A tasty pot roast with all of the flavours of French onion soup!
French onion soup (link), with its sweet and savory, slowly caramelized onions, is one of my all time favourite foods and its flavours work so well in other dishes, like this French onion pot roast! This recipe is basically slowly caramelized onions added to a pot roast along with some of the flavours commonly used in French onion soup including: worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard. The final component is of course the cheese and toast that French onion soup is topped with; I like to sprinkle the cheese on top of the pot roast, letting it melt there and serve with toasted baguette to scoop everything up with! It takes a bit of time to caramelize the onions, in addition to the time that it takes to slowly braise the beef until it’s falling apart tender, but this recipe is so worth it!
Serve over mashed potatoes (link), or pasta, or rice, along with a vegetable to make a complete meal!
French Onion Pot Roast
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 4 hours 10 minutes Total Time: 4 hours 20 minutes Servings: 8
A tasty pot roast with all of the flavours of French onion soup!
ingredients
1 tablespoon oil
3 pounds boneless beef roast (such as chuck, eye of round, etc.)
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons butter
4 large onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons flour (gluten-free for gluten-free) (optional)
3 cups beef broth *
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce (gluten-free for gluten-free) (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (gluten-free for gluten-free) (optional)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 tablespoon dijon mustard (optional)
2 bay leaves
1 cup gruyere cheese, shredded (optional)
directions
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, and the beef, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, and brown on all sides, before setting aside.
Reduce the heat to medium, melt the butter in the same pan, add the onions and cook until caramelized, about 1 hour, mixing every few minutes. When the bottom of the pan starts to collect brown bits, add 1/4 cup of water and scrape the brown bits up off the bottom, and continue to cook.
Add the garlic and thyme, sprinkle in the flour, mix and cook for a minute.
Add 1/2 cup of the broth and deglaze the pan by scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon as the broth sizzles.
Add the remaining broth, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and bay leaves and mix, before adding the beef.
Either: (1) bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, until the beef is falling apart tender, about 2-4 hours; OR (2) cover, transfer to a preheated to 275F/140C oven and cook until falling apart tender, about 2-4 hours; OR (3) transfer to a slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours or on HIGH for 4-6 hours.
Remove the bay leaves, sprinkle on the cheese, cover and let the cheese melt before enjoying!
Note: * If you cook in the slow cooker, use 1 less cup of broth and if you roast in the oven you may need to add more broth.
Option: Replace the 1/2 cup of broth used to deglaze the pan with red wine.
Option: The flour is there to help thicken the broth, you can omit it.
Option: Add 8 ounces of mushrooms, saute after the beef and set aside before cooking the onions, returning the mushrooms to the pan along with the beef.
Option: Serve with toasted baguette slices!
