This Mississippi Pot Roast recipe is a family favorite, and I love it because it’s so easy to prepare! You only need 5 ingredients and a few minutes prep time. Set it and forget it for a melt-in-your-mouth Crock Pot roast with rich, savory gravy!
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I Absolutely LOVE This Mississippi Pot Roast Because..
- This Mississippi Pot Roast recipe is fork tender with a flavorful gravy.
- With just five ingredients, the prep is super easy.
- Since it’s made in a slow cooker, it’s a ‘set it and forget it!’ meal that practically cooks itself!
- It can be made ahead of time, and leftovers freeze well.
Ingredients
I love this recipe because it’s so easy with just a few simple ingredients. Home cook Robin Chapman created it and it has even been featured in the New York Times!
Beef Roast: For the best results, use a chuck roast with nice marbling throughout (I use the same for any pot roast). Other options include round roast or rump roast. No beef? Make Mississippi chicken or use a pork shoulder roast instead!
Seasonings: This roast is seasoned with dry ranch dressing mix and au jus gravy mix. You can replace the packet with your own ranch dressing mix (I often just add the ranch seasonings and skip the buttermilk powder).
Pepperoncini Peppers: These are the secret ingredient! They tenderize the meat and add flavor. Although they’re spicy out of the jar, I find this recipe is not spicy once cooked.
Butter: This recipe calls for half a stick of butter (salted or unsalted). For a smoky twist, you can swap some of the butter for leftover bacon grease.
Variations: This roast is delicious on its own, but feel free to add some veggies like carrots, celery, or onions.
How to Make Mississippi Pot Roast
Low and slow is the way to go for super tender melt-in-your-mouth beef.
- Brown: Brown the meat on both sides and transfer it to a slow cooker (recipe below).
- Combine & Cook: Add pepperoncini juice and sprinkle the ranch and au jus mixes on top of the roast. Top with pats of butter. Cover and cook until fork-tender.
- Shred & Serve: Shred with a couple of forks and serve with the juices. (The juices can be thickened if you’d like – see recipe notes).
Holly’s Tips
- Searing is optional, but it adds extra flavor.
- Don’t add extra liquid to the slow cooker. The juices from the roast and the butter will ensure there’s plenty of flavorful gravy to go around.
- If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can still make this dish in a Dutch oven. Follow my pot roast cooking times for perfect results.
- If you’d like to thicken the gravy, combine one tablespoon of cornstarch with one tablespoon of water, then whisk it into the drippings. Let it cook for about 10 minutes or until thickened to your liking.
Serving Suggestions
We serve this Mississippi pot roast recipe with:
- Mashed potatoes, rice, or homemade egg noodles.
- Add it to a hoagie roll and serve it french dip style.
- Keep it low-carb with mashed cauliflower or cauliflower rice.
More Tender Beef Recipes
Did your family love this Mississippi Pot Recipe? Leave us a rating and comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 to 5 pound chuck roast or pot roast
- 1 ounce ranch seasoning mix 1 packet, about 2 tablespoons
- 1 ounce au jus gravy mix or brown gravy mix, low sodium, 1 packet
- 6 pepperoncini peppers plus ½ cup juice
- ¼ cup butter
Instructions
- In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, brown the roast for about 5 minutes per side.
- Place roast in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker and pour in the pepperoncini juice. Sprinkle the dry ranch dressing mix and au jus gravy mix over the top of the roast. Add the pepperoncini peppers and sliced butter on top of the roast.
- Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until the roast is fork-tender.
- Once the roast is cooked, shred it with a fork and mix it into the juices in the slow cooker.
- Serve over mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Dinner, Main Course, Slow Cooker
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This Mississippi Pot Roast recipe was originally developed by Robin Chapman, Ripley, MS.
My favorite
To those who find this too salty, always use unsalted butter when cooking, unless otherwise directed.
Doing this tomorrow for a nice Sunday dinner with mashed potatoes, fried squash, green beans with smoked ham, and homemade biscuits to go alongside it. Thank you for the easy and no-fuss recipe! :)
If I am serving this on a plate, not in a sandwich, I like to serve my version with potato salad, and coleslaw. The coleslaw is so good with the Italian beef.
Delicious idea, thanks for sharing!
I am so sick of people claiming they created this recipe. Such as in this the owner of the blog attributed it to another person. “This Mississippi Pot Roast recipe was originally developed by Robin Chapman, Ripley, MS.” I don’t know who created the recipe, nor do I recall who I got the recipe from (it wasn’t from Robin Chapman), but I do know I have been making this recipe since 1998 and it is titled Italian Beef for Sandwiches and I have given it out to many, many people over the years. It was even published in my employer’s employee recipe book. Years later someone decided to change the title to Mississippi Pot Roast and claim it as their own.
It’s amazing how recipes like this travel and evolve over time! As mentioned, I didn’t create the recipe but according to the New York Times, was shared in the early 90’s (in the New York Times) by Robin Chapman from Mississippi. She adapted her aunt’s pot roast recipe and that version eventually became known online as Mississippi Roast after the feature article. I’m sure once featured, I’m certain it was passed around by many different sources!
You’re absolutely right, similar recipes for “Italian beef” or slow-cooked roasts with seasoning packets were floating around long before that! It’s one of those comforting, crowd-pleasing dishes that so many home cooks have made their own over the years.
Thank you for that information. I was totally unaware that a similar recipe had been posted by the Times. I sure would like to see the recipe or was that exactly what you posted?
The original recipe is similar although I do believe it had more butter, I reduced it for personal preference. I also double checked and I may have misspoken about the date published however this NYT article (you need a paid subscription to read) states that it was created in the early 90’s and it was just called “roast beef”. It is said that the rise of the internet had the roast renamed Mississippi Pot Roast but the recipe itself is still attributed to the original creator! I hope that helps!
Can I add veggies in the crockpot? Carrots and potatoes.
You sure can!
This was the worst waste of a good pot roast. It was so salty we could not eat it. The meat fell apart but the salt was terrible. I would never try this again and waste good money on a chuck roast. I followed the directions exactly and it cooked 7 hours. Terrible!
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear this didn’t work out for you Dave. The ingredients call for low sodium brown gravy mix, did you check to see if the one you used was low sodium? You can also make your own ranch seasoning to help control the salt levels. I hope this helps.
Try it with the low-sodium versions of the au jus and ranch seasoning packets. Since there is no salt added the packets and the butter are the only ingredients with sodium.
I didn’t have time to sear my chuck roast. I just placed it in the crockpot, sprinkled the au jus and ranch packets on top, placed the butter and peppers on top and let it cook on low, 8 hrs. I’ve made tons of roasts, some good, some bad. This was the best one ever. Take the advice to use the low sodium au jus packet. This was truly delicious and I served it with jasmine rice. Yum.
I followed the recipe exactly and this was most delicious pot roast. Served on mashed potatoes with a side of honey roasted beets and carrots. OMG so good!
This recipe was very tasty and paired well with mashed potatoes, would recommend trying.