Classic Yankee Pot Roast
Our cozy Yankee pot roast recipe calls for carrots, celery, pearl onions, plus red wine (a modern common ingredient) for rich, hearty flavor.
By Yankee Magazine|Oct 26 2021|
Yankee Pot Roast
Photo Credit: Keller + KellerOur Yankee pot roast recipe calls for carrots, celery, and pearl onions, but you can swap them out for equal amounts of your favorite vegetables. We’ve also called for red wine (a common ingredient in modern pot roasts) for richer flavor. If you prefer not to use it, substitute extra beef stock. For best results, use a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven to sear the meat on the stove top; then continue braising in the oven, where steady heat surrounds the pot evenly, preventing a scorched bottom. Use any leftovers to make Pot Roast Grilled Cheese or Giant Pot Roast Ravioli.
See More:
Yankee Pot Roast | Recipe With a History
Instant Pot Pot Roast
Yield:
4-6 servings
Total Time:
4 hours minutesHands-on Time:
35 minutes minutes
Ingredients
1 2- to 3-pound beef chuck roast
Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 cup medium-bodied red wine (such as Merlot)
4 cups beef stock, divided
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
3 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 cups pearl onions, ends removed and peeled
1 bay leaf, whole
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° and position a rack in the lower half of the oven. Pat the meat dry and season liberally on all sides with salt and pepper.
Set a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the beef to the pot and sear evenly on all sides, using tongs to turn the roast, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Lower the heat to medium and add the remaining olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, and chopped herbs, and cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent, about 6 minutes.
Deglaze the pot: Add the wine and 1 cup of the beef stock, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the tomato paste; then return the browned roast to the pot, adding more stock to come a little more than halfway up the meat (the amount of stock you’ll need will vary with the size of the roast). Bring to a simmer.
Once it’s simmering, remove the pot from the heat. Cover the top with a sheet of aluminum foil; then cover with the lid. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook until the beef is quite tender, 2 to 2½ hours. Be sure the liquid in the pot is simmering, not boiling, and that there’s enough liquid to prevent the meat from drying out.
Remove the pot from the oven and arrange the vegetables, bay leaf, and herb sprigs around the meat. Cover and return to the oven for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and a knife slips easily in and out of the meat. Transfer the roast to a plate and tent with foil for 15 minutes.
To serve, slice against the grain, or use two forks to pull the beef into chunks. Discard the bay leaf and herb sprigs; then arrange the beef and vegetables on a platter. Spoon the sauce over the beef and vegetables alongside mashed potatoes, buttered egg noodles, or rice.
If you prefer a thicker gravy, try our recipe for Quick Beef Gravy.
I’ve gone a step beyond Yankee pot roast, to Sicilian pot roast. Instead of red wine, pour in half a bottle of Marsala. The rest of this recipe is close to mine. Cook the whole business in a Crock-Pot, which takes longer (9 hours on Low, 6 hours on High) but has better temperature control than an oven. You won’t believe the aroma and the taste until you try it.
Yankees would NEVER use olive oil!!! Bacon drippings or lard. Puleeeeze!
Not if you’re a kosher Yankee.
What makes a pot roast “a Yankee pot roast”? I have never found a reliable source or story that documents the history of this recipe name….. My recipes for pot roast certainly is not a crock pot etc. I’m a direct decendent of Roger Williams and live in RI…. would love your answer…. a great website. bs
To sear, I sprinkle a light coating of flour. Totally recommend a Le Creuset Dutch Oven over a crock pot!! Rest of recipe much like my own except I cook at 275-300 for 4 hours. I really want the roast “fork tender. I love coming up to East Coast from Texas whenever I can!
I am a Mayflower descendant and am even cooking my pot roast in a 200 year old Dutch oven (came west over the Oregon Trail). My family recipe is exactly the same, except: no garlic, no olive oil, no green herbs (not available most of the year), no wine, no tomato paste (yuck, don’t think tomatoes were available in the old yankee time). Now, this recipe looks good, it is just not the “Old New England Pot Roast” recipe that our family uses. (Also, family lore: My great-grandmother wrote on her recipe “You will get any man to want to marry you if you serve this pot roast”, someone else in the family later wrote “oh – oh — be careful to whom you serve this,”; funny thing is, a friend served this to prospective investors in her business — it worked, they all invested — and one later married her!)
Tomato helps tenderize the meat, so you can use cheaper cut (New England frugality)
How can it be “exactly the same” if you don’t use 3/4 of the ingredients???
May I please have your recipe for Pot Roast? If it’s a man snagger, then I want it! I’d actually love a physical copy of it where those precious comments are. That’s sooo awesome that you have a 200 year old dutch oven, love it. Seriously please send me the recipe I beg you.
Although I’m not a Mayflower descendant, my great-great-great grandfather is memorialized on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, so please excuse this French twist to my version of Pot Roast (Boeuf à la Mode). For herbs, I use a bouquet garni of 2 parsley sprigs, 2 thyme sprigs, only 1 rosemary sprig, 1 bay leaf, and the leaves from the celery stalk tied together is a piece of dampened cheese cloth. And, I suggest avoiding the use of Merlot which can become bitter when cooked. Consider the alternative of using a bottle of Beaujolais or a light-bodied Pinot Noir (with about 3 tablespoons of Cognac added). Your welcome.
This is a great comfort food recipe! Delicious, tender, fall-apart beef! Wonderful served with gravy and mashed potatoes. But I will add more carrots and less celery next time.
No Yankee I knew would ever put red wine in a pot roast.
Yes they would. It adds such a rich flavor to the meat and broth.
Because they would drink all that wine before….
Boy do I love the folks that comment on the Yankee recipes. First there are the ones that debunk the recipe because…well they are “real” Yankees and that’s not the way they make it. Then there are the ones that say it’s a good recipe but they used other ingredients. Come on people! Take these negative comments to the Food Network page. This forum is an extra for those of us that love Yankee magazine.
I Agree, stop commenting negativity or changing the recipe that is posted.
Support this publication, in it’s entirety and celebrate a classic.
This publication has been around a long time, show some respect .
I agree, I’m so sick of people and the negative comments. This is a lovely publication.
I actually like the comments. They give tips or alternatives that I sometimes use. For example in this recipe… Would I ever consider adding marsala wine? Now that I think about it, it may be a great alternative. I am always tweaking recipes. That’s the art of cooking. I love other people’s thoughts!
Sounds good though I coat my roast in flour before searing, use hard cider over red wine, no tomatoes and I use cloves and allspice along with rosemary and thyme. Also if you bake it for 11 hours at 270 degrees it comes out perfect and makes your place smell awesome.
My mom would make this for an occasional Sunday dinner. As far as I can remember, she would brown the chuck roast and add potatoes, carrots and onions. I don’t remember what she used for a liquid…probably just water. Mom cooked it on the stovetop. It always came out oh so yummy! She was a great cook, although I’m sure she would disagree with me on that statement.
I love this recipe. Thank you!
Great recipe! I recommend thickening the gravy as suggested in the last line and serving with lots of mashed potatoes.
Do you have a recipe for beef and barley soup from the leftovers to this roast?
It looks good. I think i will brown it good using bacon fat then add the other stuff with some broken up pieces of bacon and hope for the best
My Yankee Pot Roast that I memorized because I lost the Yankee cookbook I got it from, called for Horseradish, thick sliced onion, garlic cloves. No celery. After I brown the meat, I rest the roast on top of the sliced onions, add: water, 12 whole peppercorns, 12 whole allspice, spread with 1 TBSP horseradish, add I bay leaf and simmer for 3 hours in heavy dutch oven. Then I add the potatoes and carrots. It’s one of my husband’s favorite recipes.
This recipe looks great, but it does not look like the old fashioned Yankee pot roast that we used to have years ago. They did not use a lot of these ingredients back then!
I’m a PA Dutch/German descendant and don’t remember Mom, Grandmas, or Great-Grandmas making it this way, but it sounds delicious. I make the family pot roast recipe in my crockpot tho, it makes for an even cook. I’ll definitely try this 1 on my family.
Sounds yummy! Pot Roast dinner is my Favorite! This is how I make it, after browning, Simmer top of stove in Beef Gravy, gravy master,Bay leaves, onion salt, Pepper & a couple of large onions for around 3 hours. 2 hours in I add Carrots & quartered potatoes, & couple more onions. This was how my Mom made it! I Love It!
My husband is actually making this pot roast today. I so enjoy reading the comments because I get ideas for future. My norm is to try recipe exactly as written. And the next time I try some of the suggestions. As my husband is of Italian descent and the Masala wine sounds amazing. Enjoy life and the ride.
I love all the comments, always fun to see different ideas and takes on recipes! Thank you!????????
I’m making Old Fashioned Yankee Pot roast for Christmas dinner. Notice the name for my pot roast. I’m using a recipe that my mum originally used and it’s a recipe that’s been passed down through our family long before they started the witch hunt in Olde Salem Towne. This is NOT the original recipe because as we are all true Yankees in my family we do the traditional yankee thing and change the recipe to the way each of our individual families like. That is what you do when you’re family is Olde Yankee Irish!!! And what makes a recipe either A Yankee Post Roast or just a Family Traditional Pot Roast normally has more to do with the vegetables used in the pot or cooked separately. Like some people believe a traditional pot roast is made with root vegetables in the stew. And so believe that serving the potatoes mashed is what makes it a Yankee pot roast. For me what makes it Yankee is the ingenuity behind the way each individual living in New England makes their own Pot Roast.
Is there a way to print your recipes? It is hard to read online and cook at the same time. Thanks.
Hi Joan! To print the recipe, scroll to the top of the page and click the green square with an image of a printer on it. The button is just below the title of the page. Hope this helps!
The recipes I find here are awesome. It’s no big deal if your relatives made it a different way. There’s so many variations to recipes. It’s all about what you like and your creativity. so just enjoy.
We made this dish last week. The recipe was easy to follow and it turned out perfectly. The meat was very tender and tasty. The three pound chuck roast fed seven people. Thank you for this excellent recipe.
Love this recipe! So easy and delicious. Love the addition of wine and tomato. Made it for company and everyone wanted the recipe.
Was looking for a recipe for pot roast. All ingredients are the same as an Irish pot roast except for the meat and wine. Irish pot roast calls for lamb and Guinness beer. I make mine with beef and Guinness. It’s awesome!
There’s always more than one way to do things. I love the recipes just as they are. No need to tinker with them. Enjoy life. Sit back and be thankful we have access to such delicious recipes.
This was probably one of the best pot roast recipes I’ve made (and that’s a lot!) The broth cooks down to a nice gravy – not too thick, more of a glaze that is enriched by the wine and tomato paste. The herbs provide a nice savory touch. I served it to guests over mashed potatoes, and it was perfect. Thanks for yet another great recipe.
Get over yourself Peter. Not everyone follows a recipe to the T and thank God for that. If everyone only followed existing recipes then new recipes would never be born. This recipe is great but even the best recipes can be improved upon. Nobody cares how your mom made it.
What a great recipe. I used the wine/beef stock combination although I only had to use about 3/4 of the stock, My cast iron dutch oven seals pretty tight so I dod not have to use the coil technique. I used a 4.8 qt dutch oven which fit a 2.6 lb tied check roast just fine. Could for two hours, the 25 minute with the celery and carrot. I did not use the pearl onions as my wife is no fan of the onion. I probably would put the celery in a little later than the carrots. Then again the carrots i have been getting lately are pretty large. I stained the juice and brought it back to a boil and reduced it a bt then turned the heat down and stirred about 1.5 Tbsp beurre manié and stirred til l the sauce was velvety smooth and a slightly thickened but still sauce like and not gravy like, The dish was a hit our gathering .
why do so many people have to add their changes to the original recipe — we don’t give a poop that your wife does not like pearl onions !!!! write your own recipe instead of changing everything on the recipe you asked for– If you want the best pot roast on the planet your out of luck– Mom is now in heaven, serving pot roast, red cabbage, and to die for potato pancakes– nuff said– I love this recipe–it’s great but it ain’t Moms !!!
I have made this recipe 20 times in the last 2 to 3 years and I love it more every time. The quality of the meat certainly plays a part in the outcome. I had never used much red wine but I sure am a fan now. And the difference that fresh thyme and rosemary makes is wonderful. This is one of the 30 or so recipes that I keep in my notes on my phone. Thanks so much for the great recipe
Recipes are a suggestion, not a blueprint. I usually make the recipe just as written the first time. If it turns out really good, I keep making it that way, but I also like to try different ways of making it. Thank you for the delicious suggestion and I love reading the comments and seeing what other people did. Keep it the same and make it your own or change it and make it your own; both are good! Thank you, again!
I inherited from my grandmother a pamphlet-type book, “The New England Cook Book” which was copyrighted in 1936. It’s falling apart. Each time I look at it, I find more of Nannie’s notes. Or at least it seems so.
The cookbook’s recipe for “Beef Pot Roast (Tender and Tasty) calls for three pounds of beef, flour, salt, pepper, fat, one onion, two cloves and one pint of flour.