Oven-Braised Beef with Tomatoes and Garlic

By Kath Dedon

Oven-Braised Beef with Tomatoes and Garlic is the perfect lazy Sunday recipe. I discovered it on Smitten Kitchen.  Deb gave it rave reviews and said she adapted it from a recipe in the February 2001 issue of Gourmet magazine. It’s also in The Gourmet Cookbook. With such a great pedigree I trusted the recipe from the get-go.

It would be hard to find an easier recipe that delivers such great flavor! Just three ingredients, plus salt and pepper, go into the pot in the oven for 3 – 4 hours and you have a fabulous meal. I served the finished Braised Beef over egg noodles (I used Jovial Gluten Free Egg Pasta), but you could use orzo as Gourmet suggested. It would be great over polenta or with mashed potatoes, too.

Trussing is recommended to help the roast keep its shape so it will cook evenly and be easier to slice.  I used this method which was quite easy.

This is one of those recipes that is almost better the next day. We enjoyed it for Sunday dinner the day I made it, and it was fabulous heated up a couple of nights later for a quick weekday meal.

If you use unsalted tomatoes, don’t be afraid to season it generously with salt. I used Pomi Finely Diced Tomatoes (ingredients: tomatoes) and added a little over a teaspoon of salt to the sauce in the end.

Do keep this Oven-Braised Beef with Tomatoes and Garlic in mind when you have a lazy afternoon at home. It’s comfort food at its best!

Oven-Braised Beef with Tomatoes and Garlic

(Adapted from a Smitten Kitchen recipe, credited to Gourmet)

(print the recipe)

Serves 6 (or 2 with a fabulous leftover dinner and a couple of fantastic lunches)

Deb used whole tomatoes that she cut up in the can with scissors. I used a 26.46 ounce box of Pomi Finely Chopped Tomatoes.

 It is so simple to add the garlic unpeeled. During the braising process the garlic manages to pop out of the peels and dissolve in the sauce. The peels are easy to pick out with tongs or a fork when it’s done.

1 28-ounce can of tomatoes (If they’re whole chop them up.)

1 (3 – 3.5 pound) boneless beef chuck roast, tied with a string

1 head of garlic, separated into cloves, left unpeeled

Salt and pepper, to taste

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1. Preheat the oven to 300°.
2. Put the roast in a pot with a lid.

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A 2.75-pound roast in my 40-year-old Le Creuset dutch oven

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3. Pour the tomatoes over the roast and put the garlic cloves in. Stir the garlic into the tomatoes. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

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In the pot, just before I stirred the garlic in

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4. Put the lid on and braise in the oven until it is done and very tender, 3 – 4 hours.

5. Remove the roast to a plate or carving board.

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6. Pick the garlic peels out of the sauce. Taste the sauce for seasoning. (If you used unsalted tomatoes you might want to add as much as 1 – 1 ¼ teaspoons of salt. Start conservatively, say 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon. You can always add a bit more if needed.)

7. Slice the roast and serve topped with the sauce.

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