Use These 3 Ingredients For A Simple Slow Cooker Pot Roast

A slow cooker pot roast doesn't need much doctoring up to be delicious, but if you're looking to minimize costs while producing enough food to feed an army, there are three ingredients you need. Onion soup mix, cream of mushroom soup, and a solid chuck roast produce intense flavor with little effort and have plenty of room for customization.

Cream of mushroom soup is a more flexible ingredient than many give it credit for, whether as a base for green bean casserole or an unbelievably easy pasta sauce. While its flavor alone should make it a pantry staple, it also warms to the consistency of a perfect gravy, eliminating any need for cornstarch slurries or other thickening agents. Beef seasoning may not have been the original purpose of instant onion soup mix, but the dehydrated onions and salt pair perfectly with any cut, from the leanest shank to the most well-marbled brisket point. Combine the two together with nothing but a bit of stirring, and you get a comprehensively flavored braising liquid for your meat to simmer in.

Since neither ingredient has an excess of moisture, you'll want to prepare it in a slow cooker versus a Dutch oven to preserve every last drop of water. Still, whether you're looking to make more gravy or add some new flavors, this combination also works well as a base to build on and lets you add anything from herbs to dried fruit to upgrade it.

The goal of a three-ingredient pot roast is to be as simple and hands-off as possible. While you'll still want to spend ten or fifteen minutes searing the roast beforehand, there's plenty of prep work you can do while you wait in order to upgrade this roast's taste and texture.

If you plan on serving your pot roast with a starch like bread, mashed potatoes, or rice, consider making a touch more gravy than is provided by a single can of cream of mushroom soup. Something as simple as a cup of beef broth not only increases your volume but also more thoroughly covers your roast, so it cooks more evenly. Since this dish is heavy on beef, mushrooms, and onion, you can also add a few splashes of a full-bodied red wine, providing a bit of tang and aromatics to cut through the heavy flavors.

Since this gravy is so delicious, why not see how it tastes with other ingredients as well? Long simmering times are perfect for root vegetables like daikon radish and carrot, but tossing in some extra starchy potatoes can also keep your gravy thick without extra effort on your part. Radishes, sweet peppers, and tomatoes are also great choices, contributing both taste and extra moisture to build your gravy on. Provided your braising liquid covers all your extra ingredients, just about any firm vegetable is a solid choice.