There is a dish that Americans always bring out in winter. It's Pot Roast.

Living in America, you can smell something delicious wafting through the house during winter. It's the aroma of meat simmering slowly for hours. That's pot roast. If you compare it to Korean dishes, it feels similar to galbijjim or jangjorim, but the cooking method is much simpler.

You just put a chunk of beef in a pot, add some vegetables, and cook it at a low temperature for several hours. The process is simple, but the result is anything but. For Americans, pot roast is not just a simple dish; it's a food filled with memories. It's a quintessential soul food that evokes thoughts of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or a snowy Sunday afternoon.

Looking at the ingredients, the key is definitely the meat. It's best to use Chuck Roast, which comes from the shoulder area of the cow. This cut has just the right amount of fat mixed in, so it doesn't become dry even after long cooking and shreds tenderly along the grain. Preparing about 1 to 1.5 kg of Chuck Roast from the store is sufficient.

The vegetables typically used are onions, carrots, potatoes, celery, and garlic. You can also add any other vegetables you have at home. The liquid base is beef broth, and adding about half a cup of red wine enhances the flavor significantly. Herbs like rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves are great to use, but if you don't have them, just salt and pepper will suffice.

The cooking process is as follows.

First is the searing stage. Season the meat with salt and pepper, then heat oil in a pot and brown all sides. This step is very important. The Maillard reaction occurs here, determining a large part of the overall flavor. Skipping this will greatly reduce the taste.

The second step is sautéing the vegetables. Remove the meat for a moment and sauté the onions and garlic in the same pot. Adding a spoonful of tomato paste while sautéing will deepen the flavor.

The third step is deglazing. Pour in wine or broth and scrape up the bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. This part is crucial for flavor, so never throw it away.

The fourth step is braising. Return the meat to the pot and pour in enough broth to cover about half of the meat. Add the herbs, cover with a lid, and cook in the oven at 150-180 degrees for 3-4 hours. At this stage, there's nothing special to do. Just wait.

The final step is to add the potatoes and carrots about an hour before cooking is complete. If you add them too early, the vegetables can become mushy. After some time, if the meat easily shreds when pierced with a fork, it's done. Mixing cornstarch into the remaining broth will thicken it into gravy. Pouring this sauce over the meat completes a typical American home-cooked meal.

Cooking in the oven yields the deepest flavor, but using an Instant Pot can also produce great results.

Once made, it serves about 3-4 portions and can be enjoyed with rice or used as a filling for sandwiches.

When you make it yourself, you'll immediately understand why Americans crave this dish every winter.

You'll see why Americans make this every winter once you try it yourself.

Once again, I must say, the aroma while making this is truly an art.