Mississippi pot roast
This is a viral recipe that's been around for a while, but I never got around to making before.
I originally found out about it from a NY Times Cooking recipe that skipped the packaged ranch and gravy.
Hidden Valley also has a recipe.
3-4 pound chuck roast beef
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix
1 packet brown gravy mix
sliced pepperoncini pepper rings (handful, including juice)
4.0 oz. butter (1/2 stick)
onions sliced
garlic minced
beef broth (4 oz. in hidden valley recipe, but might be as much as 2 cups)
I used a 2.28 lb. chuck roast because that was the size the grocery store had, and also it was really expensive!
The recipe calls for pepperoncini pepper rings, which I thought I had, but do not. I substituted banana pepper rings. I added the peppers during the last hour of cooking, but the juice with the beef broth.
Season the beef with salt and pepper on both sides. Spritz with olive oil.
Sear beef 4 minutes per side on the Instant Pot sauté setting.
Add the onions around the beef, Sprinkle ranch dressing mix and gravy mix over the top.
Top the roast with minced garlic and the butter slices.
I used 12 oz. of More than Gourmet instant demi glace. I probably could have used 16 oz.. In any case, it didn't seem worthwhile to open a whole container of beef stock because I wasn't sure how much I would need. The Hidden Valley recipe only calls for 4 oz.!
Add jarred pepper juice and beef stock.
I used the Instant Pot slow cooker mode, 5 hours on "normal" setting.
Add the pepperoncini or banana pepper rings for the last hour of cooking. It worked well! A regular crockpot would presumably also work well.
Remove the meat and shred. It was very tender and delicious!
Separate the liquid from the meat and vegetables, thicken the sauce with cornstarch slurry in a sauce pan to make a thicker gravy (optional). I used 1 tbsp. cornstarch in a couple ounces of water.
Meat and onions.
Vacuum sealed and froze 5 servings; Each serving got 4.0 oz. meat, 1.5 oz. onions, and 5 oz. gravy.
Serve with mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
2025-11-20
I used 1.6 oz. small egg noodles, boiled for 5 minutes.
Served with the 5 oz. package of roast and gravy, previously frozen. Reheated in the sous vide for 1 hour at 140°F from frozen, with the water starting cold.
Sometimes gravy comes out weird after being frozen, so I heated it on the stove, but it probably wasn't necessary. It looked good right out of the sous vide.
It was delicious! I'll definitely make this again.
