Asian Pot Roast

This slow cooker Asian Pot Roast is fall-apart tender beef simmered in a sweet and savory soy sauce with carrots and onions. Serve over rice for an easy dinner!

You know what no one talks about during the holidays? How you still have to feed your family regular dinners amidst all the chaos.

We put so much energy into planning Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, but what about the random Tuesday in December? Or the night before Thanksgiving when your fridge is half-filled with pies, every inch of counter space is occupied, and you have absolutely no mental energy left to think about dinner?

This is the time of year to stock up on frozen pizzas, double recipes so you can freeze half for later, and let your slow cooker do some of the heavy lifting.

Which brings me to this Asian Pot Roast.

Think classic Sunday pot roast meets Korean-inspired flavors. You’ve still got a big chuck roast and carrots cooking low and slow until the beef falls apart. But instead of the traditional gravy and mashed potatoes, we’re going with a sticky-ish, sweet and savory soy sauce situation and serving everything over coconut rice.

(Or microwave rice. Because the whole point of this dinner is that you’re not really cooking dinner even when you have a whole house to cook dinner for and semi impress.)

I love that this pot roast feels a little different from a traditional pot roast without requiring any extra effort. Especially on Thanksgiving week when there is already lots of red wine, rosemary, gravy flavoring to be had.

Why this Asian Pot Roast works so well in the slow cooker

I have a pretty high bar for a knockout recipe. And knockout slow cooker recipe are hard to come by.

Not everything belongs in a slow cooker. There are plenty of recipes that can be made in one, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they should be.

I want a meal that’s actually better because it cooked all day. Not something that just survived eight hours of simmering.

And pot roast is exactly that.

The beef gets ridiculously tender during a long, slow cook. While also soaking up the soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, honey, garlic, and ginger. The onions practically melt into the sauce. And the carrots come out perfectly tender.

A few things worth knowing before you make it

Cut your chuck roast into chunks. Sometimes chuck roasts take forever to get to the pull apart stage. And the thing about pot roast is you can cook it past the point of shredding and it’ll still be delicious. But you can’t force it to shred if you take it out too early. If it’s still tough, it usually just needs more time. So I like to cut it into about six big chunks before cooking instead of putting the entire roast in as one giant piece. It helps the beef cook a little faster and makes sure it’s ready by dinner time.

You can thicken the sauce if you want. The sauce will be fairly thin straight out of the slow cooker. You can stop there. Or you can thicken it with a cornstarch slurry at the end. I do this pot roast bot ways. It just depends on how much time (or energy I have).

No slow cooker? No problem.

You can make this Asian Pot Roast in the oven if you don’t have a slow cooker.

Just toss everything into a Dutch oven just like you would the slow cooker. In addition to the listed ingredients, add an extra cup of beef broth. Bake covered at 300 degrees for about 3 to 4 hours, or until you can pull apart the beef.

The same rule applies here: if you check the meat and it doesn’t fall apart easily, give it a little more time.

Make it once, eat it twice

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how well it freezes.

And if there’s ever a time to have a few dinners waiting in your freezer, it’s the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I usually double everything and freeze half for another night whenever I’m making this. Just freeze the shredded beef with plenty of sauce. Then all you have to do is thaw it, reheat it, microwave some rice, and dinner is done.

Asian Pot Roast

Fall-apart tender beef simmered in a sweet and savory soy sauce with carrots and onions. Serve over rice for an easy dinner.

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Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours hours

Servings: 4

Equipment

• Slow cooker

Ingredients

For the Pot Roast:

• 2-3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 6 large chunks
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 (16 oz) bag baby carrots (or you can get large carrots and cut them up)

For the Pot Roast Sauce:

• 1 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup mirin
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons ginger powder

(Optional) For Thickening:

• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 Tablespoons water

For serving:

• 3-4 bags frozen microwaveable white rice
• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• Sesame seeds

Instructions

• Cut the chuck roast into 6 large chunks and season lightly with salt and pepper.
• (Optional) If your slow cooker has a sear function, use it to brown the roast chunks on two sides before cooking. If your slow cooker doesn’t have a sear function, you can do this step in a Dutch oven or skillet on the stove, or skip it entirely.
• Add the onions, carrots, and all of the pot roast sauce ingredients to the slow cooker. Stir everything together, then nestle the beef chunks in.
• Cover and cook on high for 5–6 hours or low for 8–9 hours, until the beef is tender and easily pulls apart.
• (Optional) When the beef is done, remove it and the carrots (it’s okay if some are still left in the pot) from the slow cooker and set aside.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water to make a slurry.
• If your slow cooker has a sear or sauté function, switch it on and stir the slurry into the sauce. Simmer for 5–10 minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened. If not, pour the sauce into a skillet on the stove and simmer with the slurry until thickened, then return it all to the slow cooker.
• Serve the shredded beef and carrots over warm white rice with plenty of sauce on top and sprinkle with diced green onions + sesame seeds.