Store-Bought Gravy Mix Is The Simple Way To Elevate Pot Roast

Making a pot roast with vegetables in a slow cooker is a rather seamless way to get a flavor-packed meal on the table with little effort. When you make this dish, most recipes call for a cup of water so the beef doesn't dry out during the slow cooking process. To elevate the flavors further, consider adding a packet of gravy mix to that water. This technique will turn the water into gravy to spoon onto the sliced pot roast and vegetables — without having to make it from scratch in a separate pan.

It's as simple as opening a seasoning packet, mixing it with water, and adding it to your slow cooker with the other ingredients like carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, and the beef chuck roast. It certainly makes for an effortless way to have gravy to complete your meal, but it will also add flavor to the pot roast itself, which means you can keep the seasonings for the roast simple with just black pepper and salt.

Read more: The 14 Absolute Worst Mistakes You're Making With Meatloaf

Elevating Pot Roast With Instant Gravy Mix

Most recipes suggest whisking the instant gravy packet before adding it to the slow cooker as we mentioned before. This is a good way to ensure the powder fully dissolves and doesn't clump up on the meat or vegetables. If your go-to pot roast recipe suggests searing the meat before it goes in the slow cooker, mix some of the whisked gravy mixture in the pan to combine with the fats left in the pan, then add it to the slow cooker. A final technique is to simply sprinkle the packet on top of the meat directly in the slow cooker then pour the water over it. No matter what technique you go with, you can swap the water with beef or vegetable stock to deepen the flavors.

In case you aren't familiar, there are a variety of gravy mixes that you can buy at the grocery store. You can keep it simple with meaty flavors with an au ju, classic, or beef gravy mix. If you want to lean into the onions, use an onion gravy mix or choose a mushroom variety to infuse the roast with some umami. Do you have a packet of onion soup mix in the back of your pantry? Use that instead of gravy mix for a similar flavor profile. And if you haven't heard of Mississippi pot roast, it's made the same way we've described but it combines a packet of the gravy mix with ranch dressing seasoning and pepperoncini peppers for some spice for another rendition of this classic meal.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.