Simmering in a little bit of liquid or broth is a great way to tenderize. Acidity can also be your friend here. A little bit of vinegar and lemon juice in the liquid can help you tenderize the meat.
If your beef is tough, shredding it and making burritos or slow cooking in a stew or chilli are perfect.
With a few extra steps, you can take a day-old, dry roast and make it moist and juicy again. One of the easiest ways, says Sidoti, is to use a slow cooker or pot with a lid. Place meat in the slow cooker or pot. Add 2 to 3 cups of liquid (your choice) with enough to cover about halfway but not fully.
Why is my pot roast still tough? It's because you haven't let the collagen break down. Extend the cook time, make sure there's enough liquid and keep an eye on the dish.
Briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water raises the pH on the meat's surface, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it's cooked.
While there are several ways to velvet, a pound of meat needs about two teaspoons of cornstarch and two teaspoons of oil, says Leung. You may also include two to three tablespoons of water. For beef, add a 1/4-teaspoon of baking soda for tenderizing. Additional seasonings are optional and vary from recipe to recipe.
There are different ways to tenderize meat, including slow cooking, marinating, and pounding. While you can tenderize meat at home using a meat mallet or rolling pin, some manufacturers handle the process by using mechanical tenderization, which involves breaking down the meat's connective tissue with sharp blades.
All you need to do is continue cooking. Pot roasts are usually tough cuts, full of dense muscles and connective tissue. They need long, slow cooking to soften the muscles and melt the connective tissues into juicy, rich natural gelatin.
Does chuck roast get more tender the longer you cook it? It does! The secret to an incredible beef chuck roast recipe is to let it cook for long enough. I cook my chuck roast for 4 hours and 20 minutes, and by the time it's done it's fall-apart tender with soft carrots and potatoes all cooked in the same pot.
In order to tenderize a cooked steak, you just need to leave the meat to stand for 5 minutes after cooking, until the juices flow back towards the outside. Then you'll be able to serve perfectly juicy meat. For a roast beef you'll need to wait longer — about 20 minutes .
When the salt is absorbed into the meat, it breaks down the protein cells and helps tenderize the meat. To learn a little bit more about how dry brining works check out this article from Real Simple. It's focused on turkey but the it applies to other meats too!
METHODS OF COOKING
Cooking time varies depending on the size of your roast. For a 2-3 lb roast, cook in the oven for 2-2 ½ hours. If using a slow cooker, you can add seared beef to the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7 hours. Pressure Cook on high for about 45 minutes or until the beef is tender.
If the pot roast or chuck roast is tough, it is because it needs more cooking time. As the beef cooks the muscles and connective tissues break down and this makes the beef tender. Also, if you cook the roast at a high temperature, the roast will be tough.
The meat needs plenty of time to cook in order to achieve that fork tender, fall apart, melt in your mouth goodness. A roast will only get more tender the longer that you cook it. I aim to cook my roast for 4 to 5 hours. This gives me a chuck roast that is falling apart and tasty tender carrots.
Cook it too long, and you've got a dry, tough mess. Cook it too little, and you've potentially got a case of food poisoning. Either way, very bad news indeed. As we approach the season of holiday roasts, pork loins, and The-Bird-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, meat anxiety can come to an all-time high.
Place roast, uncovered, on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet. Place sheet on middle rack in 250-degree oven. Roast until meat registers 120 degrees (1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on the size of your roast). Pat surface dry with paper towels.