Our delicious Slow Cooker Pot Roast recipe is so tender, cooked in a gravy sauce with carrots and potatoes, for an easy one-pot meal.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast easy enough for a weeknight.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast easy enough for a weeknight.Really though, this slow cooker roast beef only takes 15 minutes to prep and the crockpot does the work (or refer to my notes to make it in the oven or instant pot). This is my Mother-in-Law's recipe, and she used canned soups (which are convenient), but I've linked to my recipes for homemade cream of chicken soup and onion soup mix, to make this slow cooker pot roast completely from scratch, if you have time!
It's the most cozy meal with added carrots, potatoes, and other veggies, or serve over a bed of mashed potatoes, and our favorite homemade rolls on the side.
And if you love slow cooker recipes try my Beef Stew, Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos, Beef Noodle Soup, Slow Cooker Lasagna, or Slow Cooker Ribs!
How to make Slow Cooker Roast:
Sear Beef: Season roast generously with salt and pepper on all sides. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil until hot then sear the meat until it's browned on all sides. Transfer roast to a slow cooker (or dutch oven or instant pot).
Sauce: In a bowl, combine cream of soup mixture (or my homemade cream of soup recipe) and dry onion soup (here's my homemade onion soup mix). Pour over the chuck roast.
Cook: Cover slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours. If you want to add potatoes and carrots or other veggies, add them 1.5-2 hours before the timer is up.
Alternate Pot Roast Cooking Methods:
- Instant Pot Pot Roast: Slice the roast in half then season generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Sear roast on all sides on the sauté setting, until browned. Deglaze the pot with 1 cup beef broth. Pour sauce over roast. Secure lid and cook on high pressure for 60-80 minutes or until tender (depending on size of roast). Natural release for 15 minutes.
- Oven Baked Pot Roast: Sear roast in dutch oven pot. Add 2 ½ cups beef broth. Pour sauce on top. Cover and bake at 350°F for 4 hours, or until meat is tender.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: You can prep this easy pot roast recipe (but not cook it) 1-2 days in advance, depending on the freshness of your meat. Assemble everything in the pot then cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.
To Freeze: Transfer any leftover pot roast to a freezer safe container or bag and place in the freezer for up to 2 months. Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
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Recipe
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4-5 pounds beef chuck roast , prime or choice grade
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tablespoons oil , vegetable or canola oil
- 1 envelope dry onion soup mix , or use my homemade dry onion soup mix
- 2 cans cream of soup (mushroom or chicken) , or make a double batch of my homemade cream of chicken soup recipe
Optional add-ins:
- carrots, red or yukon gold potatoes, pearl onions, mushrooms, parsnips, celery.
Instructions
- Prep and Sear Meat: Season meat with salt and pepper, generously, on all sides. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the meat. Sear on medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side, until all sides are well browned.
- Add to slow cooker: Lightly grease a slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place meat in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Mix sauce: Stir together the cream of soup mixture and dry onion soup seasoning in a bowl. Pour mixture over the meat in the slow cooker.
- Slow Cook: Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours. Check to see if the roast is done by poking it with a fork; it should shred easily. If it's tough, cook longer.
- If adding veggies, add them 1.5 – 2 hours before the timer is up.
Notes
Nutrition
I originally shared this recipe December 2017. Updated September 2021 and December 2024.
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I don’t normally leave reviews but this was so good. Both my husband and I agree this is the best pot roast we have ever tasted. I followed the recipe exactly including the Homemade Dry Onion Soup Mix and the Condensed Cream of anything soup. The only changes I will make is to double the Mix of onion soup and soup so there is more gravy next time for left over roast and cut back on the salt.
Yo Lauren,
Will make this recipe over the coming weekend. Was drawn in by the homemade dry onion & cream of soups. At the store this am and read the label of just the dry onion soup pk and wasn’t happy about the contents. So I bought some dehydrated onions from the bulk bins and will make your ” clean ” recipe.
We all should be reading packages for contents but, you know, in a hurry, etc.
Wanted to thank you for sparking my curiosity and trying to live cleaner.
This is the most delicious pot roast recipe I’ve ever made! I used your recipe for the “cream of” soup and then a store bought onion soup mix. The meat was tender, gravy was delicious, and our picky daughter even went back for seconds!! We had leftover but my husband and son has them for breakfast the next day. 🙂
I don’t usually enjoy pot roast but make it because of the convenience of the slow cooker. I actually really enjoyed this recipe. So flavorful and not dry! My husband said, “This is the best pot roast ever!”
Awesome and Amazing, Simple and Delicious Thank you, you have given me a creative cooking kick in the ***.
Hi Lauren,
So happy I came across your website. This is one of my two entrees I will be serving on Christmas night. Being the Mother of four grown young men, they always want some kind of meat. Looking forward the final result! Will let you know.
I have a 2.5 lb beef chuck pot roast but it is frozen. Can I place in crockpot frozen, and how long would I cook it for.
I have a 2 lb roast and wanted it done before 8 hours. Do u think I can put on high? Or should I be fine since only 2lb?
I bet it will be perfect by 6 hours or so.
Delicious! Put the whole family in a food coma. We couldn’t stop eating! Had a nap then a little more. Will make this again .Thanks
My daughter has strict sodium limitations so I am very careful on recipes I choose. I really want to try the slow cooker pot roast but I am wondering how you calculated the 260mg of sodium in the nutrition info area. When I jumped over to the homemade onion soup mix recipe to check that out, it is 2,401mg. Adding that recipe to the pot roast and dividing by 6 servings is 400mg per serving. That one ingredient is higher than what you have listed for the entire pot roast recipe. Thanks for helping me understand!
Hi JoLynn,
The nutrition information in my recipes is estimated using a nutrition calculator plugin. In looking into this further, I can see that you are right, the sodium is much lower than it should be. The plugin offers only one choice for generic onion soup and unfortunately is not reflecting accurately the sodium in this recipe. (As a general note, the nutrition calculations generally seem accurate).
If it helps,Lipton onion soup mix would add roughly 813 mg of sodium per serving and my homemade recipe would offer about 400mg per serving. I hope that helps!
I started making this recipe this morning, and I realized I had a rump roast, I was wondering if the cooking time differs between the two cuts of meet? Also mine weighed around 2lbs… oh no that’s like less then half of what your recipe calls for?😬 If anyone knows and is on here like now or Asap it’s only been cooking for about 1/2hr
Growing up my mom would always made this, but we used 2can of both cream of mushroom and celery and 1 can of cream chicken. The gravy is always so good, so I did the cans state above but include your dry onion soup mix. I also put chunks of potatoes around the roast(Cuz those are my favorite) and I am gonna take your advice and add the carrots 2hrs before it’s done.
I will also make mashed potatoes to accompany the roast as well as corn!
After Dinner tonight I was post again, on how it turned out, so easy to make and you can leave run places cuz the slow cooker is doing everything else for me!
Thank you so much for your recipe which I ended up tweaking a little bit
I am gonna have to try your slow cooked lasagna I’ve heard it’s delicious 😋
A rump roast will work great!