Old Fashioned Pot Roast with Gravy

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

1. Place a 3-4 pounds 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.
2. Cook for 2-3 hours.
3. While cooking, prepare root vegetables—usually potatoes and carrots.
4. Mix ketchup into any liquid in the pan and cover the top of the meat with garlic.
5. Add the prepared vegetables to the roaster, cover, and roast until the potatoes are soft—about 1 ½ to 2 hours.
6. Move the cooked roast and root vegetables to dishes and cover with foil.
7. Make gravy.

This is a summary of the steps and ingredients. See the recipe card or the step-by-step photo instructions below for complete instructions.

🥣How to Make Pot Roast Gravy

Pot roast gravy is, in many ways, the reason to make pot roast. So we must get it right—thick with great flavor.

1. Use any liquid drainage in the pan or the crock pot.
2. Add additional beef broth to get to the volume of gravy you want. For oven baked, remove the meat and vegetables and use the roasting pan. For the crock pot version, pour the liquid into a large saucepan.
3. Mix a slurry of flour and water or broth. You need 2 tablespoons of flour and ¼ cup of cold water or broth for each cup of gravy you are making. But mix a little extra, just in case you need it. Whisk or shake until smooth before using.
4. Bring the drainage and broth mixture to a medium boil over medium-high heat.
5. Slowly whisk but ¾ of the flour slurry into the boiling liquid. Adjust the heat to a light boil.
6. Continue to whisk. Add more slurry every few minutes until you reach the thickness you want—taste test for salt.

Tips, options, and variations

Beef roast—use a well-marbled chuck roast. But there are other choices. Top or bottom round are leaner and will need to be cut into slices but are still tender.

Onion—optional and can dominate the flavor. So if you use them, go light.

Seasoning—Garlic, ketchup, salt, and pepper. Other flavors can be added with sprigs of rosemary or thyme. Other fresh herbs can also be added.

Optional ingredients—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 a Crock Pot

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

1. Sear the chuck roast for 2-3 minutes per side with a couple of teaspoons of oil over medium-high heat in a skillet.
2. 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 garlic. Cover the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours—the potatoes should be over 200° and the roast over 180°.
3. When the potatoes and meat are fork-tender, remove them and tent them with foil to keep warm.
4. Make the flour slurry.
5. 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 a Smaller Pot Roast

If you want a "pot roast for two recipe", I suggest making four servings. This blog is "cooking for two," but that does not mean only two servings. This will take about 4 hours, give or take a bit, which 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 finally, the 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.

How to serve pot roast

With the roasted vegetables and gravy, pot roast is mostly a complete meat. You may enjoy a green salad or a nice homemade bread to round out the meal.

Store and reheat leftovers

To store leftovers, sealed airtight in a container; leftovers are good refrigerated for 4 days. To freeze, store airtight for 3-4 months.

To reheat, add the meat to all the gravy and veggies and warm up on the stovetop. It may need water since the gravy flour will absorb more moisture when stored.

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).

While cooking, prepare the root vegetables—usually, Russet potatoes are peeled and cut into chunks, and carrots are peeled and cut into pieces or slices, or you can use baby carrots. 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 the lid and roast for another 1 ½ to 2 hours until the 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. Use any liquid drainage in the pan or the crock pot. Add additional beef broth to get to the volume of gravy you want. Mix a slurry of flour and water or broth. You need 2 tablespoons of flour and ¼ cup of cold water or broth for each cup of gravy you are making—but mix a little extra, just in case you need it. Whisk or shake until smooth before using.

Place the roaster over a stove burner(s) on medium-high heat—use two burners if you can. Bring the drainage and broth mixture to a medium boil over medium-high heat. Slowly whisk but ¾ of the flour slurry into the boiling liquid. Adjust the heat to a light boil. Continue to whisk. Add more slurry every few minutes until you reach the thickness you want—taste test for salt.

See How To Make Gravy at Home for more information on making gravy.