Cross Rib Chuck Roast with Garlic and Rosemary

This is a super easy recipe for a dry roast (a roast that shouldn't be pot roasted in liquid, but rather cooked to medium rare). You can use either a cross rib chuck roast, an eye of round roast, or a sirloin tip roast for this delicious recipe!

Serves: 4

Active time: 20 minutes

Inactive (cook) time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 Cross Rib Chuck Roast, 2.5-3.5 lbs, thawed and warmed to room temperature

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved

1 small sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped (about 2 tsp when chopped)

1 small sprig fresh thyme, chopped (about 1 tsp when chopped)

Instructions

Turn the oven to 450 degrees F.

Coat a cast iron pan that has a lid or a baking pan with a lid with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Place the roast in the pan and sprinkle on the remaining olive oil. Rub over the surface of the roast.

Sprinkle on the salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme. Rub evenly over the surface of the roast.

Turn the roast so the fattiest side faces up.

Using a sharp knife, slice about 1 inch into the roast running the same direction as the grain (the grain is the lines running throughout the roast. Slice parallel to this for inserting the garlic).

With the knife still inserted, slide one of the garlic clove halves along the blade of the knife and into the hole. Use a butter knife to shove the garlic all the way into the hole.

Pull the knife out. Repeat with the remaining garlic halves, spacing evenly over the roast. Do not turn the roast back over. Just insert the garlic into the top (if you make holes in the bottom, all the juices will leak out of the roast).

Place the roast in the oven. Bake uncovered at 450 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Turn down the oven down to 350 degrees F. Cook another 10 minutes uncovered, then do a temperature check with a thermometer by inserting the thermometer into the center of the roast. Continue temperature checking every 5 minutes until the thermometer reads 120 degrees F. Then remove the roast from the oven, cover, and allow to sit for 20 minutes. This will allow the roast to continue cooking inside until done.

Once rest period is done, uncover and slice thinly perpendicular to the grain. Remember the lines running through the roast? Find those again (you can still find them on the cooked roast. Try flipping over if you can’t see them on the top, usually you can on the bottom), then slice in the opposite direction for optimal tenderness.