Season chuck roasts pieces well with counter seasoning, reserving fat trimmings. Let stand
Set large slow cooker to high with lid on.
Place soup and gravy packets, soup, porcini paradiso and hot water in heating slow cooker. Place lid back on.
Heat a large saute pan to medium high, add olive and let come up to heat.
In batches, sear off chuck roast on two sides just until crusted.
Place your first batch (just the trimmed meat) in slow cooker and place pan back on heat, add more olive oil if needed. Add stick of butter to slow cooker.
At this point your pan should be starting to crust a little, this is what you want. Sear off remaining chuck roast pieces. When almost done, add ground pepper. Place this batch in the slow cooker, leaving fats and crust. Place pan back on heat and let heat up to medium.
Season fat trimmings to taste, add to pan and sear to crust with most of the fat being rendered out. Remove trimmings to snack plate for chef.
Let pan come back to heat one more time. Carefully add chardonnay to pan, careful of the steam. As it begins boiling, scrape up your fondant crust from your pan and let reduce. Once reduced about half, add water and reduce slightly. Add to slow cooker.
Cook on high for 3 hours. Alternatively, you could do this in an oven safe pot and place in 300° oven.
Servings 0