French Onion Pot Roast

• total time: 3 hours 58 minutes

Ingredients

3-4 lb chuck roast

1 tbsp oil

1/4 cup butter

3 large white onions thinly sliced

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3 cloves garlic minced

1/2 cup white wine

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2-3 sprigs of thyme

2 cups beef broth

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup gruyere cheese shredded

Directions

Season chuck roast liberally with salt and pepper. You may need to cut down the roast into smaller pieces to fit in the dutch oven to sear. I cut mine into 4 large pieces, removing extra fat.

Add oil to a 5 quart dutch oven and heat over medium heat. Add roast and sear on all sides. Remove seared meat from dutch oven and set aside for later.

Preheat oven to 325.

Add butter to dutch oven. Once hot and melted, add the onions, salt and pepper, and allow them to cook down and deeply caramelize for about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions become very dark, soft and jammy.

Add in the garlic and thyme, wine, Worcestershire, balsamic, and allow it to bubble up and reduce for about 30 seconds. Then pour in the beef stock and whisk or vigorously stir to blend in and combine until smooth. Allow the French onion sauce to simmer to 5 minutes.

Nestle the seared roast into the onion sauce, spooning onion mixture on top of roast.

Cover and place into oven and bake for 3-4 hours.

Remove roast from oven and pull apart meat with two forks.

In a small bowl combine cornstarch with 1 tbsp water and pour into roast mixture to thicken the sauce.

Serve mixture over mashed potatoes and a sprinkle of shredded gruyere cheese.