I love a good chuck roast. Many people struggle with getting enough flavor and tenderness.
Today my husband picked up two whole chucks at the grocery. I cut them up into approximately 2 pound roasts. I find that’s the perfect size to cook. Any larger and it’s difficult to get good flavor and the tenderness you want.
I love a good roast seared in a MagnaLite pot on the stove top, then finished in the oven. However, the Instapot provides me the luxury of not constantly watching my roast. It’s easy to set and come back later, so I use it most of the time.
I keep all bacon grease in a glass jar in the fridge. I strain it after cooking bacon to remove the debris, then use it for most anything that I need grease to start.
For my roast, I coated it in a seasoning rub. We have one special made from my husband’s specialty meat shop days.
I cut up an onion.
Add a good chunk of bacon grease to your instapot and put it on sauté.
Once your grease is hot, add your diced onion and cook until it starts to soften and turn translucent.
Then add your roast which has been rubbed/coated with seasoning.
Move the onions to the sides so your roast touches the direct bottom of the pot.
The seasoning is primarily salt, black pepper, and garlic. Look for a steak type seasoning with the same primary ingredients.
Brown your roast well.
After you are satisfied with the browning – this is where much of the flavor development happens, so don’t skimp – then you can add your liquid.
I use a refrigerator chicken stock. I like it better than liquid because it takes up less pantry space, I can make it any strength I want, and there is less waste from packaging.
I put a heaping tablespoon in about 1.5 cups of water to make a broth. Then add that to your pot.
Now add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce to the roast.
All of this seasoning has a good bit of salt, so adjust if you are sensitive to salt for any reason. You can use low sodium chicken broth and a low sodium seasoning rub for the roast.
Set your instapot to 45 minutes on the meat setting.
Now the beautiful thing about the instapot is the ability to walk away. I went to the barn and left it.
When I came back in, it had been on low for over 30 min.
I opened to check everything.
It was coming along nicely, but not fork tender, which is what I want.
So I put it back for another 45 minutes on the meat setting.
I left it once again. When I came back, it had been on low for about 10 minutes, which is not enough to allow depressurization on its own. I waited until it came down to room air pressure on its own.
Now for the beautiful, flavorful, fork-tender roast.
Toasted French bread, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and pickles make a traditional roast beef poboy.
You can use the au jus as a dipping sauce.
I like mine “open face” so my bread is soaked in au jus, and I eat it with a fork.
Enjoy!!
Dr Vet Sonya 