Name: Slow-Roasted Beef with Red Wine Pan Juices (For a Cheap Roast)
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Ingredients: 1 chuck-eye roast , boneless, 3 to 4 pounds, aged if possible (see note above), and tied crosswise every inch, then tied lengthwise once or twice; Salt and ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1/3 cup red wine , preferably full flavored; 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth or low-sodium beef broth

Why This Recipe Works

Looking for an inexpensive roast beef recipe, we cooked many types of roasts at a wide range of temperatures. The chuck-eye roast was on all counts the best cheap cut for slow roasting. It was more tender and flavorful than cuts from the lean and relatively tough round. We found it best to slow-roast a boneless chuck-eye roast at 250 degrees, until the meat reached a temperature of 130 degrees.

Before You Begin

You can also use this same cooking method for the following cheap cuts of beef: chuck blade, chuck fillet/chuck tender, chuck shoulder, chuck under blade, top round, eye of round, bottom round, top sirloin and bottom round rump roast. If you have time, refrigerate the roast on a wire rack set over a paper towel-covered plate for four days. This aging process delivers a tender, more flavorful roast. Make sure, however, that before roasting you trim off the parts of the roast that have dehydrated and turned leathery. Tying the roast makes it compact and evenly shaped. Leftovers from a roasted cut of round, by the way, make excellent roast beef sandwiches.

Instructions

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper as desired. Heat oil over medium-high heat in Dutch oven or large, heavy, ovenproof pot. Add roast; sear until brown, about 4 minutes each side.

Transfer pot to oven and cook, uncovered, until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of roast registers 110 degrees, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees and cook until internal temperature reaches 130 degrees, about 15 minutes longer. (Cooking times will vary depending on size and shape of roast.) Remove roast from pot; let stand 20 minutes before carving.

Meanwhile, set pot over medium-high heat; spoon all but 1 tablespoon fat from pot. Add wine, stirring pan bottom with wooden spoon to loosen brown bits; simmer until wine reduces to glaze—about 2 minutes. Add broth; simmer until sauce reduces and thickens slightly, 1 to 2 minutes longer. (For pan juices with a little extra body, juices can be thickened at this point with 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water.) Cut roast into thin slices, adding meat juices to pan juices. Serve immediately with juices passed separately.