East meets chuck roast: Chinese-inspired Pot Roast with Potatoes

Chinese five-spice powder, fresh ginger, soy sauce, star anise and oyster sauce bring subtle Asian flavors to this traditional meat-and-potatoes pot roast. Recipe below.

SLEET IS PELTING THE WINDOWS AS I WRITE THIS. The first day of spring is less than two weeks away, but for many of us, that’s just a number on the calendar—a cruel false promise. So we remain in the braising mode, filling the kitchen with the oven’s warmth and the entire house with heavenly, meaty smells.

I’ve said many times here that we cheerfully borrow ingredients and cooking methods from cultures and kitchens all over the world. Occasionally, we try to faithfully replicate a dish from another place. More often, though, we use borrowed ingredients (and sometimes, techniques) as a starting point to create a culinary mashup. That’s the case with this pot roast.

Many countries and cultures embrace chuck roast, a meaty, flavorful cut of beef that needs to be slow-cooked to tenderness. But to me, the classic pot roast feels very American, with potatoes, carrots and onions braised in a beefy liquid, often fortified with wine or beer.

We absolutely love that classic dish, but I wanted to try something different. When I started my search, my first thought was to try a Belgian pot roast, with a bottle of ale. Amusingly, the first search result on Google was our own Blue Kitchen recipe.

Eventually, I settled on doing something with Chinese and Asian ingredients. Chinese five-spice powder, fresh ginger, soy sauce, star anise, oyster sauce… And then I turned westward, adding onions, carrots and, yes, potatoes to the mix. The end result was mostly traditional American pot roast with very subtle flavorings. Not overtly Chinese, just something more. Our dinner guest, who had arrived long after the roast was in the oven and telltale ingredients stowed away, said, “There’s some kind of spice thing going on here. Nice.” And it was.

Chinese-inspired Pot Roast with Potatoes
Serves 4 with leftovers

1 boneless chuck roast, thick cut, 3 to 4 pounds
salt, freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more if needed
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
5 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce, preferably reduced-sodium
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
1/3 cup shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1 cup water, plus more if needed
2 teaspoons sugar
1 star anise
5 to 6 medium unpeeled Yukon potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
6 (or more) carrots, peeled and cut into 1-1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
3 scallions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

special equipment: parchment paper

Remove chuck roast from fridge about 1/2 hour before you’re ready to start cooking to allow it to come to room temperature. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit snugly inside your Dutch oven. Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Season chuck roast with salt and pepper. Heat oil over medium-high flame in a Dutch oven large enough to accommodate the chuck roast. The oil should coat the bottom of the Dutch oven; add more if needed. Brown chuck roast on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium when you turn the roast. Transfer to a plate.

Add onions to Dutch oven, drizzling more oil if needed, and cook the onions, stirring frequently, until softened, about 3 minutes. Clear a space in the middle and add ginger, five-spice powder and garlic. Cook until fragrant, stirring constantly, about 45 seconds. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce, and stir to combine. Add beef broth, shaoxing wine, 1 cup of water, sugar and star anise, and stir, scraping up any browned bits.

Return roast to Dutch oven, along with any accumulated juices. Liquids should come 1/2 to 2/3 up the side of the roast; you don’t want it submerged. (In the unlikely event you have too much liquid, spoon some out and reserve.) Cover the roast—and everything else—with the parchment paper, cover the pot with the lid and place it in the oven.

Braise for 2-1/2 hours, checking at 1-1/2 to make sure liquid isn’t evaporating too much. If it is, add water or the reserved broth mixture you spooned out earlier. At the 2-1/2 hour mark, add the potatoes and carrots, making sure they’re at least partly submerged in liquid. Braise for 1 more hour, until meat is quite tender.

Transfer roast to a large serving platter and tent with foil, and heat the Dutch oven over a medium flame on the stovetop. NOTE: Find that pesky star anise and discard it; biting into it is not pleasant.

Mix cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl until dissolved. Stir a little of the braising into the cornstarch bowl, and then a little more—this will keep it from clotting when it hits the hot braising liquid in the Dutch oven. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into the braising liquid and cook until sauce has just thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off heat and stir scallions into the Dutch oven.

Spoon potato carrot mixture around roast on platter or transfer to a separate serving dish. Slice some of the roast across the grain and serve.