Today's paleo review recipe is Italian Style Chuck Roast from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations. I've made this recipe a few times and have not been disappointed. I can almost get over my the Crock Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken experience based on the goodness and utility of this recipe. Utility? When you make this recipe, you're really getting two recipes: the Roast and the sauce. Sure you'll want to use some of the sauce on your meat, but I've typically had lots of tasty slow cooked sauce left to add to other dishes.
I've made the recipe with chuck roast as the recipe calls for but this time around I decided to use a grass-fed brisket. First, I assembled my ingredients.
The recipe calls for specific ounces of diced tomatoes and tomato paste and sauce. Other than the paste, you'll note that my diced (chopped) and sauced tomatoes do not match the prescribed amounts. I've decided to stop worrying about the exact amounts in crock pot recipes where tomatoes are concerned. Its just not worth going crazy over or measuring out part of a can/container. A little more of one and less of the other really doesn't make that big of a difference.
I then I then measured my herbs/spices, chopped up my vegetables, and combined the two.
And added in the various forms of tomatoes. Usually, I am all for eliminating extra bowls when I can, but using a separate bowl for this rather than mixing it up in the crock and then adding the meat is better as you'll want to cover your meat well with the sauce.
After 10 hours in the crock pot, here is what you'll get:
The meat pretty much falls apart. I recommend shredding the meat while its hot as it will be easier.
I typically separate my meat form the sauce for storage. I don't have any pretty plated pictures for this batch as I needed to freeze it. Part of the way I make paleo work for me is to not have to cook every night of the week. I portioned the brisket in meal size amounts with a little sauce and put in freezer bags. As I still had some of the sauce left, I bagged it with some grass-fed ground beef I had browned. I love getting two dishes for the time it takes to make one!
Ingredient Accessibility: Very accessible. All of the ingredients can bee found a a big box grocery store except for a grass-fed cut of beef. I got this grass-fed brisket from whole foods.
Prep/Cook Time: The stated prep time for this recipe is 10 minutes. I didn't time myself but it was probably within the 10-20 minute range of prep time.
The Paleo Review: Double Thumbs up! You get great meat and a sauce at the same time. Give this recipe a try, you wont regret it.