Slow-Cooker Beef Pot Roast

Slow cooker 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.

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How to make slow cooked beef roast in a crock pot

A slow-cooked pot roast is a really great dish for the winter. It’s delicious, filling and easy to make.

This slow cooker beef pot roast is one of my favourite dishes to cook in wintertime. It is so easy to make and great for a weeknight dinner when cooking dinner is the last thing you feel like when you get in from work.

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, 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 card for this slow cooker beef pot roast recipe, or read on for all the details!

Equipment

To make this recipe you can use a slow cooker, a crock-pot, or a multicooker or Instant Pot set to slow cook.

Ingredients

The basic ingredients for this crock pot roast are:

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.

>> Related post: The Best Cuts of Meat for Pot Roast

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, parsnips, pumpkin, beans, or cauliflower.

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!

Cornflour: to thicken the gravy.

How to make the BEST slow cooker pot roast

This slow cooker pot roast recipe is very simple and straightforward. It only takes around 15 minutes to prepare. It is as easy as cutting up the vegetables, searing the meat, and then adding it all to the pot.

Here are a few tips and steps to get right for a really tasty roast:

1. 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.
2. Rest the emat on the veggies. Place the vegetables into the slow cooker and place the meat on top. Add the herbs, and pour over the stock or broth.
3. Slow cook for 8 hours. Cover with a lid and set to slow cook on LOW for 8 hours, or on HIGH for 4 hours. [Note: check out this post to calculate how long to cook a roast in the slow cooker per lb.]
4. Rest the beef. Carefully remove the beef from the slow cooker, and cover with foil to rest for 15-20 minutes.
5. To make gravy once the meat is cooked, the gravy can be made easily by mixing a slurry of cornflour and water, stirring in to the cooking juices remaining in the slow cooker, and heating until it is thickened (remove the vegetables first, and switch on HIGH). Add water as it thickens to get the right consistency. For a smooth gravy you can strain it through a sieve, pressing all the bits on onion to release the juices.

And that is basically all there is to it!

Serving ideas

Serve beef roast with vegetables on the side, and smother with the delicious gravy you just made. For extra veg, try one of these quick vegetable side dishes:

• Microwave steamed broccoli
• Microwave fresh green beans
• Air fryer broccoli
• Air fryer roasted cauliflower
• Air fryer broccolini
• Mashed potatoes