1. Beef chuck is a slow cooking cut of beef. It sometimes comes rolled and tied with string (like pictured in mine). But it also comes much thicker, shaped like a normal roast cut, and this cut isn’t required to be rolled and tied like mine. Both work great.
Recipe as written suited to beef 1 – 2kg / 2 – 4 lb. Works for wide range of weight as you need a certain amount of liquid to partially submerge the beef. Yet the cook time remains the same because it’s driven by beef thickness, rather than weight. Feel free to reduce / increase vegetables to your beef size, and also add other vegetables.
OTHER BEEF CUTS: Works great with brisket too. Blade Roast will also work but note that the beef is very lean so while it will be tender like chuck, it’s not as juicy inside (which you can disguise by smothering with sauce).
2a. Smashed Garlic – just use the side of your knife and smash it using the palm of your hand. The garlic will burst open but remain mostly in one piece.
2b. Cornflour / cornstarch gluten free alternative: Mix 1 tbsp cornstarch / cornflour with a splash of broth, mix then pour in per recipe, in place of flour. Once beef is cooked and removed, check liquid thickness. If you want it thicker, mix 1 tsp cornflour with splash of water and add, heat liquid (residual heat may be sufficient) and it will thicken, repeat if you want thicker.
3a. OVEN: Lid on dutch oven or similar, 300F/150C for about 2 hrs (1 – 1.5kg / 2 – 3 lb) or 3 hours (2kg / 4 lb), then add potatoes then a further 1 hour until meat is tender.
STOVE: Add 2 more cups of water, simmer covered 2 – 2.5 hrs until meat is starting to be tender, turning meat once or twice. Add potatoes then cook another 30 minutes until meat is super tender and potatoes are soft. Keep an eye on water level.
3b. I add potatoes later otherwise I find they are so soft, they basically disintegrate. If you prefer to add potatoes in at the beginning so you don’t have to worry about adding them later, use red potatoes because they hold up better to the long cook time.
4. The carrots and celery are VERY soft by the end, softer than ideal. It’s unfortunate, but a necessary sacrifice because having them in the broth for the whole cook time adds great flavour to the sauce.
5. Servings: I allow for 200 – 250g / 6.5 – 8oz uncooked beef per serving which shrinks with the long cook time. The beef pictured was a 2 kg / 4 lb rolled chuck.
6. Nutrition per serving (480g/1lb per serving), assuming all sauce consumed
NUTRITION INFORMATION:
Serving:481gCalories:615cal (31%)Carbohydrates:23g (8%)Protein:53g (106%)Fat:33g (51%)Saturated Fat:13g (81%)Cholesterol:173mg (58%)Sodium:704mg (31%)Potassium:1563mg (45%)Fiber:4g (17%)Sugar:2g (2%)Vitamin A:6416IU (128%)Vitamin C:15mg (18%)Calcium:95mg (10%)Iron:9mg (50%)
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