Instant Pot Pot Roast

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By Emily Richter

4.93 from 14 votes

Published 10/28/2021 • Updated 7/17/2023

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Pot Roast lovers, this recipe is for you! It’s the most delicious and savory Instant Pot Pot Roast made with tons of veggies and a homemade gravy in just 2 hours.

Love roast recipes? Try the sister recipe to this Instant Pot Chuck Roast >> Instant Pot Pork Roast, too!

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The Ultimate Hearty Meal

Anyone else out there feel themselves craving hearty meals in the colder months of the year?! Here in Minnesota, we’re all about those savory meaty meals like this Instant Pot pot roast that will leave your entire kitchen smelling amazing + it’s ready in a fraction of the time of a traditional oven-cooked pot roast because it’s made in a pressure cooker.

What is Chuck Roast?

A chuck roast is a cut of meat from the shoulder of the animal. It can be labeled as chuck roast, pot roast or shoulder steak in a grocery store. For this recipe, we used a boneless beef chuck roast as our choice cut of beef.

Pro Tip: this recipe will work with a bone-in chuck roast, but it will definitely increase your cook time in the Instant Pot as it will take longer for the meat to break down and tenderize. If you try this method, let us know how it turned out in the comments!

How Many Lbs. of Chuck Roast Do You Need?

For this recipe, we used a 2.5 lb. chuck roast, which serves 6 people. We’re confident that anything between 2.5 and 3 lbs. will work just great for this recipe.

Size & Cook Time: Please note that your cook time in the Instant Pot may vary if your meat is smaller or larger than 2.5 lbs.

How to Make Instant Pot Pot Roast

Step 1: Go-To Pot Roast Seasoning

The perfect pot roast is all about the seasoning! Making sure your roast has the right spices and seasonings and in the right amount is crucial to the future flavor of your pot roast. We use:

• Brown sugar
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Dried oregano
• Dried thyme
• Dried parsley
• Coarse salt
• Black pepper

The first step in this recipe is to create your pot roast seasoning and then rub it all over your meat. This may look like a lot of seasoning, but don’t you worry, it is supposed to be a lot.

Step 2: Don’t Forget to Sauté!

One of the best things about the Instant Pot is that you can sauté portions of your recipe before pressure cooking, which not only gives whatever you’re making such great flavor but also allows you to minimize the number of pans and dishes you need. Win-win!

Start by turning on your Instant Pot’s sauté function. Then, drizzle with olive oil, stir in and sauté the onions, garlic cloves and leeks once it’s heated up! This will draw out these delicious savory flavors, and allow your chuck roast to absorb all that goodness while it’s pressure cooking in your Instant Pot.

Once sautéed, Remove the onion, leeks and garlic cloves from your Instant Pot, and set aside.

Step 3: Get that Perfect Sear

But we’re not done with that trusty sauté function just yet! Once you’ve removed the onions, garlic and leeks, Use the sauté function to sear each side of your chuck roast.

Start by adding olive oil to your Instant Pot, and then sear each side of the chuck roast for 3-4 minutes per side. The goal here is to get the outside of your roast nice and brown.

Why do you sear the roast before pressure cooking? This gets those delicious meaty juices in your roast flowing and starts the meat tenderization process. Plus, by searing before pressure cooking, you avoid having to take EVERYTHING out of your Instant Pot to sear at the end.

Step 4: Deglaze

Once your pot roast is nice and brown, remove it from the Instant Pot. Now, it’s time to deglaze your Instant Pot!

What is deglaze? Deglazing the bottom of the pot is an important step in preventing the burn notice from happening. Essentially you use a liquid (in this case >> red wine, beef broth, and Worchestershire) to remove all the brown bits from the bottom.

Step 5: Pressure Cook Meat

Add the sauteed veggies back into the Instant Pot. This is going to help flavor the gravy at the end. Then place the browned pot roast on top of the veggies.

Close your Instant Pot lid and turn the valve to seal. Then, set the Instant Pot to manual >> high pressure >> and set the timer to 90 minutes.

It will take a bit of time for the timer to start counting down…this is normal, your Instant Pot is just building pressure. Once the timer goes off and the 90 minutes is up quick release pressure your Instant Pot and let the steam out!

After 90 minutes, your pot roast should be “fall off the bone” and very easy to shred. If it’s not there yet, no fear, just close your Instant Pot and pressure cook it for 5-10 more minutes.

Once you’ve got your meat at the desired texture, remove it from the Instant Pot and set it aside for shredding.

Step 6: Pot Roast vegetables

Every good pot roast cooks with hearty veggies, which allows the flavors of everything to marinade together to perfection. Even if you don’t LOVE all these veggies, please please please, don’t skip including them! Lookin’ at you, celery haters ;D We promise the flavor combo is oh so perfect:

• Carrots
• Celery stalks
• Red potatoes (feel free to make these into mashed potatoes at the end if you prefer that!)

Pro tip: Make sure you’re slicing your veggies so that they’re all similar in size. This will assure that your veggies are all the same doneness at the end. You can see in the photo below, that we left our veggies a bit larger. If you cut them smaller, you will need to decrease your cook time so they don’t become too soggy!

Add all of your pot roast veggies on top of the gravy that’s already in the Instant Pot. Then, close and seal. Set the Instant Pot to manual >> high >> and set the timer to 2 minutes.

After 2 minutes, your veggies should be just right. However, if they’re still a little hard, that’s okay! It just means your veggies were cut a little larger than ours. Put the top back on and set your timer to either 0 or 1 to cook them a little bit more.

Step 7: Make the Gravy

Now it’s time to make the gravy! The good news for you is that your gravy is already in your Instant Pot. All you have to do is thicken the drippings.

Remove everything but the liquid from your Instant Pot and then turn on the sauté feature. The heat is what activates the starch, so this step is essential. Sprinkle in cornstarch and then use a whisk to whisk into a cornstarch slurry (until it’s dissolved and thickened!).

Once you’ve got your gravy nice and thick, give her a taste. Add salt and pepper as needed. Then, transfer into a jar for serving.

Step 8: Shred Pot Roast

Now that your veggies are cooked, your gravy is made, and your meat is tender, it’s time to shred your meat!

Use 2 forks to shred pot roast into large chunks. We like to drizzle a little flavorful gravy over the shredded beef to keep things nice and juicy.

Pro tip: discard any large chunks of fat before serving!

How to Store Pot Roast

This pot roast will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 days, or up to 3 months in an air-tight container in the freezer.

To Reheat Pot Roast

Place your leftover pot roast and veggies in an oven-safe dish, and cover. Reheat at 325°F for 10-15 minutes, or until completely warm.

To reheat on the stovetop, place your leftover pot roast and veggies in a heated pan with olive oil, and sauté on medium heat until warm.

More Roast Recipes

• Instant Pot Pork Roast
• Slow Cooker Pork Roast
• Maple Tamari Pork Roast

More Beef Recipes

• Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff
• Wild Rice Meatloaf
• Sous Vide Steak
• Mongolian Beef Flank Steak
• Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli

4.93 from 14 votes

Instant Pot Pot Roast

This amazing Instant Pot Pot Roast recipe is made with tons of veggies and the most delicious gravy you’ve ever tasted!

By: Emily Richter

Prep: 30 minutes mins

Cook: 1 hour hr 32 minutes mins

Total: 2 hours hrs 2 minutes mins

Servings: 8

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Ingredients 

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Pot Roast Seasoning

• ▢ 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ▢ 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoons onion powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• ▢ 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pepper

Beef Roast + Veggies

• ▢ 2.5 lb. chuck boneless pot roast
• ▢ 1/4 cup olive oil, divided (2 tablespoons and 2 tablespoons)
• ▢ 5 cloves of garlic, smashed
• ▢ 1 small white onion, chopped
• ▢ 1 leek, chopped (green part cut off)
• ▢ 6 medium carrots, chopped
• ▢ 6 medium celery stalks, chopped
• ▢ 6 medium red potatoes, 4 cups quartered
• ▢ 1/2 cup dry red wine
• ▢ 1 cup beef broth
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• ▢ 2 tablespoon cornstarch

Instructions 

• First, prepare the pot roast seasoning by mixing together all of the spices in a small bowl. Set aside.
• Next, generously sprinkle seasoning on top of pot roast, rubbing it into all of the nooks and crannies. Make sure that you cover the entire thing (all 4 sides) with the seasoning as this is what adds so much flavor. Set aside.
• Prepare veggies by chopping a small white onion. Cut the green part off of your leek and chop the white part into 2-inch chunks, chop carrots and celery and quarter red potatoes. Set aside.
• Next, saute veggies. turn on the Instant Pot’s sauté feature. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When olive oil is fragrant, add in garlic cloves, white onion, and leek. Save the carrots, celery, and potatoes for later in the recipe. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.
• Remove veggies from Instant Pot and set aside.
• Next, saute pot roast. Add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil to the Instant Pot and keep the sauté feature on.
• Add pot roast to the Instant Pot and sauté for 3-4 minutes on each side to brown.
• Turn off the sauté feature and remove pot roast from Instant Pot.
• Deglaze Instant Pot by adding wine, beef broth, and Worcestershire sauce. Use a wooden spoon to scrape all of the brown bits from the bottom to prevent the burn notice from happening.
• Then, add the leek, onion, and garlic back into the Instant Pot along with any leftover spices from the rub. Give it a quick mix. Place the pot roast on top of the veggies.
• Cover the Instant Pot and turn the valve to seal.
• Set the Instant Pot to manual >> high >> and set the timer to 90 minutes. The Instant Pot will take around 10 minutes to build pressure before it starts to count down from 90.
• Once the timer goes off, quick release the Instant Pot and let all of the steam come out.
• Carefully remove all of the meat from the Instant Pot and place on a large baking sheet or plate. Set aside.
• Keep the gravy in the Instant Pot and add other veggies. Place the quartered potatoes, carrots, and celery on top of gravy.
• Close the Instant Pot and turn the valve to seal. Set the Instant Pot to manual >> high >> and set the timer to 2 minutes. Again, the Instant Pot will take some time for the pressure to build before it starts to count down from 2 minutes.
• Once the timer goes off, quick release and let all of the steam come out. Open the Instant Pot and remove all veggies.
• Next, thicken gravy. Turn on the Instant Pot’s sauté feature and sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Use a whisk to continually whisk cornstarch until it dissolves and thickens. This should take 3-5 minutes. Once thickened, transfer the gravy to a jar for serving.
• Serve pot roast and veggies with gravy.

Watch It

[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”yVLbwG3V” upload-date=”2020-01-01T15:28:34.000Z” name=”Instant Pot Pot Roast” description=”Pot Roast lovers, this recipe is for you! It’s the most delicious and savory Instant Pot Pot Roast made with tons of veggies and a homemade gravy in just 2 hours.”]

Nutrition

Calories: 447 kcal, Carbohydrates: 37 g, Protein: 28 g, Fat: 19 g, Fiber: 4 g, Sugar: 8 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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