JAR Pot Roast

I thought I put this recipe on the blog before but when I tried to find it to make for Sunday Supper it doesn't seem to be on here...so if it's a repeat I apologize. It's SO good though that it deserves a repeat post if it is a duplicate!! JAR is a restaurant in Los Angeles - JAR stands for "Just Another Restaurant" - cute, right? It's an easy recipe - sear the meat, add some veggies and broth, stick in the oven for 3 hours. Let it cool and remove the fat, then reheat. I serve with roasted carrots and smashed potatoes in a shallow bowl, then top with a little of the broth. Yum! The original recipe says to serve with caramelized onions and roasted carrots but we like it with potatoes. 

• 3 T canola oil
• 1 ½ t kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 denuded short rib or boneless short ribs* (see note),  3 to 5 lbs
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 leek, white and light-green parts coarsely chopped
• ½ bulb of garlic, cloves smashed, but unpeeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 c sherry
• 3 to 4 c chicken stock
• 2 T finely chopped parsley

Set rack to the lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Dry beef with paper towels; season with salt and pepper.

Set a Dutch oven on high heat until it is very hot; add oil and heat until just smoking. Sear beef until it is a deep, rich brown, about 3 to 5 minutes a side.

Remove beef from Dutch oven and set aside. Discard all but a teaspoon of fat from the Dutch oven. Add sherry to Dutch oven and reduce by half, about 4 minutes, while scraping up flavorful brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add all vegetables to the Dutch oven and cook until slightly soft, about 5 minutes.

Add bay leaf. Return beef to Dutch oven with any accumulated juices. Pour in the chicken stock until the beef is above three-quarters covered.  Cover Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid and place in oven. Check after 15 minutes to make sure liquid is simmering lightly; adjust heat as needed. Continue cooking for a total of three hours.

Allow the meat to cool in the liquid. When cool, degrease (either by using a degreasing pitcher or by chilling in the refrigerator and removing most of the hardened fat from the surface of the liquid).

To serve, place a colander oven a large bowl. Remove meat from liquid. Strain the liquid, pressing down on vegetables to remove all the juice. Discard vegetables. 

Return the meat to the liquid and reheat. Cut meat into portions and place each in a pasta dish; spoon a generous portion of the braising liquid around the beef. Top with a spoonful of roasted carrots. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with creamy horseradish sauce. 

Yields 6 to 8 servings.

note: you can ask a butcher to denude a short rib explaining it is a single piece without bones or exterior fat. Alternatively, Costco and some other stores sell boneless short ribs. 

updated 3/2023 to include some additional pictures of the process:

sear the ribs a couple at a time depending on the 
size of your dutch oven. don't crowd them or they
won't brown as nicely. 

add sherry to the pot and scrape up flavorful bits. 
note 3/23 I didn't have sherry and substituted
white wine, still delicious!

add veggies to the reduced sherry/wine

I make the dish the day before serving so it has time to 
chill in the fridge and the fat hardens into a thick
layer. The next day I remove as much of the fat as I can.

I'm spooning off the fat and putting it on a piece of 
aluminum foil that I then roll up and discard. 

what's left after removing the meat and hardened fat.

strain the liquids over a big bowl press down
on the cooked vegetables to remove all the juice. 

the pot is a mess after baking the meat, so I like to clean it
before putting the meat and liquid back in and reheating. I serve
the meal from my Dutch oven so I like it to be cleaner than the above pic!

I always buy the boneless short ribs at Costco, 
I don't really know what a 'denuded short rib' is!