It’s a weeknight and you are all prepared for dinner tomorrow night. You’re making Mississippi Pot Roast for dinner in the slow cooker. You’ll start cooking it before leaving the house in the morning. Then, it happens. You oversleep. The kid has a meltdown. Maybe you leave early for work due to traffic or weather. A hiccup to your plan. What about dinner? Time is short. No worries. You’re covered. Skip the slow cooker and make Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast.
Do you remember pressure cookers years ago? Many people found them scary. The thought of them exploding all over the kitchen. Who wants food on the ceiling? I feel today’s pressure cookers are user friendly and less scary. They have more features for cooking and keeping us safe. I like having a back-up plan when I’m craving a slow cooked roast and am short on time.
This is an Instant Pot recipe, but let’s take a quick minute to go over how to both cook roasts.
Why The Slow Cooker Cooks Roasts So Well
A roast (Chuck, Brisket, Round) is a tough piece of meat. Roasts have a lot of collagen and connective tissue. They have less fat than other parts of the animal. The collagen and fat needs time to cook and break down. This is usually done by the cooking method called braising.
What is Braising?
Braising is cooking the meat at a low temperature over a long period of time in liquid. Braising is what the great slow cooker does best. Put in on in the morning before work and come home to the smell of a home cooked meal. In fact, when I first started making Mississippi Pot Roast I used the slow cooker. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can find the slow cooker recipe HERE.
Why The Instant Pot Cooks Roasts So Fast
While the slow cooker is braising the roast over low all day, the Instant Pot speeds up the process. Here’s how the Instant Pot cooks faster.
The Instant Pot or Pressure Cookers traps the steam created as the liquids boil. Pressure builds because the steam has no where to go. The temperature inside the pressure cooker gets as high as 250℉. The increased pressure causes liquids to be forced into the food faster. The combination of both the increased pressure and temperature causes foods to cook faster. This helps cooking ingredients that normally longer, like a roast, to cook in a fraction of it’s normal time and become tender. It’s like braising on steroids.
Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast vs Slow Cooker Mississippi Pot Roast
Making a Mississippi Pot Roast in either appliance is a great option. Here’s the scoop on each method.
Using a Slow Cooker
- The roast cooks all day over low heat and makes the house smell amazing.
- Side dishes get full attention because the main course is already cooking away.
- Clean up is a snap. Just clean the slow cooker crock and the lid. For even faster clean up, use slow cooker liners!
Using an Instant Pot
- Because of the pressure, the roast cooks in a fraction of the time making it an easy weeknight dinner when mornings are too busy for slow cooker use.
- Side dishes get full attention because the main course is already cooking away.
- Clean up is still easy. Lid, interior pot, and seal.
What’s the Verdict?
As you can see by the benefits listed, using one over the other is more of a preference as opposed to one or the other being better. I will still be making Mississippi Pot Roast in the Instant Pot as well as the slower cooker version depending on my schedule.
Need Side Dish Ideas?
Here are some great side dish ideas for your Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast.
- Easy Sauteed Green beans
- Sauteed Mushrooms and Green Beans with Garlic
- Roasted Brussel Sprouts
- Loaded Mashed Potatoes
Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 1 Chuck Roast, 3 – 5 lbs.
- 1 Packet of Ranch Dressing Mix.We use Hidden Valley Ranch for Gluten Free but read your ingredients
- 1 Packet of Brown Gravy or Au Jus Mix,Gluten Free Brown Gravy Mix for G Free
- 1 Stick of Butter
- 8 or 9 Pepperoncini plus a few Tablespoons of the juice
- Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper for searing the roast
Instructions
- Add a Tablespoon or two of olive oil to the Instant Pot and turn it on to saute.
- Season Roast on all sides with Salt and Pepper.
- When the Instant Pot is hot, sear the Roast in the Instant Pot until browned on all sides.
- Turn off the Instant Pot.
- Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl or small saucepan on the stove.
- Whisk in the Dressing and Gravy mixes along with the pepperoncini juice.
- Pour mixture over the top of the roast and top with pepperoncini.
- Put the lid on the Instant Pot, making sure the vent is in the sealing position.
- Turn the Instant Pot on to the manual setting, high pressure, and adjust the time on the Instant Pot for 60-80 minutes, depending on the weight of the roast. 60 min for 3 lb., 60 min for 4 lb. or 60 min for 5 lb.
- After cooking time on the roast is up, allow the roast to naturally release pressure for 10 minutes. This allows the roast to finish cooking.
- After 10 minutes is up, vent the Instant Pot to release any remaining pressure.
- Once the pressure has been released, remove the roast from slow cooker and cut/shred.
