My Mississippi pot roast with potatoes and carrots in the oven recipe is easy and delicious. With ranch dressing mix, an au jus gravy packet, and pepperoncini peppers for flavor, the roast has a zippy–but not spicy–taste that’s one of a kind. And by baking the roast in the oven with potatoes, carrots, and onions, this dish is a one-pan meal that everyone is sure to enjoy. Besides the delicious flavor, there’s a very interesting story behind this recipe–it’s the perfect example of how the Internet and social media can popularize a new recipe. If you want to learn how to make Mississippi pot roast, keep reading!

What Is Mississippi Pot Roast?

What Is It Made Of?

As described above, the classic Mississippi Pot Roast recipe uses ranch, gravy mix, and butter, as well as both pepperoncini peppers and juice, to flavor a chuck roast. The original recipe calls for making the roast in a crock pot, allowing the cook to simply put the ingredients into the crock pot, turn it on, and then come back a few hours later to a tender, flavorful roast.

What Does It Taste Like?

Although these ingredients don’t sound like they’d be good together, they actually come together surprisingly well. The tanginess of the ranch, the depth of the gravy, the richness of the butter, and the zestiness of the peppers is unforgettable.

The taste is very unique and complex, so it’s hard to describe. In the video I described the taste of Mississippi pot roast as “ranch-flavored gravy with some extra acidity in the background,” and I think that’s the best way to put it. It’s not spicy, and just a little tangy, so even people with sensitive palates would like it.

Mississippi Pot Roast History

Although I love Mississippi pot roast because it tastes amazing, it’s also important to talk about the history of the dish since it originally started as something tried out on a whim. The discovery eventually went viral on the Internet, legitimizing the roast as a real recipe respected by the foodie community.

“The Best Roast In The World” By Chance

According to a NewYorkTimes.com article on the origins of Mississippi pot roast, the dish was created around 1990 by Robin Chapmin of Ripley, Mississippi. At that time Ms. Chapmin’s aunt taught her a recipe that was identical to Mississippi roast, except it had Italian dressing mix and not ranch. One day, Ms. Chapman decided to switch ranch for Italian to make the dish milder–and so Mississippi roast was born.

Ms. Chapman then made the dish for her friend Karen Farese who fell in love with it and then contributed the recipe to her church’s cookbook. Known as simply “pot roast” in the cookbook, a member of the church named Judy Ward then started making the recipe for her family. She made the recipe when a Laurie Ormon, a relative from Arkansas, came to visit in 2010, and the relative was hooked.

Ms. Ormon just so happened to be blogger, so she shared the recipe for “the best roast in the world” on her blog in November of 2010. It wasn’t long until in January of 2011 that Candis Berge wrote about what she dubbed “Mississippi Roast” on her blog as well. In her post she mentions that she got the recipe from Ms. Ormon, so there’s no doubt that original recipes can definitely spread among food bloggers.

From Pinterest to Periodical

The recipe really became popular when in August 2011, Christine Schirmer, a Pinterest pinner under the username Prairie Cottage, pinned Ms. Berge’s recipe to one of her boards. The recipe then went viral, other food bloggers posting the recipe on their sites as well. The NewYorkTimes.com article states that many bloggers mention that they “saw the recipe on Pinterest,” so once again, the Internet is powerful.

Once the recipe was featured on the New York Times in 2016, there was no denying that was started as a kitchen experiment, then appeared in a church cookbook, and was then posted on several blogs before finally going viral on Pinterest had finally become a “legitimate” recipe. The age of the Internet is far from over, so I’m sure this isn’t the last recipe to go viral.

In fact, Google Trends, a website that shows the number of searches for key words over time, has data that reflects popularization of the recipe. As you can see in the graph, the recipe was unknown to the Internet until 2010 / 2011, and it wasn’t until about the 2016 New York Times feature that the recipe became solidified as a popular search query.

Mississippi Pot Roast Google Trends 2004 - Present — Mississippi pot roast is a perfect example of how food bloggers can create and share recipes that eventually become common, accepted dishes in regional cuisine.

The age of the Internet is far from over, so I’m sure this isn’t the last recipe to go viral.

My Version of Mississippi Pot Roast

Although I’m sure the original recipe for Mississippi pot roast is delicious, I wanted to make a few changes:

In the Oven – I don’t have a slow cooker–and I’m sure a lot of other people don’t, either–but I had read so much about the recipe, I really wanted to try it. So, I decided to bake it in a 9×13 casserole dish.

Less Butter – Even though butter is delicious, I thought a full stick was too much. I’m sure it would be great, but I’d rather save my “butter calories” for dessert, lol

With Potatoes and Carrots – Adding some vegetables with the meat not only adds flavor but also turns it into a full meal.

With these changes in mind, I wanted to make the recipe my way. This was actually before I made my now famous pot roast in the oven with potatoes and carrots, so I’m glad I experimented with this recipe since it unlocked a lot of other opportunities. As always, one recipe can lead to another.

Mississippi Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots Ingredients

As previously stated, this recipe has a combination of ingredients that seem like they wouldn’t go together at all but actually do in amazing way:

Chuck Roast – Although the original recipe calls for a 3-4 pound roast, I recommend using 2-3 lb roast (mine was 1.7 pounds) if you are going to be baking it in the oven with vegetables: you don’t want the 9×13 pan to be too heavy.

Ranch Dressing Mix – Ranch adds a punch of zesty flavor like nothing else can. Although I usually season my roasts with garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper, ranch mix has so much flavor that this roast doesn’t need any of my normal spices.

Aus Jus Gravy Mix – Also known as Brown Gravy Mix, it’s normally used to make a quick gravy without drippings, the brown gravy mix not only flavoring the liquid but also thickening it with cornstarch.

Pepperoncini – I used both the peppers and some of the pickling vinegar in the roast. Although you might think that adding pepperoncini would make this spicy, it didn’t–in addition to the small bit of heat, the vinegar added a zippiness that brought out the other flavors.

Butter – Like I said earlier, I didn’t want to use a full stick, so my version of Mississippi pot roast only has 1 tablespoon–even to give flavor, but not enough to significantly increase the calories.

Vegetable Stock – Homemade vegetable stock provides the moisture for the braising liquid. Since I used so little butter, I needed extra moisture.

Potatoes – I used Russet and red potatoes, but you could use yellow and sweet, too. Along with the other vegetables, I had about 3 pounds of vegetables total.

Carrots – I don’t normally like carrots, but they added some sweetness that was nice in this recipe.

Onions – Oven roasted onions are a lot more delicious than you would expect, so don’t leave them out.

Celery – I’m not usually a celery person, but this vegetable turns out great when used in an oven-baked pot roast recipe, so I highly recommend adding a few stalks.

Like I said, this roast doesn’t have a ton of ingredients, but the few ingredients that it does have come together perfectly.

Can You Make Mississippi Pot Roast In The Oven?

Yes! Like I said earlier in the article, the original Mississippi pot roast recipe calls for making it in a crockpot. However, I don’t have a slow cooker, but I still wanted to make the recipe. I made this in a 9×13 dish, so it was big enough for both the roast and vegetables.

Honestly, I think that making Mississippi pot roast in the oven has one big advantage. Since you can cook the roast uncovered, you can crisp up the vegetables–you can’t do that in a crockpot. I think my version has a texture contrast that the original recipe doesn’t, so it’s worth making it in the oven at least once.

How to Make Mississippi Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots in the Oven

Learning how to make Mississippi pot roast with vegetables in the oven is easy. All you have to do is follow some simple steps and remember a few tips:

Sear the Roast

Although not absolutely necessary, I highly recommend that you sear the roast before baking it in the oven. Browning the meat will add an incredible depth of flavor, so I highly recommend that you take a few extra minutes to brown the meat in a Tablespoon or two of oil: you’ll be glad you did.

Once the meat is seared, place it in the middle of a buttered 9×13 casserole dish and proceed to the next step.

Deglaze the Pan

In the video I did this after cutting up the vegetables, but looking back, I would recommend deglazing the pan first. Usually, deglazing the pan means using some sort of acidic liquid, such as wine, to help break up flavorful bits in the pan where meat was seared.

However, this recipe doesn’t call for wine, so I just used some of my homemade vegetable. I poured in 1 cup of the homemade stock and scraped off the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Honestly, I think it worked out just fine.

Add the Ranch and Brown Gravy Packets

After deglazing the pan, add both the ranch dressing and brown gravy mixes to the liquid and stir to dissolve. Then, set the liquid aside.

Cut Up the Potatoes and Carrots

Next, cut up the vegetables and place them into the 9×13 casserole dish with the meat. I added:

Russet Potatoes

Red Potatoes

Carrots

Yellow Onions

Celery Stalks

Mississippi pot roast is supposed to be an easy recipe, so you don’t have to cut up the vegetables perfectly: just make sure that the pieces are all about the same size, approximately 1/2 inch thick. Refer to my video at the bottom of the page to get an idea of how I cut up the vegetables.

I used 3-4 pounds of potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery, and that was just perfect. You don’t want to add too many vegetables because you don’t want the pan to be too heavy to take in and out of the oven.

Also, even though the vegetables can overlap a bit, try not to pile them on top of each other. Spreading them out will allow the top to crisp up a bit during the last phase of cooking, so do your best to not burry some of the vegetables under each other.

Pour Over the Mixes

Once the potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables are cut up and placed in the 9×13 baking dish with the chuck roast, pour over the liquid with the ranch and aus jus mixes. Be careful to not spill onto the counter.

Although I cut up the vegetables first in the video, making the liquid first allows you to pour it over as soon as the vegetables are cut up, the liquid helping to keep the potatoes from browning due to oxygen exposure.

Add the Butter

As I stated earlier in the article, the original Mississippi pot roast recipe calls for a full stick of butter. Although I like good food, I try to make healthy recipes whenever possible, or at least make traditional recipes healthier without sacrificing flavor.

That’s why I decided to use just 1 Tablespoon of butter: enough to add a bit of richness without all the calories. But since using less butter would normally mean less flavor (and in the case of this roast, less moisture), I replaced some of the flavor and moisture with my homemade vegetable stock.

Pour In More Vegetable Stock

After adding small pads of butter on top of the meat and vegetables, I poured in another 1.5 cups of vegetable stock. In total, I used about 2.5 cups of stock.

Add the Pepperoncini Peppers and Pickling Juice

No Mississippi pot roast recipe would be complete without pepperoncini peppers, so I added a total of 7 peppers . I placed 1 on top of the meat and the others in the braising liquid with the vegetables.

In addition to the peppers themselves, I also poured in 1/2 cup of the pickling liquid, so in total, I added 3 cups of liquid (vegetable stock and pepperoncini juice) to the roast. Although you might think the pickling juice would make the roast sour, it didn’t: it mellowed out in the oven, coming to add just the right amount of zing to the final flavor profile.

Bake In The Oven

Once all the ingredients are in the 9×13 dish, cover with foil and bake at 350F for 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove from the oven, baste the meat and vegetables with the braising liquid, and return the roast to the 350F degree oven for 40 minutes.

But this time, cook the roast uncovered so that the tops of the vegetables sticking out of the braising liquid can crisp up a bit. Once the 40 minutes have elapsed, turn off the oven and let the roast continue cooking in the residual heat for 20 minutes. Then, the roast and vegetables are done!

What To Eat With Mississippi Pot Roast?

Although the addition of vegetables means that this could technically be a one-pan meal, it’s a good idea to have some extra sides, especially if feeding a crowd. Good side dishes include:

Rice – I served this was rice, and it was just perfect. Because of its starchiness and lack of intense flavor, it was great for soaking up some of the braising liquid.

Bread – This recipe has a good amount of flavorful braising liquid, so serving this roast with bread to sop up the flavorful liquid would be a good idea.

Mashed Potatoes – Although the main dish includes potatoes, mashed potatoes on the side would help with the leftover gravy.

Salad – It never hurts to serve some fresh vegetables on the side of any meal.

Mississippi Pot Roast in Oven with Potatoes — Although the original recipe calls for a crockpot, making Mississippi pot roast in the oven with vegetables allow you to crisp up the vegetables in a way that a slow cooker can’t.

Is Mississippi Pot Roast Spicy?

No! Although the pepperoncini peppers do add a little bit of spice, this dish isn’t spice. With the ranch mix and pickling juice, I think this roast is tangier than it is spicy. On a scale of 0-10, I would rate this a 1 or 2 in terms of spiciness, maybe 5 or 6 in regards to tanginess.

Why Is My Mississippi Pot Roast Salty?

I honestly didn’t think that this roast was too salty. In the original recipe, using a stick of salted butter would likely be the reason why the roast would turn out salty, but since my version only calls for 1 Tablespoon, a salty roast is unlikely. However, if you are sensitive to salt, remember:

Unsalted Butter – As stated above, make sure your butter is unsalted.

Low-Sodium Ranch Mix – Using a lower-sodium ranch dressing mix will help, too.

Low-Sodium Brown Gravy Mix – Aus just gravy packets can be salty sometimes, so you might want to think about using a reduced-sodium version.

I didn’t use low-sodium ranch mix or brown gravy mix in my roast, and I didn’t think it was too salty. However, like I said, if you’re sensitive to salt, you might want to use the low-sodium version of one of the packets.

Why Is My Roast Tough?

Although I don’t think this roast will turn out tough, there are a few reasons why that might happen:

You didn’t use chuck roast – Chuck roast is the best cut of meat to use for pot roast because the marbling makes it tender. Even though you can definitely use top or bottom roast, the lack of marbling will mean your roast won’t be as tender.

You didn’t cover the roast for 2 hours – I recommend cooking this roast covered for the first 2 hours so that you can lock in the steam and create a moist environment to soften the fat and connective tissue.

You didn’t add enough liquid – Pot roast is braised, a cooking method in which meat is cooked with liquid and at a moderate temperature for a long period of time. If you don’t add enough liquid to the baking dish, there won’t be enough moisture to soften the meat.

How Long To Cook Mississippi Pot Roast In The Oven?

My Mississippi pot roast was in the oven for a total of 3 hours and went through 3 stages of cooking:

First 2 hours – Cooked at 350F and covered in aluminum foil.

Then, I took the pan out of the oven and basted the meat and vegetables. After returning the pan to the oven:

40 minutes – Baked at 350F, but this time uncovered.

20 minutes – I then turned off the oven and let the residual heat finish cooking the roast and vegetables.

Although this seems a bit time-consuming, it’s definitely worth it because it results in an oven-baked pot roast that’s tender, flavorful, and amazing all-around.

Can You Make Mississippi Pot Roast Without Ranch or Pepperoncini?

Technically, yes–but I wouldn’t recommend it. If you don’t like the zestiness of ranch or the tanginess / spiciness of pepperoncini, you could leave them out. However, Mississippi pot roast is special because of its unique flavor, so it’d be hard to substitute ingredients. Here are my recommendations:

Ranch Dressing -> Italian Dressing – The recipe that inspired Mississippi pot roast called for Italian dressing mix, so you might want to try that.

Pepperoncini ->1/4 to 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar – Apple cider vinegar is tangy with a slight sweetness in the background, so it would be the best substitute for pepperoncini.

Can You Make Mississippi Pot Roast With Pork?

Yes! I think you could definitely use this same recipe to make a pork roast. In fact, food blogger Alyssa Rivers have a Mississippi pork pot roast recipe that you might want to try.

Can You Make The Roast From Frozen?

Yes! And best of all, no need to defrost! You can even sear the sides of the meat without defrosting. Simply take the roast right from the freezer, place into the hot pan, and follow the rest of the recipe exactly. It might need 10-15 extra minutes in the oven, but other than that, no other changes.

How Long Does Mississippi Pot Roast Keep?

If kept in the refrigerator and covered, the roast and vegetables should be good for 2-3 days.

Can You Freeze the Leftovers?

Technically, yes–but I wouldn’t recommend it. Once cooked, frozen, and then thawed, the meat and vegetables would be mushy, the ruined texture making the dish much less palatable.

A Chef’s Review

I was very pleased with how my Mississippi pot roast with potatoes and carrots in the oven recipe turned out. It had a zesty, tangy flavor that was different from anything I had tried before. Besides the delicious meat, the potatoes turned out fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside.

The leftover braising liquid was full of flavor, so it begged to be eaten with rice, bread, or mashed potatoes. And best of all, you don’t have to worry about measuring out a bunch of spices: just sprinkle in a few packets. If you love pot roast but want to try something different, this is the recipe for you.

Possible Changes to the Recipe

Although I thought this roast turned out perfectly, a few changes I would make are:

Sweet Potatoes – I’m sure they would add a nice sweetness.

Red Onions – I love roasted red onions, so I will have to add those next time.

Italian Dressing Mix – The recipe that inspired Mississippi pot roast called for Italian dressing mix, so now I’m curious how that would turn out.

Recipe Variations

Some possible variations to this Mississippi pot roast include:

Pork – As stated above, I think you could use pork to make this. I think a small pork butt would be perfect.

Onion Soup Mix – Onion soup mix is a classic southern ingredient that makes just about everything good. I wonder how this would turn out by replacing the ranch mix with a packet of onion soup mix.

Other Pot Roast Recipes

Be sure to take a look at my other pot roast recipes:

Pot Roast in the Oven with Potatoes and Carrots