Glorious One-Pot Meals and Cooking Tender Meat

Reader message:  At an event you came to in Boulder I bought your book. Sometimes when I use this method (esp. with pork or beef) the meat is tough.  Like it is either cooked too long or then not long enough.  One recipe the Adobo Pork, for example.  So I just added extra broth and then put in oven at 325 for another hour or so to see if it gets tender.  What do you suggest to fix this? ~Annie W., Boulder, CO

Hi Annie, Thanks for writing!

From the sound of it, you could be having one of two issues:

1) You could be using too large of a piece of meat.

Try making the recipe with thawed meat cut into cubes or chunks instead of one large piece. You might find that you prefer a saucier recipe for these meats, like the Honey and Spice Pork, or you could make any recipe a little saucier by adding 1/4 cup of water or broth to the original recipe;

or 2) Your oven temperature is off.

If your oven temperature is off by even a little bit, or your oven is not fully pre-heated to 450 F before you put the full pot inside, the method will not work perfectly. There’s more about oven temp and Glorious One-Pot Meals here.

Thanks for writing and Happy cooking!

Get all your Glorious One-Pot Meal questions answered and more at a Glorious One-Pot Meals cooking class! I don’t teach as frequently as I once did, but the next class will be at Compleat Lifestyles in Centennial, Colorado, on November 13, 2014. Contact them directly for information and to register.

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