Seven pot roast recipes make the most of cold weather and our favorite cheap cut of beef

THE ARRIVAL OF COLD WEATHER HAS US THINKING POT ROAST. Hearty, flavorful, soul-satisfying slabs of meat, usually accompanied by root vegetables that have cooked with it, everything swapping flavors and becoming better for it. And usually, an excuse to have the oven on for hours, warming the kitchen and filling the house with divine meaty smells. If you’re thinking this sounds good, here are seven recipes to try.

The roast in question for pot roasts is chuck roast, one of our favorite cuts of meat, cheap and wonderfully flavorful. It is also on the tough side, but cook it long and slow, and the toughness melts away. Or through pressure cooking in the Instant Pot, as one of the recipes here does. Whether boneless or bone in, look for a chuck roast that’s cut fairly thick, two inches or more.

Belgian Pot Roast with Onions and Mushrooms

Based on a traditional Belgian stew, Carbonnade a la Flamande, the hearty roast pictured above is flavored with beer, thyme, bay leaves, mushrooms and lots of onions. It isn’t exactly what you’d call refined, as Marion put it. The flavors are fairly straightforward. But on a winter night—even an unofficial winter night—this pot roast really hit the spot.

Chinese-inspired Pot Roast with Potatoes

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

Instant Pot Pot Roast

The Instant Pot makes this weekend indulgence weeknight quickish; a secret Asian ingredient makes it irresistibly savory. Spoiler alert, the ingredient is fish sauce. You can substitute Worcestershire sauce, but additional spoiler alert, that contains anchovies, the key ingredient in fish sauce. Whichever you choose, it nicely ups the umami in this dish.

Beef Pot Roast with Beer and Juniper Berries

Flavorful, inexpensive beef chuck roast, braised for hours in a low oven with beer, juniper berries, onion, garlic, potatoes and carrots, is the very definition of comfort food on a winter evening. You’ll find the recipe here.

Layered Pot Roast with Anchovies, Capers and Garlic

Hearty pot roast gets big flavor thanks to capers, onions, garlic and anchovies in this simple dish from the South of France, Grillades à L’Arlésienne. And it’s quite easy to make. No browning of the meat or other ingredients—you simply layer everything in a casserole dish and pop it in the oven. Do it once and you’ll see why we have this recipe on repeat.

Tangy Beef Pot Roast with Mushrooms

Balsamic vinegar can do so much more than just dress salads. Here, it works with fresh and dried mushrooms to add a tangy, complex umami boost to already flavorful chuck roast. You’ll find the recipe here.

Beef Pot Roast and Potato Hash

And finally, if you make a pot roast, you just may end up with leftovers (in theory, anyway). Here, we combine leftover roast with potatoes (and not a lot else) to make a hash that shows why meat and potatoes rock.