Chile Rubbed Pot Roast

I kinda wanna speed through this post because the next post is one that I'm super excited about...let's just say it involves two jalapeno chiles, two serrano chiles, two fresno chiles, 30 thai chiles and 3-4 tablespoons of housemade chile powder. just a wee bit spicy.

I'm gonna get right into this one. The recipe is from Chef on a Shoestring. I have talked about this book in this post.

Everything you'll need:

Here's the meat. It doesn't have a lot of marbling so I was a bit worried that it would fall short in the succulence department. My fears were confirmed. While the end product wasn't dry, it lacked in beefy richness. Poop on the upscale butcher. If I pay $5.99 a pound for braising meat, it better turn out to be phenomenally delicious. It wasn't so, from now on, I'll stick with the Chinese dudes. This is a bit over 3 pounds of meat.In this step, I'm pre-salting the meat. I let it sit, salted, overnight. Just salt it, wrap it up and stick it back in the fridge. You're not looking for a ton of salt. I used maybe a teaspoon and a half per side. You can skip this step if you want.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spice rub: 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 1 tablespoon of ground coriander, 1 tablespoon of ground chile, 1.5 teaspoons of cayenne, 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper. For the ground chile, I used guajillo chile powder. I also tossed in two teaspoons of ground chipotle chile powder. As always, I encourage you to freshly grind your own spices.Take the spice rub and rub it into the beef. If, like me, you the beef is completely seasoned but you have leftover seasoning, just sprinkle it into the pot at the tomato/beef broth stage.

Chop some vegetables. A few carrots, an onion and some celery. Because this dish is going to be cooked for a long time, leave the veggies in large chunks. If you cut them small, like a dice, they'll completely disintegrate. Also mince a bit of garlic. Here are some carrots:Heat up a large, ovenproof pot. Add oil and brown the meat:When the meat is browned on both sides, remove from the pot and toss in the onion and carrots. Cook until the onions have softened slightly. Then toss in the carrot and garlic and cook for a bit, say 30 seconds. Add around 1 cup of tomato puree or chopped tomatoes. Toss in a few cups of beef broth. Add the meat back to the pot. Sorta nestle it among the rest of the ingredients. You don't want to completely cover the meat in liquid. That isn't a braise....ummm, not sure what it then becomes....boiled meat? That's garlic on top of the meat...I forgot to add it with the celery. Cover the pot and place into the oven. Cook for an hour and 20 minutes and see if it's done. It probably won't be. When you take the pot out of the oven to check for doneness, taste the cooking liquid. Add salt and/or pepper. As for the doneness of the meat, I've made a video to help you out. I'm awesome like that.


Did that make sense? Anyhow, keep cooking it until it is tender. That's the only goal here. Meat so tender that you can eat it with a spoon. Spoon meat. Spoonable meat. Whatever, you get it.

Done! I recommend leaving this in the fridge for a day. The flavors will be better, and you can scoop off the rendered, hardened fat.

Time-Ridiculously low. Maybe 15 minutes of active cooking. Took me nearly 2 hours to cook the meat in the oven. Overnight pre-salting but VERY little active cooking time.

Food Cost-
Meat- $18.00 (I'm still pissed about this)
Veggies- $1.00
Tomato Sauce- $0.99
Broth-$1.25
Incidentals-$0.50
Total- $21.75. Probably got 6 servings out of this...22/6=$3.66 per serving. Not very Budget College Cook...sorry about that!

Text only link click here.

Lolcat: