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This Easy Slow Cooker Mississippi Pot Roast Recipe requires just four ingredients and there’s no prep work involved beforehand. Simply add everything into the slow cooker and walk away!
The BEST Slow Cooker Pot Roast
This is our new favorite slow cooker Mississippi pot roast recipe and it’s only 3 ingredients! I cannot even believe how perfect and juicy it was!! All you need is a great cut of beef, a slow cooker, and three simple ingredients and you’ve got the best slow cooker pot roast! It’s basically a Mississippi Roast recipe, which we all know and love.
Except, making a pot roast was turning out to not be rest for me. I was trying to figure out how to make a juicy roast by searing it, marinating it, injecting it, and so on and nothing was really hitting the spot for me. So I did what any normal person would do after an extended period of failures — I gave up.
Okay, maybe everyone doesn’t give up, but I just decided that maybe a beef roast wasn’t my thing. I took up pork and it totally went well. We made carnitas, tender shredded pork and finally a juicy shredded beef. But it still didn’t taste like that classic pot roast. And the gravy wasn’t that brown gravy I wanted.
It ends up so juicy and tender you won’t even be able to lift it out of the slow cooker (we use Hamilton Beach).
And there are wonderful drippings that make the best gravy. I just serve ours with the juices, but sometimes when we serve it with our favorite mashed potatoes I’ll whisk the dripping with a little cornstarch and water and let it thicken. It’s awesome.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast Ingredients
As we mentioned earlier, this CrockPot chuck roast recipe requires just four ingredients. Here’s what you’ll need to make the best slow cooker pot roast recipe:
- Beef chuck roast
- Dry ranch dressing packets
- Au jus seasoning packet
- Unsalted butter
What’s the Best Roast for Pot Roast?
Want to know which cut of beef is best for a slow cooker roast or pot roast? We prefer a simple chuck roast, but remember to look for one that has good marbling. But not so much that it’s all over in big pieces of fat, because without realizing it you’re paying for all of that weight and will end up with less meat than you expected.
How to Make Slow Cooker Pot Roast
It’s truly amazing how easy this slow cooker pot roast recipe is! Here’s how you make it:
- Place the chuck roast into the slow cooker insert.
- Sprinkle the two seasoning packets on top.
- Place butter on top of the roast.
- Place the lid onto the slow cooker, then let the roast cook on low for 8 hours.
If desired, you can shred the beef after 7 ½ hours and let it cook in its juices for another 30 minutes before serving.
Do You Add Water for a Slow Cooker Roast?
One of the biggest questions we about chuck roast CrockPot recipe is why we don’t add any water to the roast. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like a lot of older CrockPot recipes wanted water added to a roast recipe, which is completely unnecessary. If you’re cooking a roast and looking for moist, fall apart meat, then adding water is just going to boil the meat, and no one wants boiled meat.
Can I Freeze Pot Roast?
Yes, this slow cooker pot roast freezes very well. Once it’s cooled completely, shred the pot roast and pack it into freezer bags. Spoon some of the juices into the bags as well. If desired, you can freeze the juices in freezer bags and use them to make gravy in the future.
Tips for Making the Best Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Many have been told to first heat up a skillet and brown the meat on each side in order to seal in the juices. That’s completely false. Browning meat is to give that color and caramelized flavor to the meat, but unless you’re braising it’s really going to disappear a bit in a slow cooker, so I don’t see any need to brown a roast.
The real secret to a roast is to cook it low and slow. In an oven, you’re looking for 225-250 degrees Fahrenheit, and on a slow cooker you want to use the low setting. We never cook a chuck roast or even a pork butt for anything other than low temperature for 8 hours. I promise, it will fall apart.
You technically can cook this easy slow cooker pot roast for 4 hours on high if you’re short on time, but your roast won’t be anywhere near as fall apart tender as it’d be if you let it cook on low for the full 8 hours.
More Slow Cooker Recipes:
- Asian Sticky Slow Cooker Ribs
- Chili Sauce and Grape Jelly Slow Cooker Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Pineapple Mexican Shredded Chicken
- Slow Cooker Korean BBQ Beef
- Slow Cooker Ham
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 3 Pounds Beef Chuck Roast with good marbling, (ask your butcher for help)
- 1 Dry Ranch Dressing Packet
- 1 Au Jus Seasoning Packet
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
Instructions
- Sprinkle the top of the meat with the ranch seasoning and then the au jus packet.3 Pounds Beef Chuck Roast with good marbling, 1 Dry Ranch Dressing Packet, 1 Au Jus Seasoning Packet
- Place the butter on top.1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
- Cover with the lid and cook on low for 8 hours, shredding into the sauce after 7 1/2 hours if desired.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
THANK YOU!!! I grew up with those boiled roasts you talk about and always hated them. I just hosted Christmas lunch for my family and I really wanted to try a roast. I doubled the recipe and left it cooking overnight. I was nervous (because Christmas depended on this 😉) but knew you haven’t failed me yet. It turned out SOOOOO good! I even sent my dad the recipe because he wants to make it this weekend!
Yay! You made my day, Katie! So glad you enjoyed it!
OMGGGGGG!!!! This was AMAZING!!! Thank you
Yippee!! So glad you enjoyed it and thank you for leaving a comment!
WONDERFUL!!! This is the best roast I have ever had. The tenderness and flavor just melt in your mouth. I had given up completely on trying to cook a tender roast until I saw this recipe which explained the concept of not using water. (Water just boils your meat, doesn’t tenderize it) I followed the recipe as written without adding or changing anything. 8 hours later we were enjoying a sit-down meal that everyone was raving about. This will be my go-to recipe for roast and if I could, I would give it a 10-star rating. Thank you so much!
Wow! Thank you so much Tanya! So glad it was a hit for your family!
LOVE this! Omitted the butter and it didn’t detract from the flavor one bit. Also removed the fat from the drippings before making the gravy. SO delicious! Thank you!
Thanks Cathy! Thanks for the feedback!
I have not used this post yet but am going to today. I use the slow cooker a lot and find these rescipes real helpfull. Sometimes I use them as a guide and put in my own herbs and spices and meat could be roast, steak or whatever I have on hand at the time. This one sounds great.
This sounds like it would be VERY salty. Has anyone found it to be too much so?Thank you!
The salt actually works to tenderize the meat so you’ll definitely want to buy a good size of roast but it wont be too salty. 🙂
Somehow I get a popup that stayed around and nothing I could do would get rid of it. It was a recommended instagram account. What gives?
Me too. Guess it’s the ad to pay for the site.
Hi Faye and Dona, the pop up in the bottom right corner is for our instagram account where we share even more than what we share on the blog. In the top right hand corner of it is an arrow (it looks like a big “v”) and if you just click that it will go away immediately. Sorry for the trouble, it’s the only way for us to point our readers to where else they can find us. Hope you have a great week!
I’m sure this is a silly question – but I’ve never made homemade gravy before. When you say the drippings could be turned into gravy, you don’t say how much should be added to the pan – can you give me a rough estimate?
Thanks 😀
Hi Rebecca,
I just pour off whatever is left in the pot into a skillet, straining out any fat and turn the heat on to medium. As it begins to simmer I add a little corn starch to a bowl of water, about 2 teaspoons to 1-2 tablespoons of water and slowly drizzle it into the drippings while whisking. If there are a lot of drippings I add more cornstrach and water. Also, sometimes I just skim the fat and serve the juices with the meat. That’s our favorite and less work 🙂
Ran out of time to put this on this morning but am really craving it!!! I don’t want to loose the juicy tenderness. I was thinking on high for two hours and low for four? Have you ever done it like that?
You could do on high for 4 hours but it wont be as tender. On low for 4-6 would give it a little more time to render out those fats and make it juicy. 🙂
Hi! I have to say, this is the BEST, easiest recipe I’ve ever tried with a pot roast. It is our favorite, and I’ll never cook it any other way haha! I’m making 2 today(in two crockpots) for dinner, and feeding our fam + a few extended family members. My Mother-in-law has Celiac’s disease so she needs gluten-free meals/foods. I have not been able to find a gluten-free Au Jus gravy packet; so you think it’d get the same/similar effect if I just used a brown gravy(gluten-free) packet instead of Au Jus?? ?
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Hi Elizabeth, we’ve used the gravy as well and while I prefer the au jus we actually enjoy both so I say go for it! And thank you, thank you for the compliment!