Ninja Pot Roast

I was going to create a recipe with prime rib and pressure-cook it in my Ninja Foodi. I lost courage when looking at an $85 roast and thinking about trying something new with it. Perhaps next month I will get brave enough to pressure cook it.

So, this is a more standard-ish recipe.

Chuck roast is traditionally used for a pot roast. I don’t like the high fat content and how the fat is not marbled. That is why people use it for pot roasts. I am using a top round roast. That is not ideal, but it works well enough and without all the fat.

Also ,traditionally, pot roast is slow cooked. I forgot to start it this morning and it is all I have thawed. I figured that this is a good test before I try pressure-cooking an expensive roast.

Does slow cooking result in a better tasting end-result? Maybe, but this works well also. The big difference is that 2/3 of the way through pressure-cooking you can’t add the vegetables, but it is okay if the roast isn’t large so the cooking time is decreased.

To compensate, I used larger than normal pieces of potatoes and carrots. I am a big fan of red potatoes, but pretty much any type will do, although Russets might get too mushy.

Since I live alone I am using a small roast. For the Foodi, probably no larger than about 5 pounds would be okay and still allow for a good number of vegetables.

Ninja Pot Roast

3 pound roast - round or chuck
1 shallot chopped
1.5 pounds potatoes, diced
1 pound carrots, diced
1 cup water
1 cup Merlot wine
1 T beef base
1 T ground black pepper
Spice rub for beef, whatever kind you like
1 T corn starch

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1. Rub the spice rub into a room temperature roast.
2. Using the `sear` function sear, in the Foodi, each side for about 3 minutes.
3. Remove the roast and add the water, wine, beef base, half of the shallots, and pepper in the pot.
4. Stir until the beef base is dissolved
5. Add in a rack or the crisper and place the roast, vegetables and the rest of the shallots in the Foodi.
6. Pressure cook on high for about 80 minutes, the goal here is to cook it so it basically falls apart like a good pot roast should.
7. Remove the roast to rest for about 10 minutes and place the vegetables in a bowl, cover to keep warm, or place it in a warm oven.
8. In about 1/4 cup of water, mix the cornstarch. Set the Foodi to saute, add the cornstarch mix and stir it in until it thickens and comes to a boil. Serve the thickened mixure over the meat and vegetables

Notes

Regarding the wine, do not use cooking wine, not ever. It is low quality and loaded with salt and will not add a good flavor. The rule with adding alcohol to food is that if you can’t drink it, don’t cook with it. I don’t know anything about wines or how to pick a good quality wine, but anything will be better than cooking wine. Any red wine can be used, Merlot adds a sweetish taste without overpowering everything. Cabernet sauvignon is also mentioned a lot as a nice cooking wine for pot roasts. Since I do not drink, I buy the smallest bottle I can find to not waste money.

Any kind of onion can be used in place of shallots. Shallots are milder than most other onions. That is why they are included here: to not overpower the resulting sauce. The sauce has multiple flavors that mix well together with nothing overpowering the rest of it.

Any other root type vegetables like turnips can be added and whatever spices you like in the liquid and rubbed into the roast. All of my recipes, except baking and candy are just a very rough guide for me.

This recipe could easily be modified for a crock pot or stove top.

Note: Hopefully it should not need to be said, but in case it does: Do not use a prime rib roast for this recipe. I believe that would be an abomination and end in tragedy and many tears.