Mississippi Roast Dinner

I found the original recipe for Mississippi Roast on my New York Times feed here. Mine is not as red inside as their picture, but my family devoured it and the sides were the perfect fit so I am including my tweaked Mississipi roast, roasted garlic, bacon and balsamic vinegar Brussels sprouts and roasted potatoes.

Mississippi Roast

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lbs. boneless chuck roast (the chuck is more expensive than sirloin, but the chuck has more fat, so since this is a long cook, we went with two pieces of chuck that were a little over 4 lbs.)
• Rocking H salt to taste (start with 2 tsp. but go by feel)
• Black pepper
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 T canola oil
• 1 block butter
• 10 pepperoncini
• 2T mayonnaise
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp dried dill
• 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp. buttermilk (I did not use it)

Directions:

1. Rub salt and pepper on all sides of the rub. Massage it in. Sprinkle with flour, massage again.
2. Heat oil until it shimmers but is not smoking. Sear meat on all sides to create a crust.
3. Put the meat in a slow cooker. Add pepperoncini and the butter. We had two pieces so I put about 1/3 of the butter between the two pieces, then put the rest on the top of meat. Set the slow cooker on low.
4. As the meat heats up, mix the dressing (rest of the ingredients). Whisk to emulsify. Add the dressing to the meat and cover slow cooker. Cook for 6 -8 hours (check at about 5)
5. Roast is done when the meat falls apart with a fork.
6. For au jus, skim fat and whisk the rest of the liquid to form a gravy.

Roasted potatoes - just follow the recipe on the Lipton onion soup (dry mix) - 1 package, 2 lbs. of potatoes, 1/2 cup oil, 430 degree oven for 35 minutes. I used 3 lbs of mixed red and yellow potatoes and supplemented with Rocking H salt. I also put it in the oven with the Brussels sprouts.

Brussels sprouts - one 2 lb. bag of Brussels sprouts trimmed and cut in half, 1/2 red onion slivered, one head of garlic peeled and left whole, bacon, hopefully home smoked, cut into tiny pieces. If you want to go fancy and crispy, fry it separately, olive oil, salt. 430 degree oven for 35 minutes. Scrape and stir if it starts getting stuck. When it comes out, drizzle with balsamic vinegar.