Since I put the kibosh on cooking chicken in my house some four months ago, I have been accepting of the reality that I will need to supplement that protein for other types. So, with that, I recently decided to try my hand at pot roast. How hard could that be? I’ve never cooked a pot roast before in my life but I hear of people cooking it all the time! They just throw it in the crock pot with some vegetables, broth and walk away! Well, as it turns out, the recipe that I found didn’t include the use of a crock pot, it included the construction of a heavy duty foil pouch and it came from the genius of Alton Brown.  Go big or go home, right? I built Pot Roast in my kitchen last week and I felt really good about it! Maybe I was channeling my grandmother, who I hear made pot roast and scalloped potatoes quite regularly. I was never lucky enough to have eaten pot roast from her, but I wish I had. I am grateful for Chris’s help here, I can’t all the credit. Here’s how it went down:

When I approached the meat counter at Whole Foods, I asked for a 2-pound piece of blade cut chuck roast. Not knowing what that was, exactly, I was at the mercy of the butcher. She then asked quite casually as if it is a regular occurance, “This for Beef Bourguignon?” Luckily I knew enough about what that was from the movie, Julie & Julia, that I was able to give her a chuckle and a resounding, “NO!”

I’m not at that bridge yet.

First, take your kosher salt and cumin and prepare to rub both sides of the meat with it.

Heat a wide, heavy skillet for 2 minutes until it is very hot, sear the meat on both sides, then remove from the pan and set aside.

Prepare a medium yellow onion and 6 cloves of garlic for chopping.

Chop, chop!

Smash, smash!

Add enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the pan and cook the onion and garlic until soft.

Begin adding to the skillet a cup of tomato juice,

 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar. I had this white peach balsamic vinegar from The Olive Tap specially store that I used. It gave it an extra taste of sweetness!

1/2 cup currants (it calls for dark raisins, but these work just fine).

1 cup cocktail olives, drained and broken. The olives I got all had pits in them. I just broke them all up around the pit with my hands.

Bring all the ingredients to a boil and wait until it reduces by half.

Pour the liquid mixture into the heavy foil pouch and place the meat on top of it.

Wrap up the foil tight around the meat and liquid mixture. Cook in the oven for 31/2 hours at 200 degrees. Do place it on a cookie sheet, we did have leaking and were grateful it didn’t leak onto the floor of the oven.

This is what it looks like when it’s done. Remove the meat from the foil and set aside. Then, take all the juices and chunky parts from the foil and puree in the blender to make the sauce.  Oh Alton, so resourceful, right?

Then, plate it up, pouring the sauce over the top and saving more for your own serving!

There! We made Alton Brown’s Pot Roast and so can you! It was scrumptious! Please enjoy!