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Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
Garlicky Pot Roast
Difficulty: Easy | Makes: 6 to 8 servings

Something magical seems to happen when this dish cooks for a long time—the meat becomes fragrant and the garlic becomes caramelized and sweet. The “gravy” that results is so delicious that you’ll need some bread handy to sop it up. The addition of the gingersnaps might seem odd, but they add a lot of flavor and help thicken the gravy.

Game plan: The roasted garlic recipe below makes more than you’ll need for the pot roast. Save the remaining garlic for soup or guacamole.

The roast can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for 3 days, or frozen for 1 month. To reheat the pot roast, place the meat and gravy in a saucepan. Add enough chicken stock to moisten the meat, usually only about 1/4 cup. Cover and cook on low heat until heated through.

Suggested accompaniments: Grits, mashed potatoes.

This dish was featured as part of our Hanukkah Recipes photo gallery.

INGREDIENTS

For the roasted garlic:

  • 8 heads garlic
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

For the marinade:

  • 3 tablespoons chopped garlic (about 4 large cloves)
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for browning the roast
  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 (3- to 5-pound) chuck roast, fat trimmed

For the sauce:

  • 2 large Spanish onions, chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 cup dark beer, such as Guinness or Aventinus
  • 1 whole head of the roasted garlic (save the rest for another use)
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup crumbled gingersnaps (about 15 small cookies; store-bought are fine)
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
INSTRUCTIONS
For the roasted garlic:

  1. Cut off the very top (the nonroot end) of the garlic heads. Discard the tops. Place the garlic on a large piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle with the olive oil.
  2. Fold the foil into a large package, sealing the edges well. Place the package in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
  3. Set aside 1 whole head for the pot roast sauce. Transfer the remaining 7 heads to a jar or freezer container and cover the surface of the garlic with about 1/2 inch of olive oil. Cover tightly and store.

Marinate the roast:

  1. In a bowl large enough to hold the roast, stir together the chopped garlic, brown sugar, olive oil, vinegar, tomato paste, and 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper. Add the roast and turn it to coat on all sides. Cover the bowl and marinate for at least 3 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
  2. Place a large frying pan over medium heat. Lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Remove the roast from the marinade and pat dry. Discard the marinade. Lightly season the roast with salt and pepper. Brown the meat on all sides, about 7 minutes per side. Set aside the roast, but do not clean the pan.
  3. Preheat a 6-1/2-quart slow cooker to high.

Make the sauce:

  1. Add the onions to the reserved frying pan and cook until brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, until the garlic is very fragrant and has softened slightly; do not let the garlic brown. Add the beer. Scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon or spatula. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker insert.
  2. Place the roast and any collected juices in the insert. Squeeze the head of roasted garlic out of the skin and into the insert. Add the stock, gingersnaps, and tomato paste. Stir together. Cover and cook on high until the roast can be pierced easily with a fork, about 7 to 8 hours.
  3. Remove the roast from the slow cooker and keep warm. Strain the sauce before serving. Cut the roast into large chunks and serve hot with your choice of accompaniment. Pass the sauce.
    Write a review | 24 Reviews
  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    5

    Delicious recipe. Confusing instructions for garlic. After reading some of the other comments, I cooked the pot roast on low for 8 hours. It was quite a thick cut of meat, so it worked out perfectly. I roasted the 8 bulbs of garlic and used roasted garlic instead of minced garlic.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    3

    Gotta say, the amount of sugar/balsamic/tomato paste in the marinade equals burning when browning each side, even after patting it all off.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    5

    This is basically sauerbraten (the gingersnap cookies are a dead giveaway). I think it only uses one head of garlic, but they are telling you to roast a bunch, because as long as the oven is going, you may as well. At least, that's my interpretation of the somewhat wierd amounts listed.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    4

    http://www.garlicpassion.com/garlic-infused-olive-oil-dont-do-it-yourself/ This recipe should state that the garlic/oil should be refrigerated and kept for no more than 3 weeks. The CDC states that garlic and oil are ripe for botulism.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    4

    Great recipe and the sauce is absolutely delicious. Use your noggin' about the garlic and timing - as with any online recipe these days, you have to use your own judgement when you set about cooking it. I'm making a double batch of this for a second time for the same crowd this weekend.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    2

    About the roasted garlic...you don't have to roast 8 heads when only 1 is used. I frequently roast garlic but I put each head in it's own foil with the olive oil on top and I like it with a drop or two of lemon. Then pop them in the oven. If I have time, I roast them at a lower temp for 2 hours but you can turn it up a bit and roast them in an hour and it will be fine. As long as they are soft like margarine. There's Italian restaurants here that give you a head of roasted garlic with Italian bread to spread it on while you wait for your meal...yum!! I do that occasionally plus find them useful in other recipes such as stews,etc. They keep well in the frig for at least a few days right in the sealed foil. Also, you can add 1 or 2 TBS. of the concentrated tomato paste from the tube, (love having that around), right to the onions and garlic with a few pieces of lightly cooked cut up bacon in one inch pieces plus a TBS or so of flour while scraping bits - then add the beer, etc. omitting the 1/4 c. of tomato paste and the gingersnaps. By doing this you add a tiny bit of smokiness from the bacon which goes with the dark ale, a little less sweetness and it thickens as it cooks from the flour. MUCH improved!!

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    3

    I would imagine that using a little brown sugar or molasses, ground dry or minced fresh ginger, and a flour slurry (or alternative method of thickening) would substitute well for the gingersnaps.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    4

    Really enjoyed this recipe. 7 to 8 hours on high worked OK for my crockpot. It was easily fork tender and then some, but didn't fall apart completely. I might have dialed back a little on the brown sugar or tomatoes - I used a strong porter for the beer, and had just a little bit too much "sweet" in the sauce. Yes, 8 heads of garlic was overkill. I found good uses for them elsewhere, but wouldn't have wanted to store them for any real period of time.

  • Garlicky Pot Roast Recipe
    1

    Sorry to be obtuse, but if only one roasted head of garlic is needed for the pot roast recipe, what is the point of roasting the other 7 heads of garlic? Am I missing something here? Is there a step I missed or misunderstood about how to use the remaining heads of roasted garlic?

  • Sounds like a recipe for botulism! The other 7 heads of roasted garlic should absolutely NOT be stored in olive oil. Botulism loves anaerobic environments with low acidity, and that's exactly what garlic + olive oil is.

  • Are you supposed to discard all of the onions and garlic once you strain the sauce? Kind of seems like a waste...

  • Hi Everyone, #1, I have updated the recipe to clarify the garlic situation as it was confusing. You roast 8 heads but only use 1 for the pot roast itself.You still need to use the chopped raw garlic for the marinade and the sauce. #2 As far as cooking the roast on HIGH or LOW, every slow cooker is different and the temps can vary a lot. If your slow cooker runs hotter, cook it on LOW and vice-versa. I hope this helps with your questions!

    Amy Wisniewski, CHOW test kitchen

  • So what did you who cooked and love it do about the garlic heads - how many, when?

  • OK....can someone please get Laura Frankel to clarify this recipe?? The ingredients do sound awfully good but the use of the garlic is very unclear. Is it 8 heads of garlic in total - including the 10 cloves of chopped- or are they additional? Then, it only calls for 1 head of the garlic I roasted for 8 hours.
    And yes, I do believe it is 8 hours on low....not high.

  • I want to make this recipe but please, two questions to those who have made it:
    1. Is it really 8 bulbs of roasted garlic (squeezed) that go into the preparations? I love garlic, but eight seems like a lot.
    2. Is it really 7-8 hours on HIGH?
    Thanks!

  • at the beginning of the recipe it calls for 8 roasted head of garlic but in the sauce ingredients it only asks for 1 head of roasted garlic, what do we do to the other 7 heads of garlic I hope someone answer this because I'm making this tomorrow morning!

  • Really good recipe. I made it last night. My partner was helping me and I gave her the morter to start crushing the ginger snaps. She thought I was kidding her. She asked as she was reluctantly but like a sheep crushing them,
    "Your putting cookies in the roast?"
    "Yup"

    Anyways, it was really flavourful with all those onions, roasted garlic and cookies. I also liked the marinade ingredients. The brown sugar also really made it special. I did up mine in the oven for 225 and let it braise all day while we were at work for about 7 hours. Yum. Thanks.

  • Chicken stock ??????

  • Looks great! I'll have to try this out this week.

  • This is the best thing EVER.

  • fexley, see "make the sauce" step 2, "...Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skin and into the insert. .."

  • This looks great, but I'm confused. Are we using the roasted garlic in the ingredients, or serving them with the pot roast as a side?

  • I made this two days ago and it was great. And MandalayVA is correct, DO NOT cook it 7-8 hours on high! I cooked it at 200* for 7 hours and it came right off the bone. Delicious!

  • 7-8 hours on HIGH? Good luck trying to get slices out of that roast, it'd probably fall apart if you looked at it the wrong way.

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