As an only child of a single working mom, I had a lot of alone time after school. It was during that time that I learned to love cooking. After watching a couple of episodes of Saved By The Bell and finishing my homework, I’d putter around the kitchen, trying to figure out what to make for my mom and me for dinner.

Most of the recipes came from the backs of salad dressing bottles or dried soup mixes, but a few were from my mom’s stash of food-splattered index cards. One of my favorites was for pot roast. It was a classic recipe, designed for the slow cooker, and I could get it started in the morning and, by the time I got home from school, it would smell amazing. Almost too good to wait for my mom to get home from work and eat it with me.

We put some miles on the Crock Pot with this recipe, and over the years, I’ve made the slow-cooked meal dozens of times. It’s one of my top choices for days when I know I’m going to be too busy to spend much time in the kitchen but will still want a comforting, home-cooked meal come dinnertime.

I’ve made a few adjustments to the recipe to make it work for my family, so now my mom’s classic pot roast is a collaborative recipe.

This recipe relies on slow cooking to develop delicious flavor, but it doesn’t require a ton of hands-on cooking time. In the original recipe, I combined all of the ingredients in the slow cooker, fired that baby up, and then enjoyed my creation for dinner.

Since then, I’ve added two steps that improve the texture and flavor of the chuck roast and vegetables—liberally seasoning the roast with salt and pepper and then searing it on all sides with a glug of olive oil.

I also deglaze the pan with wine and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the fond (the brown bits on the bottom of the pan). This essential element of flavor was missing from the original, but I couldn’t imagine the recipe without it now.

You can serve this flavorful roast over egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or polenta to soak up all the delicious broth.

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