Super Easy Crockpot Roast Beef

I live for simple cooking. If the ingredient list requires me to scroll, it’s a good bet I won’t be making that particular thing. That’s just how I am. But, if I can find a way to make something taste like I did a lot of work with little effort, you can bet it’s going to be on my must make list. This is one of those recipes.

Out of habit I buy, when I have the money and it’s on sale, bottom round roasts. That’s what Mom bought and I prefer them to chuck roasts just because I hate dealing with all that fat. The roasts that I buy range anywhere from 2.5 to 3.25 lbs (there’s only two of us), so it fits well in my 3 qt. crockpot.

I then either put a package of onion soup over the meat (without searing it) or put peeled potatoes and carrots in first with the meat on top followed by the onion soup mix. I have also used Campbell’s condensed onion soup (NOT cream of onion) with excellent results. I then add a half to a full cup of water and let it cook on low all day.

The meat comes out, usually, tender, moist and full of flavor. You can strain the onion bits if you want or leave them in the broth for onion gravy. You can also add some more water (I usually end up with 2 cups of gravy) and then use a flour/water slurry to thicken it. If you remove the meat and vegetables right away, the broth will still be hot enough to thicken in the crockpot.

French Onion Pot Roast - similar to mine

I don’t add any other seasonings because of all the seasonings in the soup mix or can of soup, although they’re not as concentrated in the can as they are in the dry mix. You can also buy low sodium onion soup mix if you want to reduce the amount of sodium.

I use bottom round roast, but one time I used a California roast (very much like a chuck roast) and it just fell apart so wonderfully. Perfect for roast beef sandwiches!!

The potatoes and the carrots are tender and flavored from the soup mix and the resulting gravy is flavored by the potatoes and the carrots. You can eat the potatoes with butter like baked potatoes or mash them on your plate to use with the gravy. It’s a win-win, as far as I’m concerned!


The photo is not my roast, but is made the same way I make mine and looks very much like mine. The photo is also a link to the recipe it goes with.