March is for slow Sundays, open ovens, and something bubbling away while you romanticize your life. Enter: The Most Perfect Pot Roast from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Essential Recipes, our March Cookbook Club pick at The Foyer.

This isn’t just pot roast. This is the pot roast. The one people text you about. The one that makes your kitchen smell like you have it all together. If you’ve ever been intimidated by pot roast, congratulations — you’re about to crack the code.

Why This Is the Best Pot Roast Recipe

• A beautifully marbled chuck roast gives us that melt-in-your-mouth texture

• Tomato paste + red wine for deeper, richer flavor

• Low-and-slow oven roasting at 275°F makes this easy to shred

• One big Dutch oven is pure, rustic main-character energy 

It’s cozy. It’s classic. It feeds ten. It’s the kind of dinner that makes people linger.

Perfect Pot Roast

Makes 10 servings

"In the almost twenty-year history of my cooking website and cookbooks, there is no recipe more loved than my Perfect Pot Roast. It can be a challenging dish to master in one’s early cooking life (it was for me!), but once the code is cracked, the culinary heavens open up and it’s smooth sailing (pot roast-wise) from there on out. I’m so happy to share this recipe with you. It’s a top ten in my life, it’s actually foolproof, and thanks to a couple of minuscule tweaks of my original recipe—just a simple addition of both tomato paste and red wine, which send the richness through the roof—it is even more perfect than before. Enjoy this with the people you love!" - Ree Drummond, Author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• One 4- to 5-pound whole chuck roast (choose a nicely marbled one)

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper, plus more to taste

• 2 yellow onions, peeled and halved

• 6 to 8 carrots, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks

• 1 rounded tablespoon tomato paste

• 1 cup red wine (or more beef stock)

• 3 cups Homemade Beef Stock (page 160), or store-bought stock or broth

• 3 thyme sprigs, or more to taste

• 3 rosemary sprigs, or more to taste

• Mashed potatoes (see page 284), for serving

• Chopped parsley, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 275°F.

2. Heat a large heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Season both sides of the pot roast with the salt and pepper, then place it in the pot to sear.

3. Let the roast cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned and crisp around the bottom edges. Turn it over to the other side to sear for another 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Remove the roast to a plate.

5. Lay the onions in the pot cut side down, then sprinkle in the carrots.

6. Let the veggies sear on the surface until they get some brown edges, turning a bit for even browning, about 3 minutes.

7. Add the tomato paste and stir it around to fry for 1 minute.

8. Then pour in the wine.

9. And the stock.

10. Stir everything together, then slide the beef back into the pot on top of the veggies. (Be sure to let all juices from the plate drip into the pot!)

11. Arrange the herb sprigs around the meat.

12. Then cover the pot and roast in the oven until the roast is falling-apart tender. (Pull it apart with two forks to check.) This can take anywhere from 3 to 4½ hours, depending on the weight and the piece of meat.

13. Remove the herb stems from the pot.

14. Optional: If there is an excess layer of oil on top after the pot has sat for a few minutes, you can use a shallow spoon to remove some.

15. Just add the oil to the same plate as the herb stems.

16. Use two forks to shred the meat.

17. It should shred very easily without requiring any force at all. (If it seems tough or doesn’t pull apart easily, it hasn’t cooked long enough! Return it to the oven for another 45 minutes and that should do the trick.) Keep shredding, leaving it mostly in large chunks.

18. Taste and add a little more salt if it needs it, then cover the pot and keep it warm until serving.

Serve over mashed potatoes and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

How to Serve Pot Roast (Like You Mean It)

Spoon it over a cloud of buttery mashed potatoes. Let the juices run wild. Sprinkle parsley like you’re on a cooking show. Light a candle. Pour the rest of that red wine.

Leftovers? Even better. Think next-day pot roast sandwiches, crispy-edged hash, or tucked into pasta.

Cook Along With The Foyer’s March Cookbook Club 

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Essential Recipes is our March Cookbook Club pick for a reason. It’s packed with comforting, no-fail classics — the kind you actually cook, not just bookmark. If your kitchen needs a hero recipe, this is it.