Instant Pot French-Style Pot Roast – Recipe!

There’s nothing better than warm and cozy food on a chilly evening and my Instant Pot French-Style Pot Roast will surely keep you toasty.  I made this pot roast recipe in the Instant Pot for a couple of reasons.  For starters, it cuts down on cooking time, so you can make it during the week and secondly, the high pressure cooks a chuck roast until it’s super tender without drying it out and it will fall apart in chunks beautifully.  I called it French-style because I used ingredients like whole mushrooms, red wine, crushed tomatoes, and shallots to create the most irresistible sauce to ladle over polenta or potatoes with the gorgeous beef, reminiscent of a good French bistro meal.

It’s a simple preparation – but the first step is to always sear the roast because color means flavor and that’s important in cooking.  The other ingredients are poured over the meat to cook for 75 minutes.  You can either allow the pressure cooker to release naturally, or release right away – especially if you can’t wait to begin your meal.  I did reduce the sauce on the Sauté function for a few minutes, and added a flour and butter mixture (beurre manie’) to thicken it slightly.  This meal is so tasty on any given day, but especially when it’s cold outside.

Ingredients

4 pound chuck roast

3 shallots, peeled and sliced in half

2 carrots, peeled and cut into thirds

2 stalks celery, cut into thirds

2 cups whole mushrooms, button or cremini

14 ounces crushed tomatoes

1 cup red wine

2 cups beef broth

3 sprigs fresh thyme

salt & pepper

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons softened butter

1/4 cup parsley, minced

oil for cooking

(Serves 6)

To Prepare:

1. Sprinkle chuck roast with salt and pepper on all sides.
2. Sear roast in 1 tablespoon oil on Sauté setting.  Add shallots, celery and carrots around edges of roast and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn off heat.
3. Add mushrooms, tomatoes, red wine, broth, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and thyme.  Place lid on top and cook for 75 minutes.
4. While roast is cooking – in a small bowl, mix together flour and butter until a smooth paste.
5. Remove lid and place roast on a plate, and remove thyme.  Add a couple tablespoons broth to flour and butter mixture, stir.  Pour into broth in pot and stir until combined.  Press Sauté to reduce liquid for 3-5 minutes.
6. Place roast back into sauce and gently break apart with spoon.  Ladle over polenta, potatoes or rice.  Sprinkle with parsley.  Enjoy!