Mississippi Pot Roast

My family’s favorite pot roast recipe, this easy Mississippi Pot Roast recipe is the set it and forget it dinner of your dreams. Tender, juicy, melt in your mouth beef is simmered low and slow in a beef broth kicked up with pepperoncini peppers, carrots and onions. Made completely from scratch and so insanely easy. 

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Mississippi Pot Roast

GIMME ALL THE COMFORT FOOD! This Mississippi Pot Roast recipe is seriously amazing. If you’ve never had Mississippi Pot Roast before you are in for a real treat.  I’ve been making it for a few years now and I don’t know why I’m just now sharing it with all of you.  I found the recipe first in an old newspaper clipping stashed away in my recipe box (yeah, I still have one of those) and remembered how amazing it was but HOLY sodium!

The original Mississippi Pot Roast recipe is made with a packet of ranch dressing mix, a packet of au jus mix, lots of butter and pepperoncini peppers with their juices. Sodium city!!!  I decided there was a better way to get all that flavor with ingredients you have stashed in your pantry and fridge but cutting way back on the sodium and other artificial flavors. And it was a huge win.

What is Mississippi Roast?

Mississippi Pot Roast was created by Robin Chapman and was an adaptation of one she received in the 90’s.  Her friend, later, published the recipe for Mississippi Pot Roast in their church cookbook and that’s when bloggers found this heavenly dinner recipe.

The recipe made it’s rounds on various food blogs and was pinned millions of times when it was later picked up by the New York Times and heralded as “the roast that owns the internet!” 

How’s that for a viral recipe. The problem is….for me, at least….that the recipe is made with a whole stick of butter, a packet of ranch dressing mix and a whole packet of au jus mix. We can do better….and without adding much more effort to the task.

To create a little “healthier” recipe, I reached for my favorite ranch spices to add to the mix and bumped up the flavor with a bit of dry buttermilk. 

What is the best roast for Pot Roast?

Whenever I’m making any type of slow cooker pot roast recipe I reach for a boneless chuck roast.  It’s perfect for long braising since it’s heavily marbled with fat making it somewhat forgiving to low and slow braising without drying out.

In fact, chuck roast is perfect for soaking up all those zesty flavors of the braising liquid and turning into a tender, melt-in-your-mouth roast recipe.

Ingredients For Mississippi Pot Roast

To make your Mississippi Pot Roast recipe from scratch, you will need the following ingredients:

• Boneless Chuck Roast
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Pepper
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Dry Dill 
• Dry Chives
• Dry Buttermilk
• Beef Stock
• Pepperoncini
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Italian Seasoning
• Bay Leaf
• Carrots
• Onions
• Pepperoncini Peppers
• Butter
• Cornstarch

It looks like a lot of ingredients but most of the items come from your pantry or are the usual kitchen staples. If you can’t find dry buttermilk (it’s in the bakery aisle of most grocery stores alongside the dry milk) you can add a bit of low fat buttermilk at the end when you whisk in the cornstarch mixture.  

The tanginess of the buttermilk makes it taste more like ranch than if you skip it altogether. But it IS still amazingly tasty if you decide to skip it altogether.

How To Make Mississippi Pot Roast

This Mississippi Pot Roast is super simple to make in your Crock Pot, slow cooker or Instant Pot! Simply follow these steps to pot roast perfection.

Pat dry the chuck roast and season liberally on all sides with salt and pepper.

1. Heat oil in a skillet and brown the chuck roast on all sides until a golden brown crust has formed. (You can skip this step if in a hurry but there’s a ton of flavor being developed if you have the time to brown your beef.)
2. Transfer the roast to the slow cooker and add the onions to the pan.
3. Cook the onions, carrots and garlic for 3-4 minutes. Add to the slow cooker.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, salt, buttermilk, dill, chives and italian seasoning.
5. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the beef evenly.
6. Add the beef stock, peppers, bay leaf, worcestershire sauce and 1/4 cup of the pepperoncini juice to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
7. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-7 hours.
8. Mix the cornstarch into the room temperature butter to form a paste. 
9. Remove the pot roast from the pot and cover to keep warm. Using a ladle, skim the fat from the broth or transfer the broth to a fat separator with a spout and remove the fat that way.
10. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the broth and cook for about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. 
11. Return the pot roast to the slow cooker with the gravy and shred with a fork, if desired. (We like to break off big hunks of meat and serve it that way.)
12. Serve immediately with the gravy over noodles, mashed potatoes or rice.

What to Serve with Mississippi Pot Roast

• The BEST Mashed Potatoes…obviously.
• Make it even more southern with these Pimento Cheese Mashed Potatoes
• Go low carb with this easy Cauliflower Rice
• We LOVE this Sweet Potato Casserole
• The BEST Potatoes Au Gratin
• And nobody every complains when I serve it on top of these easy egg noodles!

More easy Slow Cooker Recipes

• Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Butternut Squash….Love, LOVE, LOVE this.
• Super easy Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwich
• Slow Cooker Pork Loin Roast…so easy.
• Slow Cooker Sausage and Peppers

If you have an Instant Pot…..this Pot Roast is equally magical!

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