Okay, I’m apologizing in advance for breaking one of my cardinal rules – a food post without a picture… I always have goals of blogging 12037 of my recipes, and can’t seem to find the time for all of them with my toddler tugging at my hair, arms, legs, and soul. By the time I do find a quiet moment to finally blog them, my notepad with the recipe disappears, and I can’t remember the measurements or ingredients used since I just grab things from my pantry and experiment. Or in this case, we already ate all the meat. I don’t even like leftovers, so that’s saying something. It was that good.

That being said, yesterday was the first Christmas I’ve spent away from home (besides last year flying back from the east coast on Christmas itself and driving all night until like 4am on the 26th, finally pulling into my parents’ house). Anyway, the point of that was that this was the first Christmas I was responsible for dinner, and I refused to be my usual basic bitch culinary self cooking chicken and a veggie being healthy and boring aka toddler-quick-just-eat-something style meal.

So I went to the grocery store and explored the red meat section, clearly clueless. #WhereTheEFFdoIevenstart was planted all over my face; so much so that the butcher asked if he could help me find something. I always get awkwardly shy when asking for help, so I quickly said something (probably way too fast and with giggles, because that’s what I do when I feel shy and awkward) like “umm, uh, no, haha, I mean, thanks, but no thanks.” Typical. Shelley. Then as I scanned the almost empty row seeing only like 4 cuts left — all HUGEEE, by the way…like bigger than my legs, and priced at over $100. He looked at me again and said, “Sure I can’t help you find something? I know it’s slim-pickings!” I shyly said, “Actually, can you recommend a cut of meat for 4 people?” To which he smiled and replied, “Of course! A chuck roast! I’ll go cut one for you right now in the back.” Less than one second later he vanished into the back and reappeared with a custom cut for me.

Welp, asking for help wasn’t that hard, and he was a total gem. Not that you’ll ever read this, but hi, Ralph’s (Carlsbad off Avenida Encinas) butcher…you knew I needed help, and thanks for staying close-by and jumping to my clearly-I’m-single-and-lack-any-sort-of-red-meat-knowledge rescue.

Boom…a 2 pound chuck roast was coming home with me, to my crockpot. and it was only $15. The real toss up here, was that after standing in a half hour grocery line, I realized I forgot any sort of marinade for it. Shiiiiiit.

I got home and opened my pantry and had…like, nothing. What I did find, however, was chicken broth, Trader Joe’s gravy, an assortment of Flavor God seasonings, and crushed garlic. Soooo, guess that’s what I’d be working with. Clearly, those ingredients would provide some sort of flavor, and would have to do the job. and they did! So, if you’re in need of a quick seasoning mix to toss in with a roast you plan to cook in the crock-pot, try this 🙂

5ish-Ingredient Crock Pot Chuck Roast

Ingredients:

• 2 pound chuck roast, extra lean (obviously – so not counting this as an ingredient)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon crushed garlic or head of garlic cloves, poked into meat
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 can chicken or beef broth
• 1-2 cups gravy

After the chuck roast was fully cooked, I cut chunks for four servings and sprinkled both sides with an assortment of Flavor God’s Ranch + Everything seasonings and onion powder. Was the perfect addition. You can also choose to lightly and quickly sear the individual chunks at this time + that assortment of extra seasonings if you wish for a nicely flavored outer coating.

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a crock pot
2. Cook on high for 6-8 hours, lowering to low the last 2 hours if choosing to cook for 8. Test with meat thermometer to make sure meat is fully cooked before removing.
3. If you wish, lightly sear cut chunks with additional seasoning (listed above)
4. Serve and enjoy!

*Leftovers idea –

Today my friend and her husband came over to help me get rid of Christmas dinner leftovers. We shredded the rest of the chuck roast and covered it in BBQ sauce (try my clean, finger-licking-good homemade BBQ sauce recipe here), and made sandwiches and salads. So easy and so yummy!

Extra tip – Add a tablespoon of water when microwaving the leftover meat to keep it from drying out.