Pot Roast

I view making a pot roast like a rite of passage into adulthood.  You are finally an adult when you've successfully cooked an edible pot roast.  At least that's one of the steps - ha!  This was my third pot roast in a series of "what's my favorite way to cook a pot roast"  I started by getting up early one morning in the fall and making one in the crock pot, then a few weeks ago I made one on the stove top, and this one was the completion of my self-imposed experiment by cooking it in the oven.  I definitely decided that the crock pot method is my favorite!  It yielded the best flavor and tenderness.  Followed by the stove top method, and finally the oven.  This method was my least favorite of the three, but since I hadn't started my cooking blog back then, this is the only pot roast that's been documented thus far!  I started by referring to my favorite red and white Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and going from there.  I used:

• about 2 lb boneless pot roast
•  2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cup tomato juice (this is an increase from the original recipe)
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2-4 potatoes (again, increase)
• 3-4 carrots
• 1 large onion or 2 small ones

I always think the veggies are so pretty all cut up and ready to go - sometimes it's the small things in life!  Anyway, first I browned the roast in oil on all sides, put it in the pan, then poured the liquid mixture over the top (Worcestershire, bouillon, basil, tomato juice), covered it with foil and put it in 325 oven for 1 hour.

After an hour, I took it out and it looked like this.

I added all the veggies, covered it, and put it back in the oven for another hour.

Because my husband likes potatoes, I added more than it called for.  I also used more onions than necessary bc I like onions.  This caused the cooking time to be much longer, and I had to add more tomato juice (original recipe called for 3/4 cup) to compensate for the extended cooking time.  (You can also use dry wine or water if you don't want to use tomato juice)

I think it ended up being about an hour and a half to two hours.  I just kept checking it until the veggies were tender enough to be yummy.

Here's how it looked at the end.  Again, I think the crock pot method is definitely my favorite.  It's just not my favorite thing to get up really early to put a roast on, but I'll let you know when I try it again!  And sometime I want to try it with wine instead of tomato juice, I think it would give an interesting flavor.  

What's your favorite way to cook pot roast?