A pot roast can take away a lot of the stress of cooking your very first roast, as a lot of the hard work is done for you. Rather than trying to work out for yourself how long to cook a 4lb side of beef, buy a pot roast bag and seasoning sachet. Pot roast bags cost less than $1.00, but they are well worth it. They come in different varieties depending on whether you are cooking pork, beef, or chicken.
The next stage is to pick out the meat. Remember that the larger the cut of meat, the longer it will take to cook. A 3-4lb roast will serve 8 people and will take up to 1 1/2 hours to cook, whereas a 2-2 1/2lb roast will only take 1 hour. If choosing a chuck, bottom or round roast, wash the meat and then trim off any excess fat before placing it inside the bag and then directly onto a large baking pan.
After the meat has been put inside the bag, add a selection of vegetables that you like such as onions, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, courgette or other vegetables that are in season. When adding potatoes, make sure that you cut them into small pieces, rather than leaving them cut in half. It will take up too much room inside the bag and the potatoes will take longer to cook. Do not worry if the vegetables have not been cut up beautifully before being added to the pot roast.
Once the meat and vegetables have been assembled into the pot roast, mix the seasoning packet with some water. Pot roast seasoning packets can be rather salty. So if you would prefer, simply cut back on the amount of seasoning that you use. Add the seasoning and water mixture to the pot roast, pouring it over the meat and vegetables. Make sure that you cut several holes into the top of the pot roast bag to allow steam to escape during the cooking process and then seal the end of the bag. After doing this, place the pot roast into a preheated oven and cook it according to the pack instructions and depending on the size of the pot roast.
A pot roast really cannot go wrong unless you ignore all of the instructions and make it up as you go along. The benefit of cooking your very first pot roast is that the food will all be cooked to perfection. The meat and vegetables will be tender and well seasoned and there will not be any messy clean up afterwards. When the food has been consumed, simply throw the pot roast bag away.
