
- fresh parsley, to garnish
Instructions
- Prep the mushrooms and veg – Cut the carrots ins a fine dice. Peel the onion and cut it into fat slices. Destem the mushrooms, then tear or slice them into bite-sized pieces.
- Preheat the oven and brown the chuck – Preheat the oven to 275℉. Cut the chuck into large chunks, and salt and pepper all over. Brown the beef on all sides in the pot. Set the beef aside on a large plate.
- Sauté the mushrooms – Add the mushrooms to the pot and sauté until the mushrooms have softened, scraping the fond off the bottom of the pot as the mushrooms cook. Once the mushrooms are softened, scoop them out of the pot and move them to the plate with the beef.
- Build the braise – Add the carrots to the pot and cook over medium high heat until they begin to soften. Stir in the tomato paste, and cook for a minute or so until the mixture begins to darken, then stir in the mustard. Push the carrot and tomato paste mixture to the outer edges of the pan, and lay the thick slices of onion on the bottom of the pan, in the center. Pour the beef chunks and mushrooms, and any accumulated juices, on top of the onions. Pour in the wine and the balsamic, then add the broth, pouring it only to the shoulders of the beef. Reserve any extra broth in case you want to add volume to the sauce you make at the end.
- Braise – Cover the pot and place it in the center of the oven. Braise for 3-4 hours, or until the chuck roast is fall-apart tender. Submerge the rosemary sprigs into the braising liquid near the end of the cooking time. Don't peak until the 2.5-hour mark – just let it stew and simmer until then. Chop enough parsley, stems and leaves, to measure 1/2 cup.
- Finish – Pull the pot out of the oven and place it on the stovetop. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the beef and the mushrooms out of the sauce and set aside. Strain the sauce (discarding the veg and the rosemary) and de-fat it using a fat separator, and return it to the pot. Whisk the water and cornstarch together, then add to the sauce. Cook on medium heat, stirring often, until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and return the beef and mushrooms back to the pot.
- Serve – Serve on a base of mashed potatoes or polenta. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
INGREDENT NOTE: I have tried this recipe with dried versus fresh mushrooms, and I found the mushrooms and the resulting sauce to be bland, less than… And really, dried mushrooms, especially morels, are not an inexpensive option! Fresh mushrooms add to the umami, the beefiness, much more effectively than do dried, even premium dried mushrooms. Your Chuck Roast and Mushroom Braise deserves fresh mushrooms!
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