Old Fashioned Pot Roast with Gravy

Have fall apart tender pot roast with this easy recipe we have made for over 40 years—the ultimate comfort food. Make it in the oven or crock pot—an old-fashioned Sunday dinner classic pot roast with great leftovers.

Introduction

This is the ultimate in old-fashioned, classic comfort food that grandma would make. I steal only from the best, and in the pot roast world, that is my wife. So easy with these simple step-by-step photo instructions.

Pot roasts are usually made with tougher cuts of beef. These cuts will be the most flavorful when cooked with low heat the melt the tough connective tissue leaving fork-tender meat.

Generally cooked in tightly covered Dutch ovens or roasting pans, but crockpots and pressure cookers are frequently used. There are no actual rules with pot roast.

A variety of vegetables and liquids can be added. And if root vegetables are use, it is then called a Yankee Pot Roast.

I'm calling this more of a technique than a recipe. It is simple and basic.

My Rating

We have this at least monthly. We love this "overdone" when it is just falling apart. Mmm good.

🐄Ingredients for Yankee Pot Roast

The Beef Roast

My favorite cut of beef for this is a very well-marbled chuck roast. About 3 pounds, so we will have leftovers, and if there are large chunks of fat, I trim them on the edge of the roast. Bone-in or boneless does not matter.

Chuck roast will cook to fall apart tender and almost shred itself. It comes in a variety of sizes and is inexpensive.

But there are other choices. Top or bottom round are leaner and will need to be cut into slices but still tender. Or even brisket can be used. It is fattier and also will need to be sliced to serve.

The Potatoes

Russet potatoes are where it at for that classic feel. They are what your grandma would have used. Always peel them and cut them into chunks.

But potato types are very much interchangeable, and most others do not need to be peeled. Either red potatoes or Yukon gold are other common ones suggested.

The Carrots

Just peel and cut your carrots into chunks or slices, or you can use baby carrots. Do not cut your carrots into thin pieces since they can fall apart and disappear.

A note about baby carrots: they are cut from big carrots. They are not young and tender. They are woody and have a bit less flavor than regular carrots. But they are very convenient and are OK to use if you want.

The Onion

We tend to skip the onion, which can dominate the taste if you are not careful with the amount. So your choice. Yellow, white, or red may be used interchangeably.

Seasoning

We prefer our pot roast seasoned as presented in this recipe. But "old-fashioned" is different in everybody's family.

A lot of the flavor for the pot roast and the gravy comes from the ketchup, so use a good quality that you like.

The garlic is a bit heavy, so you can decrease it if you wish. Also, you can add garlic powder to replace the fresh garlic.

Other flavors can be added with sprigs of rosemary or thyme. Other fresh herbs can also be added.

The beefy taste can be enhanced with a cup of dry red wine or 1-2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.

👨‍🍳How to Make Old Fashioned Pot Roast in the Oven

• Place a 3-4 pound chuck roast seasoned with salt and pepper in a Dutch oven or roasting pan with a reasonably tight lid and big enough to add the root vegetables later.
• Cook for 2-3 hours.
• While cooking, prepare root vegetables—usually potatoes and carrots.
• Mix ketchup into any liquid in the pan and cover the top of the meat with garlic.
• Add the prepared vegetables to the roaster, cover, and roast until the potatoes are soft—about 1 ½ to 2 hours.
• Move the cooked roast and root vegetables to dishes and cover with foil.
• Make gravy.

♨️How to Make Old Fashioned Pot Roast in a Crock Pot

This is an easy conversion to a crockpot. The ingredients are the same.

• Sear the chuck roast for 2-3 minutes per side with a couple of teaspoons of oil over medium-high heat in a skillet.
• Prepare all veggies and place them in the bottom of a 6-quart or larger crockpot. Add the ketchup and 14 oz of beef broth. Place the roast on the vegetables and cover with the garlic. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours—the potatoes should be over 200° and the roast over 180°.
• When the potatoes and meat are fork-tender, remove them and tent to keep warm.
• Make the flour slurry.
• Pour all liquid into a large saucepan. Add more beef broth if needed for volume and bring it to a boil. Then proceed per these instructions to add the slurry and simmer to thicken.

Making Gravy in a Crock Pot

Making gravy in a crock pot is not easy; it rarely ends well. It just doesn't get hot enough for most flour methods. So we will make gravy "with" a crockpot meal but not "in" the crockpot.

You want to use a flour method here since gravy made with flour will store and reheat well. Corn starch does neither.

You can make a roux, add it to the crockpot, and turn the heat up with a fair amount of success. That takes time. But it works much better and is more reliable to move the fluid out of the crockpot to use it in gravy. See How To Make Gravy at Home for details on gravy making.

🖊️Making a Smaller Pot Roast

If you want a pot roast for two recipe, I suggest making four servings. Yes, this is cooking for two, but that does not mean only two servings.

This will take about 4 hours, give or take a bit, and that is too long to spend on two servings. You want the leftovers.

Assume about ½ pound or a bit more of meat per serving - it will cook down some. The vegetable amount should then be adjusted to the serving number for the meat weight. I suggest a medium carrot and ½ large russet potato per serving.

And finely, gravy volume is about ½ cup or more per serving. I briefly cover making gravy in the instructions, but please see How To Make Gravy at Home if you want more details.

FAQs

📖Comfort Food Recipes

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Old Fashioned Meatloaf

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Cheesy American Goulash

Oven Fried Chicken with Gravy

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This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

Start with a nice 3-pound chuck roast and trim the roast of any large areas of solid fat. Lightly salt and pepper and place in a large roasting pan or dutch oven. Cover with the lid. Place in 325° oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours. (longer if frozen).

After 1 ½ to 2 hours, remove from the oven, add ½ cup ketchup to the liquid in the pan and mix well. Then cover the top of the meat with crushed or minced garlic.

Add your vegetables and lightly salt and pepper. Increase oven temp to 350°. Replace lid and roast another 1 ½ to 2 hours until potatoes are soft.

Remove meat and veggies from the pan—tent with foil while making gravy.

Make one cup of gravy (or a bit more) for each pound of meat. Make a slurry of flour and cold water or beef broth. Add beef broth to the liquid in the roaster. You will want about 1 cup of liquid per pound of roast counting the liquid in both the pan and the slurry.  And 2 tablespoons flour per cup of liquid.

Place roaster over a stove burner(s) on medium-high heat—use two burners if you can. Bring to boil, and then slowly whisk most of the flour mixture into the hot liquid. Decrease the heat to a low boil while continuing to mix and cook for a few minutes. Add more flour mixture if needed. See How To Make Gravy at Home for more information on making gravy.

📖Recipe

Editors Note: Originally Published February 15, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.