AI-generated recipe illustration
- Prep time
- 20 min
- Cook time
- 8 hrs
- Total time
- 8 hrs 20 min
- Yield
- 6 servings
This is the Sunday dinner that fills the whole house with the best smell in the world. A chuck roast goes in over a bed of potatoes and carrots with onion soup seasoning and broth, and eight hours later it falls apart at the touch of a fork. The one step people skip — searing the roast first — is the one we beg you to keep: five extra minutes builds the browned crust that makes the gravy taste like it simmered on a grandmother's stove. Everything else is the crockpot's problem.
Ingredients
How to make crockpot pot roast with potatoes and carrots
- Season the roast with salt and pepper. Sear in olive oil in a hot skillet, 3–4 minutes per side, until deeply browned.
- Layer the potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic in the crockpot; set the roast on top.
- Whisk the broth with onion soup mix, tomato paste, and Worcestershire; pour over everything and add the thyme.
- Cover and cook on LOW 8–9 hours (or HIGH 5), until the roast shreds easily.
- Rest the meat 10 minutes on a board, then slice or pull apart. Skim fat from the juices and serve them over the top, or thicken into gravy with a cornstarch slurry.
Make it your own
| Ingredient | Swap | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Chuck roast | Bottom round or brisket | Leaner; slice thin against the grain rather than shredding |
| Onion soup mix | 1 tsp each onion powder, garlic powder + 1/2 tsp salt | From-scratch version |
| Beef broth | 1 cup broth + 1 cup red wine | Deeper, Sunday-best gravy |
| Baby potatoes | Russets in large chunks | Add them on top of the carrots so they don't dissolve |
Storage & leftovers
Refrigerate the roast in its juices up to 4 days — storing it dry is how leftovers get a bad name.
Freeze shredded roast and gravy together up to 3 months. The potatoes go grainy frozen, so eat those fresh and freeze just meat, carrots, and juices.
A few helpful answers
Do I really need to sear the roast first?
It will technically work without it, but the sear is 5 minutes that pays back in every bite of gravy. If you must skip a step, skip nothing — sear it.
Why is my pot roast tough?
It's undercooked, not overcooked — chuck needs time for the connective tissue to melt. Tough at 6 hours means give it 2 more; it's done when it surrenders to a fork.
Can I cook it on HIGH to save time?
Yes, about 5 hours — but LOW for 8 is noticeably more tender. HIGH is for days you decided on pot roast at 11 a.m.
Why are my potatoes still firm?
They were cut too large or sat above the liquid line. Keep chunks under 2 inches and make sure vegetables sit at the bottom, in the broth.
520 calories · 45g protein · 28g carbohydrates · 25g fat · 880mg sodium