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
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Season beef well with salt and pepper
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Sear beef aggressively – this is KEY for flavour in the broth and the beef!
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Sauté onion and garlic, then deglaze* the skillet or pot with red wine (or water or broth);
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Tip everything into a slow cooker, instant pot / pressure cooker or casserole pot for oven along with beef broth, carrots and celery;
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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;
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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
I made it in the pressure cooker and it was incredible.
The chuck roast is so much more tender than brisket (an option offered). It just falls apart.
I also took the tip and added red potatoes for 10 mins at the end. They turned out perfect this way and not mushy like they usually do in the pressure cooker.
This is my new ‘entertaining’ recipe. Thanks Nagi!
Any recipe I have used from tineats has been amazing !!!! Definitely my go-to page. Thanks Nagi 🙂
Hi i’m cooking for christmas would this work with one 2kg piece of meat and one 1kg piece or will the 1kg piece dry out, please answer. Thank you
Always comes out perfect. Chuck roast is my favorite, though more expensive here in California. I use the instapot and double the cornstarch for thick gravy. Very easy and delish meal.
How would you cook this on high in the slowcooker? Is this possible to do?
Thanks for a great recipe. Have you ever seared the beef and assembled all ingredients the night before cooking, put in the fridge overnight and cooked in the slow cooker the next day? If this could work, it is an ideal Christmas Eve dinner when we are busy until we get home for dinner. Thank you!
Thank you for the delicious pot roast recipe. Followed the recipe exactly. Look forward to making again. I used the instant pot instead of the slow cooker. I couldn’t wait 8 hrs 🙂
Quite possibly the best pot roast I’ve ever made and eaten! I swapped a nice Portugese rose for the red and used a boneless bottom blade roast. OMG so good in the slow cooker!!
This looked so good Nagi, so I bought a Bolar Blade and cooked last night. I didn’t add the potatoes, only because I would’ve had to get up at 2.00 am in the morning. So cooked up the red potatoes in microwave, the gravy was way to runny, so more cornflour added. Looked much better,then I blitzed gravy, added potatoes then ready for lunch today. It’s looks and smells so good.
I’ve made many, many pot roasts over the years, but none like this! After 22 years of pot roasts, my husband told me this was the best one I’ve ever made. The one change I made was to add some Worcestershire sauce and some turnip because he loves them. Thank you.
Hi Nagi,
I’ve a 2kg veal rolled roast, I’ve never cooked veal before.. would this recipe work? It looks mouth wateringly delicious 😋
This pot roast was fantastic! Another hit recipe Nagi! So easy to make and your directions are spot on. Thank you
I made this last night and everyone loved it. I did the oven braise version using my Dutch Oven and added a tablespoon of tomato paste for added depth. We served it with mashed potatoes rather than the potatoes cooked in the pot. And wow!! Another amazing winner dinner from Recipe Tin! Can’t wait for my cookbook to arrive!!
I made this last night and everyone loved it. I did the oven braise version using my Dutch Oven and added a tablespoon of tomato paste for added depth. We served it with mashed potatoes rather than the potatoes cooked in the pot. And wow!! Anothrt amazing inner dinner from Recipe Tin! Can’t wait for my cookbook to arrive!!
That should say winner dinner. Please edit before posting
Can you cook this in the instant pot?
Want to make this for dinner but didn’t take the meat out of the freezer in time for the slow cooker.
Wow! This was so delicious! My grocery was out of rolled roasts but it worked great with just a flat pot roast. As soon as dinner was over, I forwarded the recipe to several people.
Am anxiously awaiting February to arrive along with your book!
Prepared this for Thanksgiving and its the best roast beef recipe I have ever made! Another winner recipe. Thanks for sharing your brilliance, Nagi!
Another great recipe. Made this for dinner tonight and turned out very delicious. Tender yet beautifully cut when served. Your awesome Nagi!
Can I use an instant pot instead? If so, how long do you recommend I cook it for?
Moist and tender – Delicious!. Followed the recipe exactly using the oven method and the meat and gravy was perfect. A winner with the family. I find my slow cooker too watery so I use Nagi’s oven recipes for all slow cooked meat. The slow cooked rosemary and garlic lamb over 3.5 hours is also excellent. I will try the 12 hour lamb one day soon.