Do you have an easy way of doing a roast dinner?

[PriscillaTheHun]

I'm currently in the throes of trying to produce a roast dinner. I seem to have used every saucepan, bowl and roasting pan in the house!

Surely there's a better way!

If you're really good at roast dinners and can do it without ransacking the kitchen, I'd love to hear your hints and tips!

Pay someone else to cook it 😁

I do it on auto pilot now. Just done Beef.

1. Peel spuds whilst watching TV- stick in water with bit of salt. Boil for about 10 mins at the most so just par boiled. (Aprox 3 per person unless they are very big.)

2.Stick oil in roasting tin and shove in oven for few mins to warm. 3.Stick spuds in oil and roll them around and then put the meat on other side of tray. ( it's quite a large deep cooking tray.)

1. Stick tray back in oven usually below 200 degrees for aprox 1 and a half to two hours. Keep checking every 30 mins - turn spuds over each time to brown. (Obviously you can choose to cook your spuds in a seperate tray at a higher heat and adjust the timings but I only do that for Christmas as I cook them in goose fat then.)
2. 35 mins before end of cooking time slice up veg and bung in steamer. Couldn't live without it and no longer have to pot watch. I did cabbage and carrots today. Also good if you want to bung in new potatoes too.
3. Shove in oven ready made Yorkshire puds for last 5 mins.
4. Take meat out and ask husband to cut it ( or whoever/ yourself.) Put to one side.
5. Stick kettle on and mix up the Bisto in a jug.
6. Plate up spuds and veg and yorkies - add meat at end and cover with gravy.

Voila!

One tip my mother gave me was to tidy up as you go along and she was so right. Makes all the difference.

Instant pot roast
www.wholekitchensink.com/instant-pot-pot-roast/
Cooked yesterday and ate half and added roasted pots and parsnips with it today

I cook my roast potatoes in ghee..,.

You're welcome!

1 peel and boil potatoes for 10 minutes
2 whilst potatoes are boiling pop oven on and rib roast with oil and seasoning
3 drain potatoes and put back in saucepan with a bit of oil, salt and pepper and shake
4 shove in two tins (one with joint, other with potatoes)
5 make Yorkshire batter
6 wait an hour or so
7 extract joint, turn oven up, cover joint in foil and a tea towel
8 shove in silicon muffin tray and spoon in very hot oil from joint
9 pop veg in microwave
10 pop Yorkshire batter in muffin tray
11 get DH to make gravy (this still escapes me)
12 carve, drain veg
13 extract potatoes and Yorkshires

10 to 13 takes 20 minutes. The rest depends on the joint. Joint in foil and tea towel rests and keeps beautifully warm.

@DelurkingAJ I find when I cover lamb or beef with foil and a tea towel it carrys on cooking so if I did my joint medium rare it over cooks. I actually love medium rare roast beef but don't often cook it as I can't keep it warm without it over cooking.

I make Jamie's get ahead gravy and makes loads- freeze into small portions. Also make stuffing in large batches and freeze.

So I peel potatoes the night before and place in cold water. I roast chicken - after half an hour I boil the potatoes and tip them into the pan. Use the pan to cook brocolli and peas. Heat stuffing and gravy in the microwave. Wash as you go.

Our approach is to take it out rare. Middle stays pretty rare for those as like it and the ends are a little better done for the DC.

I put the oven on for the meat, and whilst it's heating up I cut the veg ready for steaming at the end. So then the meat goes in, 30 mins before it's due to be finished cooking I pop the roasties in, and then 5 minutes before the meat is due to done I pop the veg on- takes about 10 minutes so gives me time to cut and serve the meat. I then put the Yorkshire puds in whilst I'm putting everything out, and I just use granules for the gravy and use the water from the veg. I'm all prepped by the time the meat is in, there's quite a while between needing to do anything else, and I don't use too many pots and pans.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/roast-chicken-with-potatoes-carrots/

I just do some extra veg like greens, broccoli or green beans with it.

My biggest tip is always always always prep.

I prep in the morning, get the meat in to slow cook first thing. Peel and prep veggies, peel and cut potatoes and leave in a bowl of water until ready to boil and roast, get the veggies in the steamer and on the roasting trays lay it all out nicely to just chuck in at its individual time.

If I’m having family around and I’m unsure of oven space, I get trays out and Tetris them into the oven before I prep, then once I’m happy with how everything fits I Oreos and put everything on it’s own tray so I can’t get confused later on.

I also do my stuffing in a small cake tin if family is coming as I won’t have enough room for a big tray.

I have a similar approach to @Angrybird123 Also Yorkshire puddings, stuffing and mashed swede all freeze well, as does the makings of a crumble which is our usual post roast pudding, so they don't need to be made from scratch quite as often.

Seconding those who recommend a slow cooker for the meat. A lot of the timing pressure is removed when your cooking time for the meat is less precise.

(Also means you can use cheaper cuts. Brisket is my favourite for roast beef - if you gave me a posh cut I'd be scared!)

also, throwing a joint in the oven for +++ time is a ballache when you keep opening the door and letting the heat out to put more stuff in.

Meat on one tray (possibly cheat and buy roast in bag chicken), veg in the other - potatoes, sweet pots, parsnips, carrots, raw beetroot are all possibilities. No need to parboil. Steam some green veg

Frozen roasties and instant gravy are shit. Frozen other veg - ok. If you can’t be arsed to make real gravy, you might as well have a snot poodle. We only have a roast once in a blue moon, but when we do, it’s frigging awesome; proper butcher meat and everyfing.

One tin, chicken with pots, veg and gravy... www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775657/onepan-roast-dinner

You miss out on batters, stuffing and so on but it is still a decent lazy roast!

Meat first. Rest meat and make gravy in the meat pan. Gravy into jug. Same pan for potatoes. Use the par book potato pan for the vegetables. Time it so carrots in first, then broccoli, then cabbage.

Reheat gravy in microwave.

Hardly any pans at all.

• Meat in the slow cooker (seems a MN favourite!). We do chicken, leg of lamb and beef like this

• Use salad or Charlotte potatoes for roasts. Put into hot oil (no need to boil first, just give them a rinse and dry), season with salt and pepper. They take about 30mins on 200 degrees. Super easy and no pre-boiling.

• Buy decent trays that fit into your oven so you can max out the oven if needed. We have a tray for roast potatoes and one for stuffing that fit nicely next to each other. Saves taking stuff in/out to make room.

• We use a hob top steamer for veg. Cooks our veg really well and because it stacks vertically, you get more veg cooking on a ring than using a saucepan. Plus the steamer stays pretty clean.

Yeah.

I go online and book at table at the local carvery.

Do you have an easy way of doing a roast dinner?

Yes, I have DH do it. He's pretty good at it. My only role is to make the gravy

Ready made Yorkshire Puddings are a travesty, they are easy peasy to make your own FFS.

Lamb in slow cooker with lamb stock, small jar of cranberry jelly and few table spoons of Worcester sauce.
Bag of new pots boiled with garlic then roasted.
Peas and corgettes
Ready made Yorkshires thrown in 4 mins before the end.
Gravy made from the juice in the slow cooker - reduce in a pan with more cranberry.
Very tasty and very easy.

Half of you are forgetting to flour your roast potatoes after parboiling them.