A while back, Lynn Viehl gave me her pot roast recipe and I’d been looking forward to making it for Greg, a pot roast aficionado. I followed her ingredients list but because I didn’t feel like waiting, I decided to see how it would work in the pressure cooker.
Was it ever good!
I seared the meat on the stove top so I’d have a nice brown crust, and then followed the rest of the instructions as they were written. I’d tried pot roast using mushroom soup, and another time using the onion soup mix, but never mushroom, onion soup mix, and beef consomme together.
What sets this pot roast apart from the others is the gravy. It is absolutely delicious. The best I’ve ever had. I didn’t feel it needed to be thickened though you could if you like it thicker. I was sponging it up with bread.
The roast was savory and stick-to-your-ribs good. I included some oven-warmed French bread with Greg’s herb mix, but next time I might do a nice bow-tie pasta. Plain white rice would work too.
It was just good comfort food. I know Greg will ask for this one again. The plate was so clean I almost didn’t have to wash it. 🙂
Lynn got the recipe from an old book but she adapted it by adding the consomme and blending the ingredients beforehand for the gravy. She didn’t have a name for this pot roast, so I renamed it, Lynn’s Pot Roast so I could distinguish it from the others in my recipe file.
Lynn’s Pot Roast
2.5 – 3 lb. pot roast
1 can Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can Campbell’s condensed beef consume soup
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup water
potatoes (as many as you think you can eat)
baby carrots (I substituted corn because I prefer it in pot roast.)
Oven Method: Pour all the liquid ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium for five minutes, stirring until they’re combined and smooth. Put roast and carrots in large roasting pan or casserole dish, pour liquid ingredients over them. Cover with foil or lid and bake at 325F for 3-4 hours. Turn the roast over about halfway through the baking to keep the top from drying out. Add your potatoes about an hour before the roast is done. Use the liquid in the pan as gravy; thicken with flour or cornstarch if you prefer a thicker gravy.
Pressure Cooker Method: If you do this in a pressure cooker, cook for 30 minutes, check for texture, then add the potatoes and corn for another 10 minutes.
Extra Tip from Lynn: She makes open-faced sandwiches from the leftovers. I’m going to try this myself today.
Do you like pot roast? What’s your comfort food?
UPDATE: I had planned to do a round-up of deals today, but those posts take a lot more research than a regular post. We spent all of Thursday killing roosters, cooling, cooking, and then packaging them for the freezer. We’ve had some severe weather lately and Thursday was our only dry day, so it was catch as catch can.
Expect to see my Deals post on Monday. I have some great suggestions for Mother’s Day–things I’ve given to my own mom that she absolutely loves and uses every day.
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All original content copyrighted by Maria Zannini 2016.
Ooo, this looks good. I might try this in the slow cooker. Thanks, Maria! And thanks, Lynn!
BE: It really is good and the gravy is what makes the difference.
That does look like a good pot roast recipe. I can see why it would be “finger licking good”. I just made pot roast last weekend. I have a recipe where you put in a lot of spices, basil, oregano, etc., with a can of tomato sauce (8 ounce), 2-1/2 cups of water, and a packet of dry Italian seasoning salad dressing. Cook all that together until it comes to a boil and then pour it over the pot roast. Cook for 6-8 hours high or overnight low. I add carrots and potatoes. Yummy!
betty
I love pot roast, but I never can get my meat tender. Bob Evans serves a really good pot roast (meat pulls apart so easy) and I can get my “fix” there! 🙂
Stacy: The trick is to slow cook it (or pressure cook it). It’s really something that needs a long time cook time, or pressure to break down the muscle fibers in the meat.
Betty: I’ve seen the recipes using tomato sauce but I was kind of afraid to try it. Pot roast has a distinct flavor for me, but the next time I’m feeling adventurous to try something new, I’ll try it.
Thanks for sharing the recipe, and I’m so glad to know you enjoyed it — and to make it in the pressure cooker, how brilliant! That would make the roast really tender. This one has become one of my guy’s favorite dinners, too. 🙂
Lynn: I was really impressed with the gravy. Way better than the gravy I made from the drippings alone.
Comfort food for me is hamburger patties with cream gravy and mashed potatoes, a favorite from childhood that my Mom excelled at making for me. (Her LOVE was secret ingredient that made this simple fare exquisite to my palate, mine falls short when I make it now.)
Love me a good pot roast but ours is made with sliced onion, baby carrots, idaho potato wedges and a good thick 2-3 pounder of meat and then slow cooked in oven for 3-4 hours at 325 or so. It falls apart when finished and makes it’s own juices but have used the soups to make the gravy in a slow cooker and it is good but not as simple a recipe.
Jackie:
re: hamburger patties with cream gravy
That sounds like chicken fried steak without the crust–the one dish I’ve never attempted.
Never thought of it that way, do love a good chicken fried steak but have also never attempted the dish either Maria.
Jackie: Greg can’t pass up chicken fried steak if we’re eating at home-cooking type of restaurant.
Not a pot roast lover. I grew up on a farm and we had beef all the time to eat. I didn’t care for it then and less now. I will have a burger now and then. I do make beef for my husband and kids though. I’m really thinking about the pressure cooker.
Susan Says
Susan: What was old hat for you is a treat for the rest of us. 🙂