Pot Roast – fall apart beef, tender flavour infused vegetables and potatoes smothered in a rich gravy. It’s mouthwateringly good, yet simple to make, especially if you use a slow cooker. However, this beef pot roast recipe can be made in an instant pot, oven OR crockpot – pick which method works best for you!
Pot Roast
Confession: I wasn’t a fan of pot roast for most of my life. I just didn’t get it – the beef and vegetables were fine, but typically they are braised in just liquids that aren’t thickened in any way so the end result is like a watery broth.
Plenty of flavour in it, but when you pour it over the beef and vegetables, it doesn’t cling to it at all because it’s watery.
So I decided to change it and thicken the sauce using a touch of flour. So it’s more like a gravy. Now THAT’s a pot roast worthy of company, in my humble opinion!!!
If you love meltingly tender, slow cooked roast beef and deeply flavoured gravy, this pot roast recipe is for you!
How to make Pot Roast
Season beef well with salt and pepper
Sear beef aggressively – this is KEY for flavour in the broth and the beef!
Sauté onion and garlic, then deglaze* the skillet or pot with red wine (or water or broth);
Tip everything into a slow cooker, instant pot / pressure cooker or casserole pot for oven along with beef broth, carrots and celery;
Sprinkle with dried rosemary and thyme then slow cook 8 hrs low, 55 min pressure cook on high, or oven 4 hours at 300°F/150°C;
Add the potatoes partway through cooking and by the time the potatoes are cooked, the beef will be meltingly tender!
* Means simmering liquid and scraping bottom of pan to release the flavour stuck on the bottom of the pan from searing. It adds a ton of flavour into the cooking broth!
Best cut of beef for pot roast is chuck roast
The best beef for pot roast is Beef Chuck Roast. It’s an economical cut of beef that’s marbled with fat that needs to be slow cooked to breakdown the tough connective tissues so it becomes ultra tender to eat.
Chuck roast can be purchased in large pieces that are or aren’t rolled. You want to use rolled chuck roast for this recipe, otherwise the beef ends up all warped. Supermarkets and butchers should carry chuck roast that’s already rolled, otherwise, you can roll it yourself and tie with kitchen string or ask the butcher to do it for you.
It’s essentially a slow cooked Roast Beef!
The key point of difference with this pot roast recipe is that the braising liquid is thickened so it comes out like a deeply flavoured gravy rather than a watery broth which is how most pot roasts are made.
So it’s essentially a slow cooked Roast Beef that’s fall apart tender that comes with a gravy and tender flavour infused vegetables. Complete meal in one pot!
Because the beef needs to be mostly submerged in liquid while it slow cooks, you end up with lots and lots of liquid in the finished dish.
Which means, in my Pot Roast, you end up with lots and lots of very tasty gravy.
This is a sensational “problem” to have. Keep leftovers, drown your potatoes with them, toss through pasta (oh yes!!), serve it as a sauce for tomorrow night’s dinner. – Nagi x
PS Bread to mop your bowl clean wouldn’t go astray. Try these No Knead Dinner Rolls, a quick No Yeast Irish Bread or these moreish Cheese Muffins.
Watch how to make it
Note: My slow cooker looks like a pressure cooker because it’s a multi function slow cooker (but no, it’s not an Instant Pot!).
This pot roast recipe was originally published January 2018. Updated for housekeeping matters. No change to recipe – I wouldn’t dare! 🙂
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Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 2 kg / 4 lb beef chuck roast , rolled (Note 1)
- 1 tsp each salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion (large), cut into large dice
- 5 garlic cloves , peeled and smashed (Note 2a)
- 5 carrots , peeled and cut into 2.5cm/1″ pieces
- 3 celery stalks , cut into 4 cm / 1.5″ pieces
- 1 cup (250ml) dry red wine (sub with beef broth)
- 3 cups (750ml) beef broth , salt reduced
- 1/3 cup (50g) flour (plain / all purpose) (GF – Note 2b)
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 750g / 1.5 lb potatoes , peeled and cut into 2.5 cm / 1″ pieces
Instructions
- Pat beef dry with paper towels. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper all over.
- Heat oil in a skillet over high heat. Brown aggressively all over – a deep dark brown crust is essential for flavour base! Should take about 7 minutes.
- Transfer beef to slow cooker.
- In the same skillet, add onion and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until onion is browned.
- Add wine, reduce by half. Transfer to slow cooker.
- Mix together flour and about 1 cup of the broth. Lumps is fine. Pour into slow cooker.
- Add remaining broth, carrots, celery, rosemary and thyme into slow cooker.
- Cover and slow cook on LOW for 5 hours. (45 min pressure cook on HIGH, Note 3a for Oven and Stove)
- Add potato, slow cook on LOW for 3 hours. (10 min pressure cooker on HIGH, Note 3b)
- Remove beef. Rest for 5 minutes, then slice thickly.
- Adjust salt and pepper of Sauce to taste.
- Serve beef with vegetables and plenty of sauce! Bread also terrific for mopping up sauce – try these No Knead Dinner Rolls, No Yeast Irish Soda Bread or these fabulous Cheese Muffins.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More slow cooked beef recipes
Because nothing beats the flavour of beef cooked long and slow until it’s meltingly tender….
Life of Dozer
When the homeless man at the dog park isn’t at his car (usually off tending to the park grounds – best groundskeeper EVER!), I tie food to the boot of his van. Pot Roast, in this case!
And this is Dozer, trying to figure out if he can reach the bag. #SHAMELESS
Nagi, this is what I made for Christmas dinner! I never thought to thicken the broth before, I usually pour it off after cooking and make a gravy out of it separately. I serve the meat on a platter, veggies in a bowl and the gravy in a boat. :>) I will have to try it your way and save myself the washing of yet another pot.
Oooh YUM!!! What a Christmas! N xx PS Actually, I like your gravy boat idea!
Nagi, my b/f and I love pot roast, so I will be making this! I’ll let you know how it goes.
I am going to add one small step to your instructions, which is to: Deglaze the pan I use to brown the beef for more of that flavor you mentioned in your post.
YUMMMMY!
Oooh YES to that Deborah! I do that with win! 🙂 N x
Why not use a combination of russet and red potatoes? The russets will ‘melt’ and thicken the gravy (allowing you to skip the white flour), while the reds will hold its shape.
I should add this to the notes though, to let others see it, it’s a terrific idea and then it would be GLUTEN FREE!
Hi Judy! I must confess that I’m not the hugest fan of thickening liquids using broken down potato, I find it isn’t as smooth. I like doing it for soups! N x
This looks delicious! I also add flour but I would like to know what kind of roast beef do you look for? My chuck roast beef always end up dry! I even tried picking ones with more marbling but still dry. When I make it on the stove-top it comes out perfect but in the oven or slow cooker, DRY! I’m not sure what I am doing wrong. I’m going to keep trying until I get it right.
Woah! Dry chuck??? Can I ask where you live??
I live in the Washington DC area.
I don’t even like pot roast and now you have ME thinking, “I need to make this!” Every recipe I’ve tried from you has been a hit so I know my husband will be a happy man.
Highest. Praise. EVER!!! 😂
I have been eating pot roast since childhood and cooking it for many years. It would never have occurred to me NOT to add thickening as one would to make gravy. Maybe it’s because I am a U.S.
Southern cook
Southerners. Gravy. Amen. N x ❤️
Hi Nagi
I have been waiting for you to post a slow cooker beef pot roast and can’t believe my luck 😃 To thicken the gravy can I use corn flour instead?
Thanks
Yasmin
Hi Yasmin! You sure can. 🙂 Start with 1 tbsp of cornflour. If at the end the gravy isn’t thick enough, add 1 tsp of cornflour mixed with a splash of water, stir into the liquid and heat up (the residual heat will probably be enough). It doesn’t need to be cooked out as much as flour so it’s easy to adjust at the end! N x
Oh, Boy! Does your roast ever look moist and juicy. I hope you had a great New Years and didn’t overindulge in the bubbly. And if you did — good for you!! I like a thicker juice than just a brothy gravy. And thank you for sending us a nice comfort food warming dish — Florida is supposed to be warm and we’re wearing our winter coats. 😢 I’m really excited about this year!! I’m getting good vibes — how about you?? Have a great week. 🤗
Of course I overindulged. Didn’t you? 😂
I’m in Ohio, just below Lake Erie, so we’re used to cold and snow (grew up in Buffalo, NY!!) but it is just so bitter today!! My fiance and I are recovering from nasty colds and we just got a slow cooker, so I think this is going on the menu for the weekend. 🙂 I might borrow from my gumbo skillset and make a quick black roux with the flour before adding it- will probably still need a little plain flour for thickening though!
I hope you both make a speedy recovery! We’ve been seeing all about the deep freeze on the news over here, it’s hard to imagine living somewhere SO COLD!!! N xx
My friend in Queensland says it’s been rainy rather than hot and muggy. Up here in Western Canada, we’ve had to deal with snow, rain and ice–nothing to what the East Coast is suffering through. Anyway…
Since we’re on a doctor-ordered diet, I cook entirely without added salt; so pepper and more garlic, but no “salt & pepper.” Also, my wife can’t have potatoes (potassium), so we substitute–believe it or not–radishes, which lose their bite and red colour when cooking. The texture is somewhat similar and satisfies us. We also use NSA (no sodium added) beef broth (Campbell’s) rather than the reduced-sodium. Those NSA broths are a life-saver!
And I’ll throw in a few halved yellow onions as well. Those are marvelous in broth and gravy when they’ve cooked with the meat.
Great-looking recipe, anyway, Nagi. Thanks for this, and I’ll probably try this next week! (I’m still working on using up the turkey soup I made the other day, plus I have a ham to cook! So thanks!
It’s a world I can’t imagine!! I really want to experience a white Christmas one year though… one day! It think this is a great one for no added salt because you get SO much flavour from the slow cooking 🙂 Also, try adding dried porcini mushrooms into the braising liquid, just a small amount is going to add loads of umami and again, helps make up for no salt! N xx
Wow! This looks just like my mom’s pot roast! It was one of the few things she cooked really well and I never found out how she did it. Thank you so much, I’ll try it with the kids and grandkids!
Ohhh I absolutely love hearing that! N xx
Thank you, Nagi, for this warm, comforting recipe. Here in the US Southern state of SC we have been freezing. We are not used to this kind of cold and are counting the days until the warmer weather is to come back in about 3 days. This recipe looks delicious and us Southerners love our gravy!
Laughing at Dozer wanting to get that pot roast you hung up for the homeless man at the park. I think you told us his name was Goeff? He is a lucky man to have a friend like you!
Excuse my ignorance – SC – is that South Carolina?? Does it get very cold there??? I thought it was a fairly warm area. Yep it’s Geoff! I m thinking of getting a sign for his car space – “Geoff’s Place”!
Sorry, Nagi. It was my ignorance to abbreviate! You are right, SC is South Carolina. We usually have fairly mild winters with maybe a couple of days that will dip below freezing and then it will warm up. We have been in this “Arctic blast” for about 10 days now and it was 11 degrees yesterday morning. Way too cold for me! But, we are warming up. Usual daytime temps in winter are in the mid-high 50’s. But we are going to be near 70 degrees this Friday! Woo-hoo! Wish you would come visit us! Springtime and Fall are beautiful.
Great idea for a sign for Goeff’s car space. I bet he would love it!
Looks like another winner, Nagi. I’ll wait for cooler weather to do it. It’s to be 40C here tomorrow, thank the food gods for left over Xmas ham. Thank you for all your fantastic recipes.
I’m dying Tricia. My laptop seriously almost exploded yesterday in the heat.
Too much gravy is def never a problem at my house. I make slow cooker beef pot roast, but have always had the problem with the braising liquid too. What a great idea to make it a gravy. I love gravy. I mean, who doesn’t? This is an awesome recipe. I just got an Instant Pot, so I’m thinking I may try and adapt this for the Instant Pot. We’ll see what happens!
Perfect for the Instant Pot Danielle! Just brown the beef in the IP, then take it out, then proceed with recipe and put the beef back in with everything, then pressure cook or slow cook! N x
Hi, Nagi,
You’re right, the US is dealing with some horrible winter weather, especially the East Coast. For those who still have power, this would be such a warming, comforting dinner. My family & friends are in the Boston area, and they are getting hammered. We’re all about Yankee pot roast back home, and your recipe reminds me of family dinners when my grandmother would make this on top of the stove. I love the convenience of a slow cooker, though. I don’t think I’d change anything except add a handful of frozen peas toward the end, and maybe some chopped Crimini mushrooms to add a little depth to the broth. Just personal preferences, though. I have several nice chuck roasts in the freezer, so yeah, this will be on the menu shortly. 🙂
Thanks for sharing all your amazing recipes with us. We DO appreciate you! (Hi, Dozer! xoxo) 🙂
Are there a lot of people without power??? That must be so hard in such a deep freeze! I simply cannot imagine it! PS Hi passed on to Dozer, he is passed out in front of me, he opened one eye in acknowledgement.
250,000 people without power in the North Shore above Boston. Crazy cold, tons of flooding, thick ice encasing cars, etc. Not sure how the other New England states are doing, but anyone on the coast is feeling it. I saw a video of my old neighborhood in Salem, and the beach across the street from my house had small icebergs on it! You know it’s cold when the ocean freezes. 🙁 Hope it warms up soon.
We made the crock pot roast yesterday. It’s amazing. The hubster inhaled it, so he went to the store and bought another rump roast, which we used instead of chuck. We cut it up and cooked it in the Instant Pot, with more broth, onions and mushrooms, and added it to the crock pot. I’ll freeze several containers for quick meals later in the month. The meat was very tender and it was nice to avoid the extra fat from a chuck roast in the sauce. Definitely a keeper. (That’s okay, Dozer. You are responsible only for eating, sleeping, playing and looking cute.) 🙂
Question; my wife is gluten intolerant. Can I use corn start instead of flour? If so, how much corn starch.
Hi Ben! You sure can 🙂 Start with 1 tbsp cornstarch / cornflour with a splash of broth, mix then pour in. Then at the end, if you want the liquid a bit thicker, mix 1 tsp of cornflour with splash of water and stir it in, bring up to heat then the liquid will thicken a bit more. Add even more if you want! It’s a bit harder to tell with cornflour because it thickens more than flour, and you can’t tell exactly how much liquid will come out of each person’s beef. But cornstarch doesn’t need to be cooked out like flour, so as soon as it’s added into the liquid, once the liquid heats up (or you may be able to use residual heat), the liquid will thicken straight away and can be consumed immediately. 🙂
I so look forward to receiving your recipes by email- save them all – thank you! Your recipes are yummy
You’re so welcome Malena! N xx
Hello Nagi,
You know what I like by now, and this one hits the spot.
It is Spanish Christmas tomorrow. Here the big celebration is the arrival of the Three Kings rather than Father Christmas or indeed the birth of Jesús. Floats fill the streets with sweets being thrown to the watching children. Then, in smaller towns like here, the Three Kings give out the gifts to the children. (The parents of course having previously given them to the Kings). The children of course love it!
Well anyway, I digress, but it will snow over the weekend here in the village and they have promised a sharp drop in temperatures. Sounds like the perfect time to give this recipe a go.
I do have a slow cooker, but as I will have the wood fired stove going I suspect I will cook it there. It heats the room too so I often have it going in winter!
Thanks as always for sharing
I absolutely LOVED reading that Lincoln! Thank you so much for taking the time to share that – and MERRY CHRISTMAS! (Wait, do you say that?? Sorry if not!) N x
The 6th is, or should I say was the big day. As the Three Wise Men, or Three Kings as they say here, give out the presents they say “Happy Kings”.
The 25th, Christmas, is growing in importance. The shops are pushing for it as they hope to sell more presents. The children are also pushing for it, to get more presents. In many ways though it is a better day to receive presents. Holidays here start around the 24th of December and end about now. For most children today, the 8th of January, is their first day back at school.
Receiving presents on the 25th gives them 2 weeks to play with their toys, receiving presents on the 6th gives them just 2 days!
“Receiving presents on the 25th gives them 2 weeks to play with their toys, receiving presents on the 6th gives them just 2 days!: <---- 😂
Well, didn’t get round to making it until yesterday…… but wanted to tell you how good it was. Great recipe, nice thick sauce, delicious.
Just in case any of you other readers are interested let me just say that I cooked it in a wood fired stove at around 120-150ºC. Temperatures do fluctuate as I am burning wood! Didn’t change any of the ingredients. It was in there for about 4 hours in total.
Not sure if you have any other Spanish readers, but I used a cut called “aguja”. I rolled it up and tied it off.
Thanks as always for a great recipe.
Hi Nagi, I’ve been religiously cooking your recipes for the last 6 months ever since I stumbled across it and I’ve done everything from your shredded beef chilli con carne, to the soba beef noodles to the blueberry muffins – everything has been SPOT ON. I’ve never followed a set of recipes by the same person that’s yielded such fantastic results every time.
Just wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you!! Your recipes are amazing, flavoursome and easy such that even I can cook it. Also can I please request you do the beef brisket french dip sandwiches next?! I actually was planning to give it a go this weekend but I’d love to see how you make it 🙂
Thank you and this pot roast looks amazing too – will have to give it a go.
Hi Caroline, thank you so much for taking the time to leave this message! And you’re so welcome, it truly brings me such joy to know that other people from all over this big wide world are able to enjoy my recipes! N xx
These one look absolutely fabulous!!Thank you for the recipe.
You’re so welcome Emily! Hope you get a chance to try it! N xx