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Slowly cooked Dutch Oven Mississippi Pot Roast is the beefy and spicy lovechild of the humble pot roast and sultry, Southern style pulled meat. This simple single-pot recipe is only 5 ingredients and 3 simple steps, with an option to use a slow cooker if you prefer!
Did I get you at slow cooked and Southern style? This chile verde is soft, shredded pork shoulder in a juicy tomatillo and green chilli gravy. It’s one for taco night.
I cannot imagine a life without slow cooking. Well, I can but it’s definitely not as lazy, economical or delicious! Crock Pot or This is an affiliate link.Dutch oven, I have a bunch of reasons in support of slow-cooking: tender meat, simple methods and a good use of cheaper cuts of meat.
This Mississippi Pot Roast is a great example. It uses a cheap cut of beef and combines it with a small list of just the right ingredients. Add a bit of time and you have a seriously amazing pot roast!
Sounds good right? Read on for easy-to-follow instructions!
What is Mississippi pot roast?
This recipe from the Southern US is slow-cooked beef chuck roast with a handful of shortcut ingredients (see below!). It’s cooked low and slow until the beef falls apart, which then gets shredded so it combines with the tangy, buttery and salty juices.
It might sound like a historic Southern dish, but was actually developed in the 1990s. Because it’s just so good – tender, flavourful and easy to make – it quickly became popular, spreading far a wide with a passionate fan base, including me!
Equipment you’ll need
How you cook any pot roast, traditional or not, depends on your equipment and how much time you have. The two methods are:
- Dutch oven (or large, lidded, oven-proof This is an affiliate link.casserole dish) taking around 3 hours
- Crock Pot (or other electric This is an affiliate link.slow cooker) set to 8 hours
I loved making this recipe in my trusty old Dutch oven. Using the Dutch oven keeps the washing up down to a single pot as you can sear the joint in it, deglaze it, and put it in the oven too. That’s just 3 steps by the way!
Ingredients
But Mississippi pot roast is far from traditional. You won’t find the standard onions, carrots, celery gravy here, and it won’t come out slice-ready. This chuck pot roast is made to melt and is swimming in tangy flavours.
Choosing the beef
Fat in the beef is not a bad thing. It is essential for good gravy, for example, and equals more tender meat. That’s why I use marbled chuck beef, or chuck roast, or braising steak (UK).
Leaner meat, like beef brisket, mean a tougher meat that’s harder to chew. You can use it, but very lean beef (think top round or topside (UK)) will mean the longest cook and a danger of drying out.
Use what’s available to you but add cooking time accordingly. And also note that while marbling brings flavour and lip-smacking slick, too much will tip over to greasy gravy.
Other ingredients
Besides the beef, the ingredients you’ll need are:
- Pepperoncini peppers– these pickled pale green peppers bring a whole lot of spicy life to the dish.
- Ranch seasoning mix– I’ve used a convenient store-bought packet. The mix is a bolstering blend of dried garlic, onion, parsley and dill.
- Gravy granules– another quick hack to achieving a deeply flavourful dish.
- Butter– provides moisture, preventing the meat drying over the long cook and yields a richer, thicker, creamier gravy. I recommend unsalted so the gravy doesn’t end up too salty!
Recipe tips and notes
- This recipe uses butter, but if you’ve got some fatty beef, cut the butter by half to reduce the slick risk.
- Or fix it by refrigerating the cooked roast. The fat will solidify and you can easily skim it away before reheating.
- Ranch seasoning and gravy granules are already plenty salty. Use unsalted butter and think twice before adding any extra.
- Don’t have pepperoncini peppers? Banana peppers are a great substitute.
What to serve with it
I like to add this to a table with potatoes and vegetables. Here are some that I would choose:
- Creamy, buttery mashed potatoes for soaking up sauce.
- Mushroom and herb rice, because someone doesn’t eat mashed potato. (But it is an excellent choice for this pot roast!)
- Lemon green beans to cut through the irresistible fat.
- Crucial vegetable-in-disguise, cauliflower cheese.
- Garlic butter dinner rolls. Need I say more?
Storage and leftovers
Mississippi pot roast is a golden get ahead recipe. Take the pressure off and do the long cook the day before, not only is it a time-saving hack, it also allows the tangy, salty, beefy flavours to develop overnight. Reheat the next day.
And you’ll want to save any leftovers. This uniquely flavoured shredded beef makes mouthwatering fillings for cheesy quesadillas, hot sandwiches, and floppy tacos.
More beef recipes to try
- Beef Stroganoff Soup
- Slow Cooker Beef Brisket
- Honey Mustard Crusted Prime Rib Roast
- Slow Cooker Italian Beef Ragu
Slowly Cooked Dutch Oven Mississippi Pot Roast
Equipment
- This is an affiliate link.Dutch oven
- This is an affiliate link.Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 1½-2kg / 3½-4½ lbs chuck roast
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp This is an affiliate link.olive oil
- 10 pepperoncini peppers, from a jar plus 1/3 cup of the juice (marinated green chilli peppers in UK)
- 2 tbsp gravy granules, (low sodium is preferred)
- 1½ tbsp dry ranch seasoning mix powder
- 50g / 1/4 cup unsalted butter, (skip or half butter if the chuck roast is particularly fatty)
Instructions
Dutch Oven Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150C/300F. Heat the oil in a large and deep casserole dish (Dutch Oven) and sear the beef seasoned with salt and pepper all over, which should take around 10 minutes for a good sear. Remove from the beef pot and deglaze the bottom of the pot with the pepperoncini juice while scraping the bottom of the pot to release the brown bits.
- Now return the beef to the pot and sprinkle with the gravy granules and the ranch powder evenly. Scatter the butter cubes all over. Cover with a lid and roast in the preheated oven for 3 hours (check on the beef half way through and flip it over) By the end of the cooking time the beef should be tender and juicy and is easily pulled apart.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- If using a slow cooker sear the beef in a large pan instead, then deglaze the pan and pour the liquid into a slow cooker, follow the recipe as written but instead of the oven cook in slow cooker on Low for 8 hours.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
