The only crockpot meal I can remember my mom cooking regularly for my brother and I as kids was a pot roast. It was always served with mashed potatoes and gravy and usually green beans (but occasionally corn or salad) and biscuits. This was one of the handful of meals that my mom taught me before I went away to college, and I think that this may have been the first real grown-up meal I cooked for a girl. I recall it being quite well-received (minds out of the gutter–I was a good boy!), and it was a staple for my roommate and quasi-roommates as well. Later it became a favorite of my kids. The beauty was, it was unbelievably easy, really tasty, and easily served a small crowd. More recently we serve it with a leaner roast, skinny mashed potatoes, and skip the biscuits, but the heart of the recipe remains the same.
My mom always made it with a beef roast of some sort (chuck, round, rump, etc.), and then made a gravy from some of the drippings from the pot, mixed with a can of Franco-American Mushroom Soup and possibly some corn starch as a thickener. Later in life, I started using pork roasts instead, as they were moister than beef, and more flavorful as well. Most recently, we used a pork loin roast, because it was leaner than the average pork roast, and it was great!
For my mom, it was as easy as poking the roast with a fork, adding worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, then pouring a can of Campbell’s French Onion Soup over the top, covering it, and cooking it all day! I made it moderately simpler by replacing the salt and pepper with Creole seasoning (I do that with almost everything that calls for salt and pepper), but otherwise haven’t changed a thing.
I’ve since tried a variety of complicated rubs and sauces and hot oven roasts, but to this day, none of it is any better or easier (4 ingredients FTW!), than my mom’s crock pot roast.
Only four ingredients, and if you don't have three of the four of these in your cupboard right now, get thee to a grocery store!
Pork Loin Roast, trimmed, pricked, sprinkled, poured, and placed in the crock pot
8 hours later, pork is done! Looks bleachy white now (beef roast looks prettier in the pot), but wait until you shred it...
Most of the juices have been poured off, and the pork loin roast is ready to shred.
Pork Loin Roast shredded and ready to serve
- 1 3-4 pound pork loin roast, with or without bone (we used a 3.5 pound boneless roast, trimmed)
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Salt and Pepper or Creole/Cajun Seasoning
- 1 Can Campbell’s French Onion Soup
- Trim roast of any visible fat
- Put roast in crock pot
- Poke roast with carving/meat fork
- Decent sprinkle of Worcestershire Sauce on both sides of roast
- Decent sprinkle of salt and pepper or Creole seasoning on bottom of roast
- Pour Onion Soup can over top of roast
- Sprinkle salt and pepper or Creole Seasoning on top of roast
- Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high from 4-6 hours
- Remove roast and pour off most juices into gravy separator (see notes below for gravy)
- Slice or shred roast (you can return to pot with remaining juices if you shred, which we usually do)
- Serve!
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Article by Jeff Greene
I'm a professional political hack who loves the outdoors and loves to cook and loves to cook outdoors. I also love Colleen. :-)
Jeff has written 82 articles for The Taste Place.
