Slow Cooker Pot Roast
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No-fuss, fall-apart pot roast made in your crockpot with the most tender vegetables! And the gravy is perfection.
Featured Comment
So I’m not sure if you guys know this but Chicago has some amazing food.
Like really really really bomb food. And I’m not just talking about deep dish pizzas or Portillo’s chocolate cake shake. No, I’m talking about Italian beef sandwiches, Nutella pockets, and ice cream doughnut sandwiches just to name a few.
See, it’s all pretty amazing. But sometimes you just need a classic comfort food dish that brings you back home. Something mom used to make, and something you can enjoy on a Sunday night with friends and family.
And what better way to do that than with a classic pot roast? A pot roast that can cook all day long in your crockpot so all that’s left to do is picking up that bottle of wine to serve.
The pot roast comes out unbelievably fall-apart tender in the slow cooker with the most perfect gravy that you can make from the cooking juices. Not to mention, all the tender potatoes, carrots and celery that soak up all that flavor.
Oh, and I would totally serve this with the wine I just picked up and a slice of Portillo’s chocolate cake for dessert. Just a thought for all you Chicago locals!
WHAT TO SERVE WITH POT ROAST
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt slow cooker
Slow Cooker Pot Roast: Frequently Asked Questions
We recommend using chuck roast for the best results possible. Brisket or rump roast (bottom round roast) can also be used.
Additional beef broth can be used for red wine as a non-alcoholic substitute. Broth will be less acidic and more mild in flavor than red wine.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
Yes! Don’t have 7-8 hours to wait in the slow cooker? Here is our favorite pot roast recipe made in the oven.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 3 pound boneless chuck roast, excess fat trimmed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ tablespoons canola oil
- 1 ½ cups beef broth
- ½ cup dry red wine
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
- 3 carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
- 2 celery ribs, cut into 3-inch pieces
- 1 medium sweet onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Season beef with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper.
- Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add beef and cook until evenly browned, about 3-4 minutes per side.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together beef broth, wine, flour, tomato paste and Worcestershire; set aside.
- Place potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaf into a 6-qt slow cooker. Stir in beef broth mixture; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Top with beef.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours, or until beef is fork-tender.
- Remove beef, potatoes, carrots, celery and onion from the slow cooker; shred beef, using two forks. Cover with aluminum foil.
- Strain cooking juices through a fine-mesh sieve into a small saucepan over medium heat; discard solids. Skim any remaining fat from surface and discard. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, whisking constantly, until desired thickness, about 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve beef, potatoes, carrots, celery and onion with juices immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Video
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My house smells like Fall and this pot roast is amazing! First time using a slow cooker and wont be the last. Simple and easy and most important tasty!!!
Great. First time I made a pot roast in the slow cooker. The prep as easy and the results were amazing.
What a great recipe. Just the perfect ingredients to make a delicious pot roast. It tasted great! The recipe made enough for 3 people to eat dinner, and still have leftovers. I will definitely make this again!
Can i cook this for half the time (4 hours) on high?
Hi Candace, that’s a great idea but without having tried that ourselves we cannot answer with certainty. If you do try it, please use your best judgement. Good luck!
So much flavor!!
My roast was almost 4 lbs. Tried this recipe today and cooked on high for 6 hours, but removed the veggies after 5 hours. The roast is done, but I like mine super fall-apart-tender so I kept it in an extra 30-40 mins.
Tip: If you do choose to cook on high, make sure your veggies are cut into large chunks; smaller pieces will just disintegrate.
Sauce was tasty, but after 7 1/2 hours on low? The vegetables were nowhere CLOSE to being cooked. The onions were crunchy and the potatoes were still so hard that they were difficult to cut. My slow cooker is not the problem – I use it frequently and other recipes on low work fine. I ended up boiling the veggies in the liquid wot some added beef stock, but the dinner was pretty much ruined. This recipe is fine for flavor but if you make it? Cool for 8 hours on HIGH!
Hi Andrew! I’m so glad you tried this recipe – it’s one of my favorites, especially for a Sunday night dinner with the whole family!
As for the vegetables – how did you cut them? Of course, larger-sized vegetables will take longer to cook but I worry with 8 hours on high, all the vegetables will turn to mush. 🙁
delicious
Hi there. May I substitute the flour with cornstarch?
I love damn delicious cooking! All my faves are from you. You are my first and only recipe go to!
Absolutely fantastic. I didn’t make any adjustments perhaps a little extra wine. A winner. Thanks
Thank you for sharing this awesome pot roast recipe. This was soooo delicious! Next time, I will add sautéed mushrooms to the already-done vegetables. And the sauce was perfect, too, so again, thank you. 🙂
I’m sure mushrooms would be so great with this, Lynette!
So I think where the confusion lies…you didnt mention adding step 3 to step 7. You set it aside and never mention it again. Just to drain the cooking liquid, discard solids and boil and whisk to thicken. Common sense would be to decipher and realize oh they must mean to mix the set aside and cooking liquid. However, common sense isnt so commom these days. Maybe this little tid bit will help someone out there.
Step 4 says to stir in the beef broth mixture.
I plan to use this recipe as the main course for an informal dinner for eight guests. Should I buy two 4 lb chuck roasts and prepare them separately? I have two 7 quart slow cookers. I might be able to fit both roasts in one cooker but worry about adjusting the amounts of the other ingredients.
What would be a good substitute for the wine?
Karla, you can substitute additional beef broth for the red wine. 🙂
Just finished making this. Delicious! Love the sauce, great idea to strain it.
Very bold flavors, with the beef dominating. Will put this one in my recipe box. 🙂
We love hearing that! Thanks for sharing, Nichole!
Total victory for family dinner tonight. Wife loved it, teenagers loved it, younger kids loved it. Only problem was…….no leftovers!!!
Wow, and it’s so hard to make everyone happy at dinner time! Thanks for sharing, Geoff! 🙂
No review yet..making today. The beef is sitting on top of veggies, hardly any broth touching it, is this correct? Worried the beef will be dried out. Thanks, Marianne
It should be fine, Marianne. What size slow cooker are you using?
I had the same issue, but the broth wasn’t anywhere near the beef. So, I made another batch of the sauce and added. Hope it doesn’t ruin the recipe. Can’t wait to try it tonight; it smells amazing.
My boyfriend said “that was delicious.” “Would you say it was damn delicious?” I asked. “Oh yeah.” he replied.
Such great flavor from the wine, the meat fell apart after about 8 1/2 hrs and the veggies were perfect. I had bigger yukons so I quartered them and it worked great. Thanks!
We love hearing that, Jen! Thanks so much for sharing.
Think you forgot that add flour to the stock to make gravy part…?
This is mentioned in the list of ingredients and in the directions in step #3.
Step 3 is to add to the crockpot, not the gravy afterwards.
B, the flour is added in step #3. The gravy is made in step #7. Hope that helps!
So I think where the confusion lies…you didnt mention adding step 3 to step 7. You set it aside and never mention it again. Just to drain the cooking liquid, discard solids and boil and whisk to thicken. Common sense would be to decipher and realize oh they must mean to mix the set aside and cooking liquid. However, common sense isnt so commom these days.
Your gorgeous
By far the best pot roast I’ve made yet! The secret is the sauce , I’ve not taken it out and thickened it like this before, so good! Didn’t change a thing, recipe is perfect as it stands. Tip- use a wine you like!
So happy you liked this, Jan! Thanks for sharing!
This was delicious! Nothing else to add 🙂
We love hearing that, Molly!
I totally agree that this recipe is DAMN DELICIOUS! I am throwing out all of my pot roast recipes and only using your fantastic recipe from now on! I cooked it today and it is so great! Easy recipe and the gravy was perfect. As a former Chicagoan who knows and appreciates great food, congrats to you!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Karen!
I made this recipe yesterday, and it was the best pot roast I’d made. Looking forward to the leftovers tonight! I don’t like using the pre-made packets of slow cooker mix, so this recipe is all natural, all homemade, and simple–not to mention better in taste and flavor.
You get to tweak each ingredient for more or less of a given flavor, so that makes it a more personal meal. I prepared it exactly as the recipe calls for, and it was really, really good. Thanks!!
Thank you so much for your feedback, Mike! We’re so happy to hear that you enjoyed this!
This was very delicious and simple to put together! Thank you so much!
You are so welcome, Claudia!