This is so good.

Mississippi Pot Roast

serves 6

1 (3-4 lbs.) chuck roast*

1 (1 oz.) packet ranch dressing mix

1 (1 oz.) packet au jus gravy mix**

4–5 pepperoncini peppers, drained***

1/4 cup unsalted butter (half a stick)

Place roast in a 6-quart slow cooker and sprinkle with the ranch dressing powder and au jus mix. Place peppers and butter on top.

Cook in the slow cooker until meat is fork tender and shreddable, on low heat for 8-10 hours or high for 5-6.

Shred the beef right in the slow cooker and serve, or, for a less greasy sauce, continue with the below instructions.

Before shredding it, transfer the beef to a plate or cutting board. Shred beef with two forks. Use a whisk to whisk the sauce in the slow cooker really quickly for 60 seconds.

This will emulsify the remaining fat into the liquid to create a smooth and silk sauce.

Return shredded beef to slow cooker, stir, and serve immediately.

tips

*If you have time, trim any excess or big bits of fat off of this. It will help with the grease later.

You can sear the beef on all sides in a hot pan before adding it to the slow cooker,

If you decide to sear it, don’t add salt before doing so.

There’s a lot of sodium in the other ingredients and the result will be way too salty.

**This dish is notoriously salty. If you can find low-sodium au jus mix, use that and it will help.

***You can add up to 10 drained peppers. Many recipes include the juice from the pepperoncinis.

But that also adds a lot of extra salt to this dish.

My advice is to drain the peppers over a bowl and then keep it for people to drizzle a bit in if they’d like.

Or, and this is what my boyfriend Marty does with the infamous pepperoncinis at Olive Garden when he’s having soup and salad there,

serve with whole uncooked pepperoncini peppers that tend to have a bit of the juice inside of them.

It’s a bit of the fresher uncooked flavor and final acidity served table side without needing to buy an additional ingredient.

Recipe sharing