Instant Pot Slow Cooking Method Mississippi Pot Roast is a super simple weekend soul warmer.
Perfect for a Sunday and all you need to do on the way home from Church or the kid’s soccer game, is pick up a 3 pound chuck roast and a couple other items I will list below. So I have an Instant Pot and cook this roast in a fraction of the time; why use the slow cooking option? The number one reason is my house smells great all day while the roast is slow cooking.
For those active online in the Instant Pot support groups, there are plenty of complaints registered about the Instant Pot’s ability to function like a Slow Cooker, but I have not had any issue slow cooking in my Instant Pot 6 quart Ultra. One thing to note is the Ultra model is a huge improvement over the Duo/Lux series. If you were to look at the Lux, Duo and Ultra, the Lux was like the time you bought and new car and there were no power windows, no air conditioning and a manual transmission. Just a basic car. The Duo is similar to buying the mid-line model of any car that has more frills, but it is not fully loaded with all the options. The Ultra has so many different customized setting you can really get in and control just about every aspect of any cooking cycle. The Duo does have customization of the controls so if budget is
the issue, do what ever you can to skip buying the Lux.
What ingredients do you need ?
- 3lb Chuck Roast
- 1 Jar of Pepperoncinis
- 1 Packet of dry ranch dressing
- Garlic Salt
- 2 teaspoons of minced garlic
- 1/2 stick of butter
- 14 ounce can of beef broth or 1 packet of dry Au Jus
- Sliced onion (optional)
Putting it all together
- Sear the roast. I like to sear on my stove in a pan. I have a stove that puts out a lot more heat faster than my Instant Pot and the Pot has very high sides which interferes with a true sear. If you want to sear in your Instant Pot, set your instant Pot to Saute, set the heat to high and if you have an Instant Pot Ultra set the temp to custom and crank it all the way up to 338 degrees. Take paper towels and dry the roast.
If you put a juicy roast right in the pan or Instant Pot the juices will cause the roast to steam and not sear properly, this is also and issue with the high sides on the Instant Pot in that the steam starts to steam the meat. In either case the pot or pan has to be super hot to sear. After you dry the roast with paper towels, rub garlic salt on the outside of the roast 
and if your pot or pan is up to heat, it’s time to sear all sides of the roast. You will need some long handled tongs to turn the meat and hold it up on the small ends. Sear the meat for that outside crust and flavor.
- If you are searing in the Instant pot then follow this direction. Remove the roast and cancel the Pot from Saute mode. Pour the beef broth directly in the hot pot and stir scraping the bits off the bottom of the pot preferably with a wooden spoon. It’s the action of the cold broth on the hot metal pot that helps release the “fond” from the pot into the broth. This is why I prefer both over using the Au Jus dry mix. If you are going to use the dry mix, then you can use the two cups of cold water for the dry mix to release the Fond. If you want to use cooking wine – make it your own. Nothing wrong with breaking the rules on this part.
- Add the minced garlic and stir it into the water or broth. I use garlic all the time so I keep a jar of already minced garlic in the refrigerator. This is a much easier option than having to mince garlic cloves for every recipe.
- Put the seared roast in the Instant Pot. Now cube the butter and add to the pot. Sprinkle the Ranch dressing packet and the Au Jus packet (if not using broth) in the pot over the liquid and meat. Add half the jar of pepperoncinis and approximately half of the juice in the jar to the Instant Pot.
Time for Slow Cooking
Put the lid on, plug in your Instant Pot, select the “Slow Cook” program. Set the temp to HIGH and KEEP WARM = On. Time should be set at 4 hours. If you want to cook for longer times then choose the medium or low temp options. The Temp HIGH setting defaults to 208 degrees. After two hours in my Instant pot the roast had an internal temp of 206.8 degrees.
What about the Onion?
The Onion is optional and does not need to be added till the last hour of cooking. Just slice it up into thin julienne slices and add them to the Instant Pot with an hour left in the cooking cycle.
Other Tips
When searing in a stove top pan. The pan in my pictures is non-stick coated. I have other non-stick coated pans which are better suited for searing. If you want to transfer the “fond” from your non-stick saute pan to the Instant Pot, then deglaze the pan with cold broth, cold water, wine etc and pour it in your Instant Pot.
For a side dish I am boiling baby creamers potatoes and then will saute those with garlic, onion and thyme.
No time for Slow Cooking – here’s the conversion for pressure cooking
If you want to skip the Slow Cooking method and use the power of the Instant Pot then consider.
- Please use the MEAT/STEW program button. The Manual setting is not your friend.
- 35-40 mins is the recommended pressure cooking time. You can always add time if the meat is undercooked, but if you overcook meat in the Instant Pot, it is hard to fix overcooked meat. Altitude and other factors can affect your cooking times.
- Use Natural Pressure Release (NPR) for at least 20 mins.
- You don’t need a trivet.
- Don’t put onions in when pressure cooking for a 35-40 min cycle – they will turn into mush.
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