Smoked Mississippi Pot Roast

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This slow-braised Smoked Mississippi Pot Roast uses a classic chuck roast to make a tender and juicy meal with a few simple ingredients.

If you’ve never enjoyed pot roast smoked until super juicy and tender, you’re in for a special treat!

Smoking a Chuck Roast

This recipe is what I like to call a hands-off recipe because you basically only touch the ingredients one time, when you place everything together in the pan.

After that, the smoker and the oven are where all the magic happens – talk about easy!

I’ll be the first one to rave about chuck roast. I think it’s the easiest-to-make, most flavorful roast available to any home cook.

And, it is also found in nearly any grocery store meat case in America.

If cooked to its proper fork-tender goodness, chuck roast is succulent, tender, and juicy….every single time.

On top of all that, chuck roast is versatile. It makes fantastic carnitas and my guys constantly beg me to make hot beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy.

I love to use leftover smoked chuck roast to make picnic pinwheels, and talk about delicious.

A chuck tender roast would also work in this recipe, as would chuck eye roast, blade roast, or shoulder roast.

What to love

1. This is a straightforward and simple recipe for the smoker. Smoking is becoming easier than I ever imagined – we love experimenting with it.
2. When this roast is finished to fork-tender perfection, your taste test can quickly turn into a full-bore gorge session. This smoked pot roast is that good!
3. I predict this recipe will quickly make its way into your top 5 roast recipes, staying there repeatedly.

Smoked Mississippi Pot Roast recipe ingredients

• Beef chuck roast: Most chuck roasts purchased at the grocery stores in our area average about 3 pounds in weight.

• Liquid: I typically use broth as my liquid for cooking a roast. Since the dry ingredients included in this recipe are rather high in sodium, water or the pepperoncini juice is the best liquid option.
  
• Seasonings: Unsalted butter, Au jus gravy mix (dry) and Ranch dressing mix (dry).
  
• Whole peperoncini peppers

Recipe tips

• You can double or triple this recipe if you need to feed more people. It depends on how many pans of Traeger smoked pot roast will fit on your smoker.
  
• If your family doesn’t like the flavor of pepperoncini peppers or you find them too spicy, substitute banana peppers. You will find these much more sweet than hot, yet still pickled.
  

How to make Mississippi Smoked Pot Roast

Preheat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. I like to use my Lodge 12-inch cast iron skillet.

Add a good drizzle of olive oil. When the oil is nicely hot and sizzling, add the roast. Sear it off on both sides.

Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees F. Place the seared chuck roast and all its juices from the skillet into the bottom of an aluminum pan.

Surround the roast with the baby carrots or your choice of vegetables, chunks of butter, and pepperoncini.

Baby carrots are an optional ingredient in this recipe. I used them mainly to add flavor and some pretty color contrast to the beef.

You could also make smoked pot roast with potatoes or a combination of vegetables.

If you plan to eat the vegetables as you enjoy the roast (instead of just for flavor and color), wait to add them when you move the roast to the oven.

Peperoncini are sweet and mild in flavor but know that the heat level can be on the spicy side. Take note of them if you would like milder roast.

Most Mississippi Pot Roast recipes call for an entire stick of butter. I was hesitant but went ahead and used the full 1/2 cup of butter in this recipe.

Because chuck roast is well marbled with some good, flavorful fat, I think you could get away with less.

Sprinkle the contents of the au jus packet and the ranch dressing packet over the ingredients in the pan.

I typically use McCormick brand au jus mix, but use your preferred brand. If you need to substitute, you can use brown gravy mix in a pinch…or even dry onion soup mix.

Gently pour 1/2 cup water. If you love the flavor of pepperoncini add some of the juice from the jar.

Place the roast, uncovered, onto the smoker. Close the lid and let it smoke for 3 hours.

At the 3-hour mark, remove the roast from the smoker. Cover tightly with foil.

Place the roast into a preheated 300 degree oven, covered, until it reaches 200-205 degrees F. at the center and is very fork-tender.

Mississippi pot roast smoker is delicious with over mashed potatoes or buttered rice, with warm bread or rolls for sopping up the sauce.

Can you smoke a pot roast?

You can and you should! It’s easy and it’s quite delicious!

Once you give this Mississippi pot roast a try, all smoked and tender, I believe you are going to be smoking pot roast quite often.

How long to smoke a pot roast

I smoked my Mississippi pot roast for a little over 2 hours in an aluminum pan, until it was 170 degrees F, then transferred it to finish in the oven.

We used a three pound chuck roast for this recipe, but any chuck roast weighing 3-5 pounds works just fine.

Adjust the cooking time based on the internal temperature of the meat so that it’s fork-tender and juicy when you eat it.

If you want to add even more smoky flavor to the meat, first put the seared chuck roast directly onto the smoker grill (naked) for 1-2 hours.

Then move it into the aluminum pan with the other ingredients as in Steps 5-8.

Everybody has their own personal preference when it comes to smoked meats and that’s the beauty of smoking.

You can add more smoke, if desired, or keep it reined in a bit so it doesn’t overpower.

Is chuck roast the best cut for this recipe?

The Chuck roast is ideal for making Mississippi pot roast because it’s economical, flavorful, and has a lot of connective tissue that is broken down cooking low and slow.

Smoking is a low-and-slow method of cooking that takes a big tough chuck roast and turns it into melt-in-your-mouth beef.

So, yes! Chuck roast is the very best cut for this type of beef recipe.

Do you have to use the pepperoncini peppers to make this pot roast?

If you just can’t bring yourself to include the peppers in this recipe, commit to using the juice from the jar.

This juice is vinegar, and it will have a touch of the pepper heat infused into it, making it a very magical ingredient.

Vinegar helps break down the fibers of the meat making, it more tender while the pepperoncini flavor gives this roast beef dish it’s signature Southern flavor.

How do I know when the roast is done and ready to eat?

The finished temperature of the roast should be about 200 degrees F.

However, when you’re cooking a chuck roast, I think the very best way to measure doneness is with the fork test.

When you insert a fork into the heart of the chuck roast and give a twist, the meat should almost fall apart into strands.

If your twist with the fork is met with resistance, you can bet the roast hasn’t reached the internal temperature of 200 degrees F. yet.

Cook it longer.

More favorite recipes to enjoy

If you love Mississipi roasts like this, try our Mississipi Crockpot Chicken. It has the same flavors with a chicken twist!

Grilled Beef Tenderloin has a rich buttery-soft texture and is the perfect meal to impress your friends and family. You can make this easy beef tenderloin recipe in about 30 minutes on your grill.

If you’re looking for an irresistible way to add flavor to beef, try this sweet and savory beef tenderloin rub

If you’re as addicted to Instant Pot recipes as I am, you will .love this easy beef recipe for tender and juicy rump roast.

This slow-braised Shredded Rump Roast is also a tender and juicy favorite.