Instant Pot Pot Roast: An easy dump-and-cook recipe in the pressure cooker, using chuck roast or arm roast. It’s a hearty dish that’s perfect for a Sunday dinner, much like our beef stew recipe, which also uses chuck roast!
For years I’ve cooked roasts in the slow cooker but knew that once I had an Instant Pot, the way that I cook a roast may change forever. And with the juiciness, quickness, and deliciousness that came out of this cooking process… I think it did just change forever.
Did you just buy an Instant Pot? See the video from when I unboxed mine and learned how to use it to get a helpful walk-through.
Today I’m sharing this crazy good pot roast recipe with you that I came up with the other day for an easy dinner recipe.
Pot Roast Ingredients
You can definitely make this recipe using a roast that isn’t frozen, and I’ve given those cooking times for it below as well.
Now, for this recipe, you can use just about any beef roast, and honestly… using this recipe for other types of meat should be pretty tasty too! Types of meat like:
- Chicken
- Deer
- Pork
Other Ingredients:
In this recipe, the Italian dressing, ranch seasoning, butter, salt, and stock, create a delicious blend of juices that can be turned in to a gravy to serve on top of the roast and/or other side dishes.
Tip: To help pull the roast out of the instant pot when it’s finished cooking, you may want to use the trivet, and put that in the bottom before you add all of the ingredients. This way the roast can be pulled out much easier than trying to pull it out and having it all fall apart because it’s SOOO tender!
How to Make Roast in the Instant Pot
What I REALLY love about this recipe, (and almost all Instant Pot recipes) is that the ingredients can all be put in at once, and the Instant Pot is going to do the rest for you. No babysitting, no stirring, no nothing.
Unless you want gravy, and then there’s another little step, but with very little work.
Pot Roast Cook Time
For a frozen, 3lb roast, pressure the roast and ingredients on “high” pressure for 90 minutes.
If it isn’t frozen, the roast should be fully cooked at around 45-50 minutes. (Making sure your roast reaches and the internal temperature of 145 degrees.)
Now after you’ve grabbed a bite of that roast and have soaked in the juicy flavor, it’s time to make the gravy. But only if you want to!
Feel free to serve up this roast just as it is, or to serve with additional condiments like:
- ketchup (a kid favorite)
- horseradish (a mom and dad favorite)
- A-1
- garlic butter
- blue cheese or ranch dressing
Pot Roast Gravy
If you’re not a fan of using the juices from the cooking process, using a gravy packet or making your own homemade gravy is great too!
But if you ARE a fan of using the juices to create a gravy, you’ll need:
- cold water
- flour
This will thicken it to give it the gravy consistency!
In a small bowl, mix equal amounts of cold water and flour and combine. (I used 3 tablespoons of each.)
Note: You may need more/less depending on the amount of juices you have, or how thick/thin you prefer your gravy.
Add Flour-Water Mixture to Drippings:
On the Instant Pot, turn on “saute” and once the juices are heated through, and almost to a boil. (This shouldn’t take long since the roast just finished cooking.)
Slowly add water/flour mixture while stirring.
Stir until thickened to gravy and shut off Instant Pot so the gravy does not burn/scorch.
Salads to Serve with Pot Roast:
If you need a side dish to serve with your Instant Pot Pot Roast, here are my favorite salads to serve alongside!
Other Recipes You’ll Love:
The recipes you’ll find here on the blog are always easy to make and use everyday ingredients. Cooking doesn’t have to be difficult to be delicious. If you’re a fan of pot roast recipes, I think you’re also going to love this Dutch oven pot roast! Or, if you want to keep the Instant Pot recipes theme going, this Instant Pot Polenta is ranking right up there these days.
Here are a few other recipes you’ll love if you love this one…
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Pot Roast
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 3 lb. frozen beef roast if thawed, reduce cook time
- 1 cup broth beef, chicken, or veggie will work!
- 1 packet ranch dressing or dips seasoning mix
- 16 oz bottle of Italian dressing
- 1 stick butter stick
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Optional Gravy
- 3 tablespoon cold water
- 3 tablespoon flour
- juices from roast drippings
Instructions
- Place the trivet inside of the inner pot, and pour broth in to pressure cooker pot, add roast and top with dressing, seasonings and stick of butter.
- Place lid on and cook on high pressure for 90 minutes. Reduce the cook time if roast is thawed, for around 45-50 minutes.
- Naturally or quick release the pressure.
- Remove meat, and place on to platter or serving dish.
If making gravy:
- In a small bowl, mix together cold water and flour. Stir until there are no lumps.
- Leave juices in the pot and turn the “saute” setting on.
- Once meat juices are heated through and almost boiling (don't forget to stir so it doesn't burn) slowly add in and stir in the flour and water mixture.
- Stir and cook until juices thicken to a gravy. If it does not thicken to a gravy after a couple of minutes, try adding more of a flour mixture. You could have more juices than I did.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Toni says
This recipe is so easy and delicious! Great dinner recipe any night!
Jessica says
Thank you so much Toni!
Kyla L. says
Is the entire bottle of Italian dressing supposed to be poured over the meat? I found I had a TON lof juices left at the end.. it looked like mostly Italian dressing.
Jessica says
We use the entire bottle and then use the juices to make the gravy! I hope that helps!
Amy Locurto says
I love this! Always a winning recipe for the Instant Pot!
Jessica says
Aw! Yes! Thank you so much Amy!
Martha Fay says
I haven’t tried it yet, cooking now. I am very excited since it was so easy to set up. Thank you for the recipe!
Jessica says
Yes of course!! Thank you!
Cheryl S says
so full of flavor this is always a hit!
Jessica says
Yes!!! We love it!
Aimee Shugarman says
One of my favorite pot roast recipes!
Jessica says
Aw, thank you Aimee!!
Sarah Skaggs says
This is so great! thank you!
Connie says
Loved pot roast very favorable
Jessica says
Oh good! I’m so glad that you liked it! Thank you!
Valerie says
Loved the flavor of this roast! We’ve tried the Mississippi/Italian-style beef recipes that call for the 3 packets (au jus/Italian dressing/Ranch dressing) + pepperoncinis in some cases and have yet to be impressed — we much preferred the outcome of this recipe! The only adjustment I made was to reduce the amount of Italian dressing and butter; I used 4 oz. of dressing and 4 Tbsp. of butter. Same great flavor profile with a bit less oil and fat in the gravy; purely a preference thing. Thanks for sharing!
Jessica says
I’m SO glad that you liked it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Rachel Clement says
Wondering if anyone has tried adding potatoes or vegetables in when you’re cooking the meat? Or would it cook them too much? I’m new to the instapot!
Robin says
I bought chuncks of roast instead of 1 big one. Will this change the cooking time?
Jessica says
I’m not sure, since I haven’t tried that… but I would think it could reduce the cook time, since it won’t have to cook through such a large piece of meat! But the way I look at it… since it’s a pressure cooker, the meat will probably get more and more tender if you do cook it at the same time. Good luck!
Claudia says
This is soooo good!!! My roast was thawed out but I did add 20 mins to the cooking time because only 1 side was really tender. I can’t wait to make this again.
Jessica says
Yay!! I’m so glad that you liked it too, and that’s so good to know that adding 20 minutes worked for your roast! Thank you!
Elizabeth Humble says
Mine was still raw and looked a little rubbery, so we added more time. Hopefully that works.
Jessica says
Thanks for letting us know Elizabeth! I hope you loved it!
Glenda says
This was delicious!!! Thank you for sharing 😊
Jessica says
Oh Glenda, thank you so much for sharing this with us, I’m so glad that you liked it. Thank you for leaving a review as well!
Bek says
I made this tonight and used a thawed roast. After 45 minutes on high the meat was still rare. Did I miss something? It smells great but I am crossing my fingers it actually cooks through in time tonight.
Jessica says
Oh no! I’m not sure what could have happened. Do you know if the pressure cooker actually came to pressure?
Norma says
Do you cook this on the rack or just setting on the bottom?
Jessica says
Hi Norma! I’m so sorry I didn’t say! I’ve updated the post to say that I use the trivet (rack) for this! Thank you!
DelShonia Vickers says
This was AMAZING! I was having serious buyer’s remorse about my instant pot since the only successful ‘recipes’ I’d executes were egg bites and ‘boiled’ eggs – then along came this recipe… LIFE. CHANGING. I was so skeptical it would work, I didn’t even tell my family it was being prepared – no way I was serving up another leather-esque roast! THANK YOU! From rock hard frozen to fork tender in 90 minutes! Wizardry indeed!
Jessica says
Awww!!! You and I sound so much alike. Although I do like using the Instant Pot for making hard-boiled eggs… being able to cook a big piece of frozen meat in no time, is a game-changer! 🙂 So happy you were happy with this!
Cynthia says
You should try: risotto, oatmeal, pork ribs, black beans. All good and easy
Taylor Mcewen says
Is there anything you would Suggest to substitute the Italian dressing with?
Jessica says
Hi Taylor! I’ve never tried anything but that, but if you have Italian dressing seasoning on hand instead, that would work well too I’m sure!
Janeen McGuire says
Loved it! Easy and delicious
Jessica says
I’m so glad that you loved it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Kim Jones says
I made this roast and it was delicious! Best roast I have ever had. I didn’t have Italian dressing so I used balsamic and it turned out great! It was so juicy and tender.
Jessica says
Thank you SO so much!! I’m so glad that you liked this and mixed it up when you didn’t have all that you needed! Thank you for letting us know.
Sarah says
Do you have to alter the cooking time if using a larger roast (say 6 lbs)? Does it make a difference if it is cut into pieces versus one whole piece? I don’t know much about pressure cooking so I don’t yet know how to make adjustments… I would greatly appreciate any suggestions!
Jessica says
Hello Sarah! I’ve never made a roast that big in the Instant Pot but I would think that it would need to go a bit longer. BUT… if you do cut it up, I could see that not taking as long as doing the whole 6lb roast for sure! I’m sorry I don’t have a straight answer but I don’t want to tell you anything that I’m not sure of either! With a big roast like that though, make sure it will fit in the Instant Pot. You don’t really want the roast touching the lid when it’s inside!
Regina Thomson says
Why is your serving size 1g?…that is nothing? 3lb roast for 5 people is not 1g. I realize information is an estimate but 1g is not a serving size.
So many blogs are doing this and I don’t get it?
Jessica says
Hi Regina. Thank you for your question. It’s really supposed to say “1 serving” but it automatically added in the “g”. I’ve changed it to say “serving” instead. Thank you for the heads up!
Liz says
Can you do this in a slow cooker?
Thanks🤗
Jessica says
Hi Liz! I haven’t tried this in the slow cooker but I don’t see why not! The cook time will change, but the ingredient should be just fine, staying the same!
Dara says
Made this recipe tonight, followed it step by step. Next time I would use less Italian dressing, my family all agreed it was over powering. And I should ha e put the roast back in, when hubby started to slice it, got to the middle and was still to raw for him, I had already started the gravy in the instapot so couldn’t put it back in. So verdict is, we would try again but with alterations