It’s so easy to use your Dutch Oven to make pot roast with carrots and potatoes – a complete one pot meal! Everything cooks in the one pot, and you only need about 20 minutes of easy prep work. This pot roast recipe uses a lean bottom round cut and cooks in the Dutch Oven low and slow for hours to shreddable, tender perfection. This is a great thing to make on a weekend or on a work from home day.
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Most pot roast recipes use a chuck roast, but I opted instead for a bottom round roast. A bottom round is incredibly lean and flavorful, and often cheaper than other cuts. You won’t end up with too much fat in the juices, so they’ll be ready to go without skimming anything off. And the meat won’t shrink as much either. Plus, this is a great option for anyone looking to add lean protein to their diets, or those that need to watch their saturated fat intake.
Around midday or in the early afternoon, you’ll want to begin to prep this meal, as it takes about 4 hours to cook in the oven. Halfway through cooking, you’ll add carrots and potatoes so they cook well but don’t get mushy.
It may take a while to roast, but with only about 20 minutes of prep, it’s incredibly hands-off for the rest of the time. Dutch Oven Pot Roast is such an easy way to make a special, hearty, cozy dinner if you’re just going to be home anyway!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Bottom Round Beef Roast: Also sometimes labeled a rump roast. You can use other cuts of beef like chuck, which is more common for pot roast, or brisket. These are fattier cuts, so you may need to skim some fat off the juices before serving if you don’t want it to taste greasy.
- Onion
- Tomato Paste – you can skip this if you don’t have any!
- Beef Broth – I always recommend low sodium. You can sub some of the beef broth for wine if you want – more on that in the recipe notes.
- Carrots – I used large carrots, peeled and cut, but baby carrots are a great shortcut since they come ready to go in the perfect size!
- Potatoes – I recommend Yukon gold or red potatoes, as they are waxy and will maintain their shape better than starchy potatoes like russets. And no peeling necessary!
- Thyme and Rosemary – or just use one or the other if you like.
- Olive oil, salt, and pepper
How to make Pot Roast in your Dutch Oven
First, season the beef all over with plenty of salt and pepper. Beef needs a lot of seasoning! Then brown it on all sides in olive oil in your dutch oven. Remove the beef to a plate, add the onions, cook until softened and browned. Then, add the tomato paste and cook for another minute or so more.
Deglaze the pot with a little beef broth, then pour in more broth. Nestle the meat back in the pot with the herb sprigs. Cover, and bake at 300 degrees F for 2 hours. Remove, add the carrots and potatoes, cover again, and bake for another 2 hours. The meat is done cooking when it’s reached an internal temperature of about 200 – 205 degrees F. Take the beef out, shred it, then put back into the pot with the juices, and serve!
This is a summary of how to make this recipe. Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions, written in traditional recipe format, or Jump to Recipe.
Tips and Tricks
- Don’t shred the beef too finely. It’s not like pulled pork. You want there to be good sized chunks.
- When adding the veggies halfway through baking, lift the beef up with tongs to ensure that the veggies are submerged in the liquid. Then place the beef back on top.
- Don’t skip adding the shredded beef back to the pot. Because this is such a lean cut, it will be dry unless it has that liquid to help moisten it.
- POTHOLDERS!!! Don’t forget that Dutch oven lid is super hot. Make sure you use potholders or a towel to take it on and off the pot. I like to place a towel on top of the handle to remind myself that it mustn’t be touched.
Looking for an instant pot version?
Try this instant pot pot roast, which also uses a bottom round. It involves cooking the potatoes in the pot, then mashing them, and making a gravy out of the liquid. Delicious!
Other Dutch Oven Recipes
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Dutch Oven Pot Roast with Carrots and Potatoes
Equipment
- Dutch Oven around 5.5 qts, or other oven-safe pot with a lid
Ingredients
- 3 – 3½ lbs. bottom round / rump beef roast see notes for other cuts
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt plus more if needed
- ½ teaspoon black pepper plus more if needed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or preferred oil of choice
- 2 large onions halved and thickly sliced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 cups beef broth preferably low sodium
- 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 – 1½ lbs. carrots peeled and cut into pieces about 1 – inch wide by 2-3 inches long. Or baby carrots!
- 1 – 1½ lbs. small gold potatoes halved or quartered depending on size, you want them to be about 1-2 inch pieces
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Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F. Season the 3 – 3½ lbs. bottom round / rump beef roast on all sides with 1 tablespoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat in your Dutch oven. Sear the beef until nice and brown (this will take about 5 minutes for each side).
- Remove the seared beef to a plate. Add the sliced 2 large onions to the pot, scraping up the browned bits with a wooden spoon as the liquid from the onions is released (it's OK if you don't get it all!). Cook until onions are softened and starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
- Add the 2 tablespoons tomato paste and stir to coat, cooking for another minute or so. Pour in the 3 cups beef broth, pouring just a little bit at first to deglaze the pot, scraping up as much of the browned bits as you can from the bottom of the pot (this will add flavor AND make it easier to clean later!).
- Place the beef back in the pot, along with the 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme and 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and place in the preheated oven. Cook at 300 degrees for 2 hours.
- Remove the pot and add the cut 1 – 1½ lbs. carrots and cut 1 – 1½ lbs. small gold potatoes. Lift up the beef with tongs so the vegetables submerge into the liquid, placing the beef back on top of them.
- Place the lid back on the Dutch oven and cook for another 2 hours at 300 degrees. At this point, check the internal temperature of the beef at the center of the thickest part. You're aiming for 200 – 205 degrees F for that fall-apart tender, shreddable texture. Cook for more time if needed.
- Place the beef on a plate or cutting board and use two forks to shred it into chunks (don't shred into tiny pieces like you would pulled pork! Just kind of pull it apart a bit). Place the beef back into the pot, coating with the juices. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
- Serve, spooning a little bit of liquid from the pot over each plate of beef and vegetables.
Notes
- Other cuts of beef: I like using a bottom round / rump roast because it’s relatively inexpensive, and incredibly lean. This means it won’t make the juices in the pot greasy, and you won’t need to skim any fat off, and it’s great for anyone watching their saturated fat intake. It also doesn’t shrink very much so you get more meat! That said, there are other cuts of beef that can be used for pot roast, like chuck roast, which will add more fat and be quite tender, and brisket. If you use these cuts, use your judgement about whether you want to skim some of the fat off the liquid in the pot before serving.
- Salt! Salt is important for flavoring beef – it demands quite a bit. A good rule is 1 teaspoon kosher salt per pound of beef. But you also may find you don’t need that much if your beef broth is very high in sodium, or for personal preference. Feel free to err on the side of less salt – I’d half the amount – and add more salt and pepper after cooking if you aren’t sure.
- Leftovers: Leftovers will keep for a few days in the fridge. I’m very laissez-faire about freezing foods and, while the potatoes will change texture a bit after freezing, I still froze a good portion of this since we had so much leftover. If you aren’t picky about post-freezing textures, feel free to freeze these pot roast leftovers! Another idea for leftovers is cutting up the carrots and potatoes into smaller bits and adding more beef broth for a quick beef stew – this will freeze a bit better, too.
- If you don’t have a Dutch oven, and you don’t have a pot that can go from stovetop to oven, you can sear the beef in a skillet, as well as sauté the onions, add tomato paste, and deglaze. Then, add the beef and all those liquids to a casserole dish with a lid and proceed as you would with a Dutch oven. If you don’t have a lid, just use a deep oven safe pot/casserole and cover tightly with foil.
- You can omit the tomato paste if you don’t have any.
- For a richer flavor in the liquid, substitute 1 cup of red wine for 1 cup of the beef broth. Pour it in after the tomato paste to deglaze the pot, then proceed with the 2 cups of broth.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
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