Beef · Slow cooker

Emmymade Mississippi Pot Roast (Slow Cooker)

Five storecupboard ingredients, a chuck roast, and a long afternoon on low. Emmy makes the famously salty, briny, butter-slicked Mississippi pot roast that took over the internet in 2020, and finds out whether the fuss was warranted.

R By Richard · Adapted from emmymade · Published 23 June 2026
👁 864.4k source views ❤️ 23.7k source likes
⏱Prep 5 min
🍲Slow cook 8 hr (Low) / 5 hr (High)
🍽Serves 6
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Mississippi pot roast is the recipe that went viral in 2020 after years of quiet popularity in the American South. It was invented by Robin Chapman of Ripley, Mississippi, and rests on a clever piece of cheating: two dry sauce packets, a jar of pickled peppers and a stick of butter do all the seasoning work while the chuck cooks down to ribbons. Emmy tries it for the first time and finds the meat tender and richly savoury, with no real heat from the peppers. It is genuinely salty though, so serve it over potatoes or rice to balance things out.

Ingredients

Main
  • 1.4 kgbeef chuck roast, trimmed of any large surface sinew
  • 1 packetranch dressing mix
  • 1 packetau jus gravy mix
  • 12 pepperspepperoncini peppers
  • 0.5 jarpepperoncini brine
  • 113 gunsalted butter

Method

  1. Trim any large bits of surface sinew from the chuck roast and lay the joint in the slow cooker.

    ~2 min

  2. Tip the ranch dressing mix straight over the top of the roast.

    ~1 min

  3. Tip the au jus gravy mix over the roast as well.

    ~1 min

  4. Scatter about 12 pepperoncini peppers around and on top of the meat, then pour over roughly half the brine from the jar.

    ~2 min

  5. Sit the stick of butter on top of the roast.

    ~1 min

  6. Cover and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours, or on High for 5 to 6 hours, until the beef is fork-tender.

    ~480 min

  7. Shred the meat in the pot with two forks and stir it through the buttery, briny juices. Serve over mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes or rice to soak up the sauce.

    ~5 min

Frequently asked

Is this recipe spicy?
No. Pepperoncini peppers are pickled and very mild, so even half a jar adds tang and salt rather than heat.
Why is mine so salty?
Both packets are heavily seasoned and the brine adds more. Emmy suggests using three-quarters of each packet for a roast under 3 lb, and serving with potatoes or rice to balance it.
Do I need to brown the beef first?
No. The recipe is famous precisely because you skip the sear. The fat content of chuck and the long cook do the work.
Can I reduce the fat?
Yes. Chill the cooked roast and juices overnight, scrape off the solid butter and beef fat that rises to the top, then reheat.
What cut of beef works best?
Chuck roast. It has the marbling needed to stay juicy and shreds beautifully after a long cook.
Extraction notes (transparency): Ranch and au jus quantities given as packets (host did not state weights). Pepperoncini count given as approximate 12 (host counted aloud to about 12). Butter is one US stick, converted to 113 g (standard equivalence).