One of my favorite recipes for busy days when I don’t have time to cook in the afternoon is chuck roast. These roasts have a good fat profile and awesome flavor. Add a generous salad and pile of roasted broccoli and you have a complete, healthy meal even the kids will eat.
Slow Cooker or Instant Pot Chuck Roast
I don’t always have hours to spend in the kitchen each day. Crock Pot (or the slow cooking option on my Instant Pot) meals are my solution to this. A simple roast can be thrown in the slow cooker while I’m making breakfast and be ready for dinner so I don’t have to spend time cooking it later in the day.
I’m a huge fan of meal planning, but of course there are crazy days when the roast never makes it in the slow cooker in the morning. That’s when my trusty Instant Pot that can cook the same delicious meal in a fraction of the time!
How to Make a Juicy Pot Roast (in Less Time)
Chuck roast is one of the most frequently used cuts of meats for making pot roast. It contains a lot of collagen, but not fat. This means it benefits from a long cooking time at a low temperature and in some sort of a braising liquid.
Cooking collagen-rich cuts of meat for a long time breaks down the collagen into bone and joint healthy gelatin, giving the meat a tender, melt in your mouth texture. (You can read more about the health benefits of collagen and gelatin in this post.)
Crock Pot Tips
When I slow cook this recipe, I brown the meat before putting it in the slow cooker then add the broth, seasonings, and vegetables, and just let it cook until it’s time for dinner.
Instant Pot Tips
When I use the Instant Pot, I use the sauté function to brown the meat and then add the beef broth and scrape up all the flavorful brown bits stuck to the bottom. I add big chunks of onion, some garlic, and the spices to the broth and cook it all at high pressure for 60 minutes.
This may sound like a lot, but it’s necessary for a cut of meat like chuck roast that has little fat and a large amount of collagen. After a 10 minute natural pressure release I add the vegetables and cook again at high pressure for just 3 minutes, with another 10 minute natural pressure release.
I like to use yellow or sweet potatoes and big chunks of carrots in my chuck roast, but you could also use any hearty root vegetables you prefer. Parsnips, turnips, or the beets used in this recipe would all work well.
Easy Chuck Roast Recipe
Ingredients
- 3-4 pound chuck roast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 TBSP coconut oil
- 1½ cups beef broth
- 2 onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- ½ tsp thyme
- ½ tsp rosemary
- 4 carrots
- 6 medium potatoes
- 1 TBSP arrowroot powder (optional)
- 1 TBSP water (optional)
Instructions
- Sprinkle the chuck roast with salt and pepper.
Slow Cooker Method
- Heat the coconut oil in a skillet on the stove top.
- Brown the meat on all sides in the preheated skillet then transfer to the slow cooker.
- While the meat is browning, chop the onions into large chunks.
- Pour the beef broth into the hot skillet and scrape all the browned bits from the bottom.
- Add the broth and all remaining ingredients except the carrots, potatoes, arrowroot, and water to the slow cooker, cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 6.
- After two hours of cooking time, roughly chop the carrots and potatoes and add them to the slow cooker. They can be added at the beginning but they will be much softer at the end.
- If a thicker gravy is desired, whisk together the arrowroot flour and water and stir into the slow cooker for the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Instant Pot Method
- Turn the Instant Pot on saute and heat the coconut oil.
- Brown the meat on all sides in the preheated Instant Pot and then remove to a platter.
- While the meat is browning, chop the onions into large chunks.
- Pour the beef broth into the hot Instant Pot and scrape all the browned bits from the bottom.
- Add the onions, garlic, and spices to the broth and return the meat to the Instant Pot.
- Cover and cook at high pressure for 60 minutes with a 10 minute natural pressure release at the end.
- While the meat is cooking, roughly chop the carrots and potatoes.
- After the 10 minute natural pressure release, add the chopped vegetables and cook at high pressure for an additional 3 minutes with another 10 minute natural pressure release.
- If a thicker gravy is desired, whisk together the arrowroot flour and water, turn the Instant Pot to saute, and stir in the arrowroot/water mixture for 1 minute.
Notes
Nutrition
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What’s your favorite way to cook roast? Share below!
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Some how i have lost my crockpot and need to cook a chuck roast for tonight. I have done them in the bag and season but was wondering if i can cook it in large pot on stove or an easy way in oven with veggies?
Do you set the crockpot on High or Low? Sounds like a great recipe.
Hey Katie,
My wife was hurt very bad in a horse riding competition that left her with very, very little use of her left leg not much use of her left arm. She has, and will continue having seizures. Thank God they are not real strong. She’s a trooper. She has bounced back as best as she can and loves to cook. I found this recipe for her. Very easy and she made the other night. She has double vision so she can’t use a computer. Anyhow. Fantastic!!. She said, ” it was so easy”!
Just wanted you to know. Thank you!
Pam & Keith
I buy grass fed sides of beef, and always make roasts, but have recently become paleo. So I brown the roast all sides in large dutch oven using bacon fat or oil. Then put it in the dutch oven with chopped onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and beef or chicken broth. Add salt and pepper along with spices (rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, bay leaf, parsley, garlic salt or what ever your favorite spices are). Put the dutch oven lid on tight (can even cover with aluminum foil and then put the cast iron lid on top of that), put in the oven, and slow cook at 300 degrees for 3 hours. Check it periodically to make sure the liquids don’t run dry and it is done when the meat falls apart. Haven’t experimented with cooking a roast in my crock pot, probably because I don’t think I can improve on the Dutch oven. Even cooked a roast for the kids on an open fire during a camping trip, and they loved it! Anyhow, hope that helps.
How long in the oven, and at what temperature?
I recently did this with a chuck roast and had it in the oven for a little over three hours and it came out stringy and dry. I’ve had others come out really great so I don’t know what the problem was with this one…although it’s happened before. Usually they come out great so I’m not sure what I didn’t wrong.
Hi, I was wondering about other veggies to cook with the meat in the oven. I was going to use little new potatoes and carrots, could you tell me when I would add them to the roaster pan? Also what temp would I put the oven on? I am going to make this tomorrow! Thank you!
My favorite is adding sweet potatoes, onions, carrots and celery. I either add them at the beginning of cooking (for very soft) or in the oven, 2 hours before taking it out. Depending on how hot your oven is, 300 degrees is usually good. Hope you enjoy it!
Hello, I so appreciate you getting back with me so quickly and I will be making it like you do today! Thanks again! Hugs and Happy Holidays! 🙂
Just wanted to let you know that hubby and I SO enjoyed this! Thanks again! Hugs!
I always crock my grass fed beef because that method of cooking over-comes the lean-ness. (Have you ever had a grilled grass fed steak? not so good). I don’t even bother browning it ahead – just throw it in the pot with some salt, pepper, and onions (sometimes not the onions). 10-12 hours on low and Oh! My! it comes out soooo good! HTH
I made this and it was amazing! Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Katie,
I have a few grass-fed chuck roasts in my freezer but am hesitant to use them because I am still fairly new to grass-fed meats and how to prepare them. Do you have any tips? I’d love to whip one out and put it in my crockpot and was very comfortable doing this before we started trying to buy more grass fed beef. Thanks!
Megan
Hi Megan,
You should still be able to do the same thing you always have preparing it in the crockpot. I usually give it an extra hour or so if it is grassfed though. You can also marinate overnight, which also helps with the tenderness, and tenderize with a sharp knife before cooking.