- 8 minutes ago
Looking for a new, unique dinner recipe? Look no further! In this video, Chef John shows you how to make slow cooker black magic pot roast, a twist on the classic Mississippi pot roast, using ingredients like blackened onions, black garlic, and Deschutes Black Butte Porter to give it a wide depth of flavor. A seared roast cooks down low and slow in a slow cooker until tender and seasoned. Serve over your side of choice; mashed potatoes is a strong contender, and enjoy this rich pot roast dinner.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Slow Cooker Black Magic Pot Roast.
00:09That's right, we're using black beer, black pepper, black garlic, black vinegar, and other dark and delicious ingredients
00:17to create the best slow cooker pot roast this side of Mississippi.
00:21And if you get that reference, you know your pot roasts.
00:24And if you don't, that just means this is extremely delicious.
00:28And to get started, we're going to blacken some onions, which I'm going to do on a lightly oiled foil
00:33lined baking sheet.
00:34And what we'll do is pop those under the broiler on high for a few minutes or until they literally
00:40turn black,
00:41which I know looks like a mistake, but it's not.
00:45Right, those will provide a subtle, smoky, bittersweet note in the background without actually tasting burnt.
00:51And once those are set, we'll go ahead and sear our pot roast over high heat and a little bit
00:56of vegetable oil.
00:57And no, we don't actually need to season the beef at this point.
01:00We're just going to brown that very well on both sides.
01:03Plus, if you want, for extra credit, once the flat sides are done, we can pick that up and we
01:08can try to sear the sides a little bit.
01:11All right, as you know, the more surface browning you get on meat, generally the more flavor you produce.
01:16Although, having said that, the Mississippi pot roast I referenced earlier is often not browned before it's put in a
01:22slow cooker,
01:23which I guess makes this step optional.
01:25But I do it and think you should as well.
01:28And once we pull that out of the pan, we'll turn off the heat and splash in some water,
01:32which is going to deglaze any of that caramelized goodness from the bottom.
01:36And as you'll see, we'll add that to our cooking liquids.
01:39And once that's set, we'll move on to the blackest and possibly most magical of the ingredients,
01:44which is going to be a head of black garlic.
01:46And I'm going to go ahead and cut that in half so we can take a look.
01:49And this is not fermented garlic.
01:51It's actually just simply aged until it turns black.
01:54And to use it, we'll just pop it out of those skins.
01:56And the taste is relatively mild and sweet and very savory and a little bit tangy
02:02and absolutely perfect for pot roast.
02:05And then what we'll do next is go ahead and transfer our blackened onions into our slow cooker.
02:10And then we'll sprinkle over one packet of onion soup mix,
02:14which isn't black, but for slow cooking pot roast is magical.
02:18And then we'll go ahead and transfer in some garlic powder,
02:21followed by our black garlic that I smooshed up with a spoon a little bit.
02:25Although this is going to cook so long, that probably doesn't matter.
02:29But either way, we'll follow that with our final four black ingredients,
02:34which includes some freshly ground black pepper,
02:37some balsamic vinegar,
02:39some soy sauce,
02:41and then last but not least, a bottle of dark beer.
02:44And I'm using Deschutes Black Butte Porter,
02:47which brings rich notes of coffee and chocolate that are going to work beautifully here.
02:51But any porter or black lager will do.
02:55And what we'll do is give that a stir.
02:57And then we'll add that to the glazing liquid from the pan we seared the beef in.
03:01Oh yeah, don't forget that.
03:03And then we'll transfer in our pot roast,
03:05along with any and all accumulated juices.
03:08And we'll go ahead and toss that back and forth
03:10to give it a nice coating with that cooking liquid.
03:13Oh, and in case you're wondering,
03:15thanks to that extremely salty soup packet and that soy sauce,
03:19we might not actually need to add any extra salt to this.
03:22So be careful about just tossing that in out of habit.
03:25And of course, as usual,
03:27later we'll taste and adjust if necessary.
03:30And that's it.
03:31We'll go ahead and lock on the lid.
03:33And on the low setting,
03:34I'm going to set this to go for eight hours.
03:36All right, this usually takes between eight and ten hours,
03:39depending on all the usual variables.
03:41And we can pretty much leave this alone.
03:43Although about halfway through,
03:45I do like to uncover it and give it a basting
03:48and just kind of take a look at things.
03:51And I know you're a little worried about those blackened onions,
03:54but please don't be.
03:55We're actually going to strain those out of the sauce
03:57after they've worked their magic.
04:00But anyway, after a brief basting,
04:02we'll cover that back up
04:03and let it cook for another three or four hours
04:06or until our beef is just about fork tender,
04:08but not yet falling apart.
04:11Okay, the fork should go in fairly easily.
04:13But the meat will mostly stay intact if moved.
04:16And once it does get to this point,
04:18we'll scrape those onions off the top
04:20and then we'll remove these chunks of beef briefly
04:22to a plate or bowl,
04:24which is going to make it a lot easier
04:26to ladle out and strain our cooking liquids,
04:28which by now have pretty much turned into our sauce,
04:31which, by the way, we could thicken if we wanted
04:33with like a roux or a cornstarch slurry.
04:36But it is so rich and so savory,
04:39I don't think we need to.
04:40And I really do think it's better used as is.
04:43But in any event, once that's been strained,
04:46we'll transfer our beef back in
04:47and we will pour our now much better looking sauce over the top
04:51and then we'll cover this
04:53and continue cooking on low
04:55for another 30 minutes to an hour
04:57or until that meat is very tender and shreddable.
05:01Okay, so don't worry about the times I give you.
05:03You're going to have to decide when this is done
05:05based on how it feels.
05:07I mean, you are after all the Edgar Allan Poe
05:10of how long this should go.
05:12But what we're looking for
05:13is something that shreds nice and easily with two forks
05:16and we'll go ahead and break it up
05:18so it's easy to serve and eat
05:20and also so it easily absorbs the sauce,
05:23which I don't think could look any more beautiful.
05:26Thank you, Blackened Onions
05:27and all your other dark friends.
05:30And not only does this look amazing,
05:32it's also going to be one of the most flavorful beef pot roasts
05:35you've ever tasted.
05:36All right, using all those black ingredients
05:38just wasn't a gimmick.
05:40All right, each and every one of them
05:41worked perfectly with the others
05:43to create a very complex, yet comforting braised beef,
05:47which we could serve in so many wonderful ways.
05:50Or I'd over rice, on noodles, or even served as tacos.
05:54But my recommendation would be on top of some mashed potatoes,
05:58piled up high and proud.
06:01And once I was done making that magnificent mound of meat,
06:04I spooned around some glazed carrots,
06:06which I thought would make a great pairing,
06:08that I finished with some snipped chives.
06:11But no matter what you decide to pair this with,
06:14you're going to want to finish up
06:15by drenching everything with the sauce.
06:17And you should have plenty for both soaking this,
06:20and for spooning over the top when you plate up,
06:23which, by the way, I'm not going to do.
06:25Okay, I was just too hungry.
06:27And this looked and smelled too good.
06:29So I just grabbed a fork and went at it.
06:31And I am a big fan of the shredded beef presentation here.
06:35But classically, pot roast is not shredded.
06:37It's just served in big chunks or thick slices.
06:40So if you'd rather do that, go ahead.
06:42But no matter how you serve this,
06:44if you're a fan of pot roast,
06:46I think you're really going to love this.
06:48Oh, and as I suspected,
06:50I did not need to add any additional salt.
06:53But you might.
06:54So after you shred that in your slow cooker,
06:56be sure to give it a taste,
06:58and adjust if you have to.
07:00And while this would have been fine with just regular garlic,
07:02I do hope you find and use the black garlic,
07:05since it really is such an interesting flavor.
07:08But as I said, very subtle.
07:10So if you're worried about it being overpowering, don't be.
07:12All right, if you enjoy the flavor of roasted garlic, you will like it.
07:16And as far as other tweaks go,
07:18this should be great no matter what beer you use,
07:21or which vinegar you use,
07:23or whether you experiment with some other spices.
07:25So feel free to play around.
07:28Although, if you do use what we used,
07:30you get to call it Black Magic Pot Roast,
07:32which you have to admit is a pretty cool name.
07:35But even if the name was uncool,
07:37this was easy to make and incredibly delicious.
07:40Which is why I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:44So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
07:48a printable written recipe,
07:49and much more info as usual.
07:52And as always,
07:55enjoy!
07:57Enjoy!
07:58Enjoy!
07:59Enjoy!
08:02Enjoy!
08:05Enjoy!