This Instant Pot Pot Roast recipe cooks to melt-in-your-mouth tender perfection in a jiffy in your instant pot! And best of all? In addition to the pot roast, you also cook carrots, mashed potatoes, AND gravy – all right in your pressure cooker!
Let me get right to the details about this promotion. Then, I’ll talk about this awesome pot roast.
From now until the end of November, I’m partnering with ButcherBox to offer Bowl of Delicious readers an awesome deal!
What is ButcherBox, you ask? Oh, right. I got ahead of myself there :-)
ButcherBox is a subscription service that delivers high-quality meats right to your door. They provide100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, free range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork, raised free from antibiotics and hormones. And their bacon doesn’t have any added sugar or nitrates/nitrites. They have tons of cuts to choose from- everything from whole chickens to filet mignons to pork chops to chuck roasts.
If you’ve tasted both conventional meat and grass-fed/antibiotic-free meats, you know how different the taste is. But did you know that there’s a difference in nutritional value as well?
Grass-fed beef is lower in the bad kinds of fat (saturated) and higher in good kinds (Omega-3s). It also has more vitamins and minerals, due to the cattle being able to exercise more and eat grass, which is what nature intended.
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And they’re never given antibiotics, either.
ButcherBox makes it easy to purchase and eat high quality meats without even thinking about it. I don’t know about you, but I often feel overwhelmed with all the choices at the grocery store. And, if I’m being honest, if I see a conventional steak next to a grass-fed one and it’s a lot cheaper, I’m usually tempted to go the cheap route.
A ButcherBox subscription takes the thinking out of it.
I made this Instant Pot Pot Roast with a bottom round roast from my very first ButcherBox. You can watch this super dorky video of me (and baby Ella) opening up the box right after it got delivered to see what’s inside and how it was packed.
The pot roast was SO flavorful, and so easy to cook up in the pressure cooker! And best of all, I cooked up the potatoes in the Instant Pot at the same time, and made gravy from the drippings in the pot after everything was done. So this was a really easy one-pot meal.
One of the best features of the Instant Pot is that you can sear the meat right in the pot before cooking it, rather than getting another pot dirty doing it on the stovetop.
After seasoning the beef roast VERY generously with salt and pepper, I seared it on all sides in some olive oil right in the pressure cooker. After, I sautéed some onions and then deglazed with red wine, loosening up all the browned bits that accumulated from the beef and onions, which added SO much flavor to the base.
A pot roast cooked in the oven could take about 4 hours, but this Instant Pot version requires only 60 minutes of cooking time! With the prep time and the time it takes for your Instant Pot to come up to pressure and release, the whole thing took about two hours to make, which cut the time in half.
I did something a little different with the mashed potatoes. Instead of using milk and butter (like in these classic homemade mashed potatoes), I just thinned them out with some of the drippings from the bottom of the pan after everything cooked, and used olive oil instead of butter.
Then, I added a cornstarch slurry to the drippings to thicken them up and make a gravy. Yum!
If you like this Instant Pot Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, you’ll love this Instant Pot Pulled Pork, this Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash with Garlic and Herbs, this Instant Pot Corned Beef with Cabbage and Buttered Potatoes, and this Irish Lamb and Potato Stew.
And by the way, you can make this pot roast using a chuck roast or a brisket, as well.
Don’t forget to check out ButcherBox to see if a home delivery of super high quality (yet affordable) meats is a good fit for you!
Here’s the printable recipe for Instant Pot Pot Roast :-)
Instant Pot Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs. bottom round roast see notes for other cuts
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided (8 tablespoons)
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- 2 onions halved and thickly sliced
- 1 cup red wine
- 4 carrots cut into 3″ pieces
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 4 cups beef broth or chicken stock
- 1.5 lbs. baby red or gold potatoes
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the “sauté” setting and wait for it to heat up.
- Pat the beef roast as dry as you can with a paper towel. Season generously with kosher salt (about 1 tablespoon) and black pepper (about 1/2 tablespoon).
- Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and brown the beef roast on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove to a plate or shallow bowl (make sure it has enough depth to catch any runaway juices).
- Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the instant pot and add the onions. Sauté until softened and starting to brown (about 5 minutes).
- Add the red wine to deglaze, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Continue cooking on the “sauté” function until almost all liquid has evaporated from the wine (about 5 minutes).
- Turn the sauté function off. Add the carrots, rosemary sprigs, and thyme sprigs to the instant pot and stir. Place the beef roast on top, along with any juices from the plate. Pour the beef broth on top.
- Place the wire rack insert that came with your instant pot on top of the beef, and place the potatoes on top of it.
- Cover the instant pot and make sure the sealing valve is set to “sealed.” Set the instant pot to manual on high for 60 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then use a wooden spoon to turn the sealing valve to “venting” to release the rest of the pressure.
- Remove the potatoes to a large bowl and the beef to a platter or rimmed baking sheet (something that will catch the juices). Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and place with the beef, and discard the rosemary and thyme sprigs. Shred the beef into large chunks with two forks.
- Mash the potatoes with a potato masher and add the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil to them. Add 1 cup of the drippings from the bottom of the instant pot and continue mashing until desired consistency is reached. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if necessary.
- Mix the corn starch with 1/4 cup of water to create a smooth slurry. Turn the Instant Pot to the “sauté” setting again. Once the drippings are boiling, stir in the corn starch slurry until thickened (about 2 minutes). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve the mashed potatoes topped with the pot roast and carrots/onions, topped with the gravy.
Notes
- You can read more about Bottom Round Roast, and other cuts of beef, on the ButcherBox website.
- More commonly, chuck roast is used for pot roast. You can feel free to use this cut, or brisket as well. Here’s a great primer on the best cuts of beef for pot roast.
- This recipe is 100% paleo/whole30 compliant except for the cornstarch. Omit it and serve with drippings rather than making a gravy (or use arrowroot powder) to make it compliant.
- I made this recipe in my 6 qt. Instant pot. It should work the same in an 8 qt., but you may need to cut the ingredients in half for a 3 qt. mini.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
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:
Sheri J Wicker
Is cooking time for a top round roast the same as the bottom? I have a 2 lb top round roast (london broil) that I want to make a stew with potatoes carrots celery with. I don’t like all the fat on a chuck roast, it makes the broth too fatty,. Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
A top round is leaner than a bottom round and is more suitable for roasting rather than slow cooking. I don’t think it would work well for this method of cooking. I do have a suggestion for the fat, however, for using a bottom round or other fatty cut. After it’s all done cooking, strain all the broth into a bowl or glass measuring cup. The fat will all float to the top. You can use a spoon to scoop it out and discard. Or, you can use a fat separator to do this, which will help you more easily remove that top layer of fat. Then, put all the juices back in with the pot roast! Hope that helps!
Lynn
My husband and I love this recipe. I was brave and made this my very first Instant Pot meal. I ran out of red wine and used Marsala. It was so good that is all that I use. It is also fun to make.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!