This spin on Mississippi pot roast is seriously delicious—and it doesn’t require a slow cooker.

Winter can feel dark and dreary, but I have a soft spot for January and February. It’s the only time of year that’s cool enough for me to simmer something on the stove for hours without turning my house into a sauna. This makes dinner prep so much easier: instead of running around my kitchen at 6pm trying to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes, I can comfortably whip up a soup earlier in the day. , can start a stew or braise, then let it cook largely unattended. . One of the easiest meals to prepare this way is a Mississippi pot roast: a tangy, flavorful chick roast that usually combines meat with a packet of ranch seasoning, au jus gravy mix, a stick of butter, and Made by slow-cooking with a handful of jarred pepperoncini. .

The dish reportedly has its roots in Ripley, Mississippi. According to Sam Sefton, former deputy dining editor of The New York TimesMississippi Roast rose to fame when a woman named Robin Chapman shared her recipe with a friend, Karen Farris, who included it in her church’s community cookbook. “In first fits and starts, and more recently, people started sharing the photo and recipe on Pinterest and Reddit, Facebook and Twitter,” Sefton wrote. The New York Times In 2016 According to Google data, searches for the term “Mississippi roast” have steadily increased over the past 14 years, with searches peaking in January 2022.

It’s no wonder home cooks have taken to the roast: It’s so easy, and most iterations of the dish require nothing more than a chuck roast, a few shelf-stable packaged ingredients, and a slow cooker. While store-bought products come in handy in a pinch, we were curious to see how delicious the stove-top version could be. With that in mind, Elizabeth Marwish, our Birmingham, Alabama-based Test Kitchen colleague, set out to create the perfect recipe for Mississippi pot roast—one that requires no more effort than the original slow cooker version, but It’s just as (if not more!) tasty. Here’s how he did it.

Roast your beef—but cut it in half first.

Searing is one of the easiest ways to flavor meat. High heat initiates the Maillard reaction – a series of chemical reactions that occur when heat changes the proteins and sugars in food, resulting in more complex flavors and aromas. One of the best reasons to cook this dish on the stove instead of in the slow cooker is that you can sear it (while some slow cookers have a sear function, not all do — and the sear function doesn’t always work well on it). (Who has it.) Since browning a three-pound cut of beef can be a daunting task, our recipe calls for cutting the roast into two steaks first. Not only does this make the beef easier to work with, it also speeds up cooking time and, more importantly, maximizes the surface area for browning and therefore increased flavor. .

Add a little gelatin.

For a sauce with more body, Marwish fortifies the broth with gelatin. It’s a trick that former Serious Eats editor Kenji and our current editorial director Daniel Use in some recipes, incl All American Beef Stew And Shepherd’s PieThickening without changing the flavor of the sauces. “I’ve always had a hangup with this dish: the beef is very rich, but the sauce usually has a watery texture,” Marosh wrote in his tasting notes for the recipe. Turning a soupy sauce into a velvety sauce requires a few teaspoons of powdered gelatin, thick enough to coat a spoon.

Do not overcook it.

Another good reason we chose the stove over the slow cooker for this recipe is to reduce the risk of overcooking the meat and making it tough and dry. A long, slow braise can produce tender meat, but this is It’s possible to overcook your beef—even if you choose the stove over the slow cooker. “When cooking meat, you are playing a racing game between two simultaneous processes,” Kenji wrote in his book. Beef Stew Recipe. “The first is the conversion of the connective tissues into gelatin. This softens the meat and makes it moist. On the other hand, the muscle proteins are constantly contracting and squeezing out the internal moisture. This makes the meat tough and tough. ” His solution, and Marwish’s, is to crack the lid during cooking, which keeps the temperature constant and prevents the stew from overheating.

Recreate the flavors of ranch with buttermilk and fresh dill

Instead of prepared farm masala, we add fresh dill and whole buttermilk (essential ingredients). Classic farm dressing) to pot roast, which gives the dish a herby, tangy flavor. We add the buttermilk at the very end and, to prevent the dairy from curdling, we heat the dairy with some of the hot braising liquid. Curdling can occur when there are rapid temperature changes, and tempering is a technique that helps minimize it: To temper, you add a small amount of hot liquid to cold dairy or Eggsheat them up before stirring this angry mixture into a large pot of hot liquid.

Mississippi pot roast is a great winter dish no matter where you live, and with just a few changes, this easy meal can be even tastier.

Cook mode
(keep screen awake)