My Favorite Slow Cooker Pot Roast

It has been a crazy week here in the Barshaw household.  For those of you that remember, I have been on strict bed rest for the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy.  While I’m still not officially off bed rest, my doctor says I can move around a little more than I have been.  Praise God!  I was seriously going nuts.  Completely and totally stir crazy all while feeling totally helpless.  Not the best feeling, let me tell ya!  So, this was my first week in attempting to do a very small portion of the things I used to. Cooking was a top priority.

Since I can’t really stand over the stove for very long, I’ve been utilizing my crock pot.  The original recipe I found on Pinterest called for 3 packets of various seasonings with 1/2 cup of water, cooked on low for 7-8 hours.  Sounded interesting enough, but I couldn’t leave well enough alone, so I decided to get a little more creative.

Here’s what I came up with.  Oh but wait. I have a bit of bad news.  Normally when I write a recipe post, I try to take tons of photos and include them with step-by-step instructions.  I wasn’t able to do that this time.  So sorry.  Sad face.  You’ll just have to trust that this is super easy and totally scrumptious.

First things first.  The beef!!  I asked my butcher what the best (and inexpensive) cut of meat was for making Pot Roast.  He recommended trying out Beef Short Ribs.  Was he right!  I’m sure I’ll still make the regular roast on occasion, but the short ribs turned out AWESOME.  So moist and very tender. If all you have is a regular beef round, that will do as well.  But just once…I beg you…try the short ribs!

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Beef Short Ribs

1 Packet of dry Italian Seasoning

1 Packet of Brown Gravy Mix

1 Packet of Ranch Dressing Mix

3/4 cup of Red Wine

2 Medium Onions, quartered with stems left on so they remain in tact

1 Cup of Carrots (I used baby carrots)

A few Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Season the short ribs with a little salt and pepper.  In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and sear all sides of your meat, browning the edges.  Make sure your pan is hot.  This will give it a nice crust on the outside.  Set aside.

In the same pan, add a little bit of olive oil (if needed) and brown all sides of your onions.  Place the onions at the bottom of your crock pot.  Repeat this step with the carrots, adding them to the bottom of the crock pot as well. At this point, you should have some lovely brown bits at the bottom of the pan.

Next, deglaze your pan by adding in the red wine and scraping the bottom to release all those bits of flavor.  Turn off the heat.  Oh, and the kitchen smells heavenly right about now.

Add in all three packets of seasoning to the pan and whisk until smooth (there will be some very small clumps left).  It should be a runny, gravy-like consistency.  If you feel the mix is getting too thick, add a little more wine or water.

Place the short ribs on top of the carrots and onions.  Pour the gravy mixture over the top.

Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

If you’ve ever cooked with short ribs you’ll know that there are some long, flat bones in between the slats of beef.  These remove with no effort by hour 6 of cooking, so feel free to remove them at that point or you can remove them at the end of the cooking time, just before serving.

My family devoured it.  We served it with some herbed roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts, but next time I will serve it over a bed of rice with veggies on the side (so the rice can absorb all that yummy gravy).

Hope you’ll give this recipe a try!

© 2012, Candace Barshaw. All rights reserved. Love it? Print, email, pin, tweet or share but please don’t use my work without permission. {Copyright Fancy Little Things. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this article or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.}