Hard Cider Braised Pot Roast with Fresh Sage is full of classic fall flavors ~ it’s a fix it and forget it meal that everyone loves!
I’ve always been a pot roast girl. Once every couple of months I’ll get the craving and nothing else will do. For me it’s the ultimate comforting dinner, and I make it year round, but I gussied this one up for fall with two iconic fall favorites…hard cider and fresh sage. If you’re looking to change up your basic pot roast, this is a great recipe, it got rave reviews in my house. Long cooking meats like this are perfect for pairing with alcohol because the alcohol itself cooks off, leaving a rich background flavor behind. Sometimes I use wine, sometimes beer, but I really like the hint of sweetness that you get from hard cider. Lots of onion, shallot and garlic go into the pot and over the course of four hours practically melt into the gravy. This is a keeper.
No other meat can match pot roast it for fall apart tenderness. The many hours of cooking in liquid at a low temperature does it. The whole process takes several hours, but they’re easy hours, once you get the pot in the oven your work is done. And unless you’re feeding a crowd, you’ll get more than one dinner out of the deal. I love it even better the next night — I’ll combine the leftover meat with the gravy and serve the whole thing over noodles…heaven. If you want more perfectly even slices of meat, make the roast a day ahead and slice it while still cold, and then reheat it with the sauce.
This is how the roast looks going IN to the oven. Is there any doubt how delicious it’s going to be when it comes out?
Love pot roast? Try my POT ROAST WITH CIPOLLINI ONIONS.
tvfgi recommends: enameled cast iron dutch oven
Talk about a workhorse ~ an enameled cast iron Dutch oven is an essential, if you could only have one pot, it would be this one. It’s heavy (cooks evenly,) enameled (food doesn’t stick,) large (it can handle your biggest roast,) and gorgeous (I leave mine out on the stove!)
Hard Cider Braised Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 3-4 lb boneless chuck roast
- salt and black pepper
- 2 Tbsp shortening or vegetable oil
- 2 medium white onions, peeled and thickly sliced
- 2-4 large shallots, peeled and cut in wedges
- 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 2 cups beef stock
- 12 oz bottle of hard cider
- 3 sprigs of fresh sage
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Wondra flour for optional thickening
Instructions
- Set oven to 325F
- Rub your roast with salt and fresh cracked black pepper, making sure it adheres to the meat.
- Heat the shortening or vegetable oil in a large heavy pot until it is smoking hot. Brown the meat on ALL sides. You should hear a great sizzle when the meat hits the pan. Let each surface get nice and brown without disturbing it before you move on to the next section. Don't forget the top and bottom!
- Remove the roast from the pan and set aside on a plate. Add the onions, shallots, and garlic to the pan and saute, stirring almost constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes, just until the onions start to soften and you have scraped up all the good brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Put the meat back into the pan, nestling it among the onions.
- Add the stock and cider, along with 2 bunches of fresh sage. (Reserve the third bunch for later) The liquid should almost come up to the top of the meat, but not quite. Add more stock or a little water if necessary.
- Bring to a simmer, then cover and set the pot in the oven. Cook for 4 - 4 1/2 hours, turning the meat over halfway through the time.
- Remove the meat to a platter and put the pot back on the stove. Pick out the sage stems and discard. Chop the final bunch of sage and add it to the sauce now. Add the cider vinegar, and bring it back up to a simmer. If you like your gravy on the thick side, sprinkle on a little Wondra flour until you get the consistency you like, If you don't use the flour, boil the sauce for about 15 minutes to reduce it a bit. Either way, taste it to adjust the seasonings.
- Slice the pot roast and, using a slotted spoon, spoon the onions over the top, followed by someof the gravy. Serve with extra gravy on the side.
Notes:
- We ate this with roasted new potatoes and Brussels sprouts that I tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in a 450F oven until they were cooked through and crisped up on the outside, but you could also serve it with noodles or mashed potatoes. Mashed turnips or mashed rutabaga would be especially nice.
Pin this Hard Cider Braised Pot Roast your main dish, or comfort food board!
I wasn’t sure that I liked pot roast; however, I made this tonight for my roommate, her boyfriend and myself. I LOVE pot roast after this. so delicious. THANK YOU
So glad you liked it, I love it too, I think the cider and sage are made for each other.
I love a good pot roast and have always made them hoping for left overs! I’ve even made pot roast camping 🙂 I love your recipe with the hard cider – what a terrific idea!
Wow, my mouth is watering now – looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
This pot roast has got my tummy rumbling, and wish that we weren’t just having pizza for dinner tonight. No, ok, home made pizza is still cool, but it’s been a surprisingly cool and misty day here today for spring, and this pot roast would have been perfect. Cider and sage is a great combination, and I bet both the flavour and aroma from this is wonderful.
I’ve pot roasted pork before, but not often. Beef is my usual default, and I don’t know why – pork works so well. Never thought to use hard cider in this dish – terrific idea! Thanks so much.
I’m with you Sue, I’m such an old fashioned girl and love dinners like this. I don’t make them that often but when I do or when someone else does (I’m not hinting at a dinner invitation or anything like that) I eat myself silly. Looks so……. delicious!
Would this work well in a crock pot?
Interesting, I was originally going to post this as a crock pot recipe, and I’m sure it would work, but since I was able to hang around that day, I decided to make it in the oven.
What changes would you need to make to do this in the crockpot instead of in the oven? I’m new to crockpot cooking and haven’t really figured out how to convert traditional recipes yet. This one looks really yummy, though. Thanks!
I might use a little less liquid for the slow cooker, and at the end, when you remove the meat, I would transfer the liquid to a pot on the stove and reduce it down.
I love this sort of cooking and our spring days have turned quite wet and windy, positively wintery so happy to have the oven on for hours! I must admit I am going to have to look up boiled cider and hard cider too!
Just looked up boiled cider – that sounds amazing – don’t think we can get that down here. Looked up hard cider too and by that you mean just cider the alchoholic version. We can definitely get that down here!!
Gosh – pot roast is one of our most favorite dishes, Sue! If Mr. Squash had his way he would hoard chuck roasts in the freezer (he says it’s a Polish National sport). I recently bought some Boiled Cider which I think would also be a nice addition to this dish – maybe a quarter cup or so along with the hard cider! I think this will be our first Autumn dish!
Cheers!
I haven’t heard of boiled cider, I’ll have to look that up…I just did, and it sounds wonderful, I was thinking already about making something like that this fall,I was going to call it ‘cider molasses’, but now I know its real name!
You’ll be amazed at how much it actually tastes like Molasses!
Cheers!
so delicious and mouth-watering, your blog is looking so stunning and is my ‘go-to’ blog for fabulous recipes and this pot roast will make a wonderful addition to my Sunday favourites… gorgeous stuff! x