Southwestern Pot Roast & Beef Quesadillas

I found a chuck roast in the freezer and decided that beef quesadillas would be an easy meal for our Friday get-together so I went in search of a pot roast recipe.  I found one that sounded good at one of my favorite recipe sources that we could eat a meal from then use the leftovers on Friday.  The recipe for Southwestern Pot Roast comes from Pam on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog but I changed the cooking method quite a bit to fit my needs.

I wasn’t sure how to deal with Pam’s “to taste” instructions for the spices so I used what is shown in the recipe below.

Southwestern Pot Roast – Adapter from For The Love Of Cooking

The Ingredients:

3 lb. lean chuck roast

1 tsp olive oil

¼ tsp Chili powder, to taste

¼ tsp. Paprika, to taste

¼ tsp. Cumin, to taste

½ tsp. Oregano, to taste

¼ tsp. Coriander, to taste

½ tsp. Garlic powder, to taste

½ tsp. Onion powder, to taste

S&P, to taste

2 4 oz cans of diced green chiles

1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes

1½ cup beef broth

4-5 cloves of garlic

1 handful of cilantro 

The Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

3. Liberally season the roast on both sides with S&P.

4. Place roast in the hot pan and sear all sides of the beef.

5. Mix the remaining spices with the green chiles, diced tomatoes, beef broth, garlic cloves, and cilantro and pour over the meat.

6. Cover with a lid and place in the oven. Cook in the oven for 4 hours or until the meat is tender and falling apart, flipping it at the two-hour mark (we added some carrots).

Note: Make sure to check the meat periodically to make sure there is enough liquid in the Dutch oven. Add more beef broth if needed.

When done, we cut off serving sized pieces of meat for each plate, added plate-mashed boiled potatoes, and topped with the sauce and this is my plate.

Later we shredded the remaining roast, mixed it with a few scoops of the sauce and stored it for Friday.

 

Beef Quesadillas

The Ingredients:

Flour tortillas 

Leftover Shredded Beef

Homemade refried beans

Thin sliced or shredded cheddar cheese

Diced jalapenos – optional

Picante sauce – optional

Guacamole - optional

The Directions:

1. Preheat a pan or griddle over medium heat and lightly butter.

To build each quesadilla.

2. Add cheese to one half of tortilla and a slather of beans on the other half.

3. Add meat atop the beans along with any optional ingredients. (See sides below)

4. Slide the tortilla onto a lightly buttered griddle (or pan) cover, and cook until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is golden brown.

5. Fold cheese half over meat half and remove from griddle (or pan).

 6. Serve with sides like mine below.

Sides: pico di gallo, picante, guacamole, jalapenos.

The Verdict:

Th pot roast was tender and very good but I could have used more of all of the spices.  The quesadillas were as good as I've ever had especially with the flavorful shredded beef and they got high marks from the group.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

12/20 & 22/22 meal dates