Prep Time- 20 minutes | Cook Time- 8 hours | Makes 6-8 Servings
A huge Thank You to a friend of this foodie!
E.B. shared this recipe with me years ago and it’s been a household favorite ever since!
Ingredients:
- 3-4 pound Chuck Roast (don’t worry about the huge pieces of fat, it melts away and you can remove it later)
- 1 Packet of dry Ranch Dressing Mix
- 1 Packet of dry Au Jus Gravy Mix
- 1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, Diced
- 1/4 Large Jar Pepperoncini + The Pepper Juice (leave the peppers whole)
- 1/4 Cup Onion, Chopped
My Additional or Changed Ingredients:
- 15 Pepperoncini Peppers + 1/3 Cup of The Juice (leave the peppers whole)
- 1 Whole Onion– instead of 1/4 Cup, I slice up a Whole Onion because I like it that way.
- 2 Cups total of Carrots and French Beans.
- 5 Cloves of Garlic, rough chopped, sliced, or just crushed
- 1/4 Cup Stock– I always used veggie stock because that’s what I always have.
- Slurry mix of 2 Tbsp Cornstarch + 3 Tbsp cold Water.
* See notes at the bottom for ingredient alternatives and other ideas!
Instructions:
1- Gather all ingredients, and a crock-pot. Let the roast rest outside the fridge for 15-20 just to take the chill off before cooking. Chop everything than needs to be chopped.
2- OPTIONAL STEP (you can skip this and move to the next step if you like)- Set a very large skillet (I use cast iron) to high heat. When it’s hot, add 1/2 Tbsp of the butter and brown ALL sides of the roast (Wear an Apron or cloths you don’t mind getting grease spots)- about 4 minutes on every side- when the roast doesn’t stick to the pan, then its ready to be turned. I do not season the roast at this point because there is a lot of salt in the seasoning mixes we will be using later. There will be no lack of flavor, I promise! Deglaze the hot pan by pouring in the stock and scraping all the cooked bits off the bottom.
3- Set the roast in your crock-pot and set it to cook for 8 hours. IF you browned the roast, pour the contents of the pan over the roast at this time.
4- Evenly sprinkled the spice packets over the roast. Add your onions and all other chosen vegetables, peppers, and garlic. Pour in the pepper juice, and evenly top with the diced butter. Cover the crock-pot.
5- IGNORE the crock-pot for 6 hours. Do Not Open The Crock-Pot. Every time you open it, the heat and moisture escapes and will take longer too cook. After 6 hours, you can go in with a fork and mix things up a bit. Cover the crock-pot again and ignore for the remaining 2 hours.
6- At this point you can enjoy your delicious Mississippi Pot Roast with a side of mashed potato’s OR you can continue to the next step to see how I finish preparing this dish.
7- Using a ladle or very large spoon, scoop out as much of the pot roast juice as possible and deposit it into a sauce pan set to medium-high heat. Here, you can choose to carefully skim out some of the fat that rises to the surface or you can keep it- I take some out.
8- Bring the pot to a quick boil and whisk in your slurry mix (the cornstarch and water mixture), the slurry will thicken the gravy quickly- less than a minute. This will turn the juice into a gravy that will cling to your meat and veggies in a delicious way.
9- Pour the gravy back over the pot roast and gently mix everything together before serving.
NOTES:
ALTERNATIVES– This is one dish where I use regular unsalted butter, but you can definitely omit it or use your favorite kind. You can use different kinds of sturdy vegetables- if you want to use a softer vegetable (like broccoli) I recommend adding it in the last 10 minutes of cooking so that it doesn’t fall apart, better yet, I’d just make that on the side. You can skip the browning step and start the process with just putting the roast right into the crock pot. You can season your roast before cooking it (although to me its not necessary). You can add fewer or more peppers and juice depending on how much of a kick you like (and how many roasted peppers you like to eat).
