Recipe · Slow cooker · Serves 6
When people pick up their first quarter of beef, the steaks disappear in a month and the roasts sit in the freezer for a year. We understand why. A chuck roast looks like a lump of work. It isn't. It's the cut we'd take over a steak most weeks.
Chuck comes from the shoulder, which is a hard-working muscle full of connective tissue. Cook it fast and it's leather. Cook it low and slow and all that connective tissue melts into gelatin, and you get beef that falls apart under a fork and tastes far beefier than any tenderloin.
Salt the roast generously on all sides and leave it on the counter for an hour. This isn't optional fussiness. It seasons the meat right through instead of just the outside.
Get a heavy pan properly hot with the tallow. Brown every side deeply, 3-4 minutes each. Don't rush this and don't crowd the pan. This browning is where most of the flavour comes from.
Put the onions, carrots and garlic in the slow cooker, sit the roast on top. Stir the tomato paste into the stock and pour it around the meat rather than over it. Add the bay leaves.
Low for 8 hours. Do not lift the lid to check on it. It's done when a fork twists in the meat with no resistance at all. If it's still firm, it needs longer, not hotter.
Take it out and let it sit 15 minutes. Shred it with two forks and spoon the cooking liquid back over. Serve with mashed potatoes and don't apologise to anybody.
A note on our beef. Grass-fed, grain-finished chuck has good fat running through it, which is exactly what you want for a long slow cook. It bastes itself. Keep the slow cooker on low, keep the liquid up, and give it the full eight hours. Patience is the whole recipe.
Leftover chuck is arguably better than the first serving. Pile it into tacos, fold it through pasta, or put it on toast with the cooking juices. It freezes well too. Portion it with some liquid so it doesn't dry out.
This all starts with good beef. Ours is raised on grass in the Bighorn County foothills west of Calgary, and cut the way you want it.
