This slow cooked pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions is hearty and delicious. This classic pot roast of beef and vegetables is slow-cooked for hours, so the meat is tender enough to fall apart after you take it out of the crock pot.
A slow-cooked pot roast is a really great dish for the winter. It’s delicious, filling, and best of all is easy to make.
I like to do the prep the night before, store all the ingredients in the refrigerator (cover the potatoes with water), and then the next morning it is as easy as quickly searing the beef, adding all the ingredients to the slow cooker, setting it to cook, and heading to work. It is so awesome to come home to a freshly cooked meal on a winter’s evening!
If you are short on time try this Instant Pot chuck roast pressure cooker recipe instead (it is ready in just over an hour!).
Scroll down for the printable recipe card, or read on for all the details.
What do you need?
To make this recipe you can use a slow cooker, a crock-pot, or a multicooker or Instant Pot with a slow cook setting.
Ingredients
- A beef roast: an economical cut of meat like chuck roast, brisket, bolar, topside, or round roast is perfect for this recipe (a good quality cut of meat is wasted in a slow cooker, try air fryer roast beef instead). Choose a cut with some marbling for an extra flavorful and tender roast. Chuck roast will give you the best fall-apart beef. Slow cooking chuck roast renders down all the connective tissue making the meat soft and tender and easy to pull apart.
- Vegetables: the recipe below uses potatoes, carrots and onions, but you can vary the vegetables to make it to suit you. Try adding mushrooms, leeks, cabbage, parsnips, pumpkin, or green beans.
- Garlic: use a whole head, cut in half horizontally.
- Herbs: bay leaves and rosemary. Place them in the slow cooker whole, and remember to retrieve them from the dish before serving!
- Cornstarch (UK: cornflour) is used to thicken the gravy.
>> Related post: The Best Cuts of Meat for Pot Roast
Tip: Sear the meat first
I know it is an extra layer of hassle, but always brown your meat in a pan on the stove first. It takes just minutes and really adds so much to the flavor, as well as making the meat a golden brown (rather than an unappetizing greyish brown). Brown the onions at the same time, this really enhances the flavor of the meal, and it is easy to do since you are browning the meat anyway.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 2 lb / 900 g beef roast (brisket, chuck, topside [Note 1])
- 1 tablespoon / 15 ml olive oil
- 3 cups / 0.75 l beef stock or broth
- 3 large potatoes
- 3 large carrots
- 1 bulb garlic (cut in half horizontally)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 tablespoon / 8 g cornflour
- 1 cup / 230 ml water (as required)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Directions
- Wash and peel the potato and carrots, cut into 2-3 inch chunks. Dice the onion.
- Pat beef roast dry. Heat oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. When it is hot, brown the onions, and sear the roast on all sides so that the outer surface is browned all over.
- Place the vegetables, garlic, rosemary, and bay leaves in the slow cooker bowl, and add the meat and onions on top.
- Mix the cornflour with an equal amount of water to create a slurry, then whisk together with the beef stock until smooth. Pour into the slow cooker.
- Cover with a lid and set slow cooker to cook on LOW for 8hrs [Note 2], until the beef is fork tender.
- When the cooking time is up, remove the beef and vegetables from the slow cooker, cover with foil and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes. Retrieve the bay leaves and rosemary stalks from the slow cooker and discard.
- Slice the beef and serve with vegetables and gravy.
Notes
- If using a larger roast, cut it into 2 pieces so it cooks evenly.
- This recipe is best cooked on Low. If you are pushed for time you can cook it on High for 4 hours.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is an estimate and provided for informational purposes only.
