The Best Fluffy Pancakes recipe you will fall in love with. Full of tips and tricks to help you make the best pancakes.
Some dinners eat your whole afternoon. This Pepsi pot roast takes about ten minutes, then you walk away.
I thought it was a joke the first time someone told me about it. Beef cooked in soda? Sounded like a church potluck dare. Then I ate it. Fork-tender beef, carrots gone soft and a little sweet, and a gravy somewhere between French onion and cream of mushroom with some caramel hanging out at the edges.
It’s cheap. It’s forgiving. You dump, you close the lid, you go do literally anything else.
Why This Pepsi Pot Roast Works
Chuck roast is tough when it’s raw. It’s packed with collagen, and the only thing that breaks that down is low heat and a lot of time. Six to eight hours on LOW and it turns silky and pulls apart with a fork. Rush it on HIGH and you get meat that’s cooked but still a little stubborn.
The Pepsi does two jobs. The acid helps soften the beef, and the sugar cooks down into the gravy and balances the salty soup mix. That’s why it has to be regular. I grabbed a diet can once because it was the only one in the house, and the gravy came out thin and kind of flat. No sugar, nothing to cook down.
The French onion soup mix brings the salt and the onion flavor. The cream of mushroom soup melts into all those juices and becomes the gravy, so you never stir it. And go light on the salt for the roast itself. The soup mix already has plenty, and if you season like you normally would, the whole pot overshoots.
What You Need
The meat
- 3 lb chuck roast
- Salt and pepper, to taste
The veggies
- 1 lb baby carrots
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
The sauce
- 1 can Pepsi (12 oz), regular, not diet
- 1 packet French onion soup mix
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
To finish
- 3 green onions, sliced
How to Make It
- Rub the roast with salt and pepper and set it in the slow cooker. Easy on the salt.
- Tuck the carrots and chopped onion around the meat.
- Pour the Pepsi over the top, then sprinkle on the soup mix.
- Spoon the cream of mushroom soup over everything. Don’t stir.
- Put the lid on and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours, until the beef pulls apart easily with a fork.
- Shred or slice the roast and spoon those juices all over it.
- Top with green onions and serve right from the pot.
Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 6 to 8 hours on LOW Servings: 6 Slow cooker size: 6 quart. A 3 lb roast and a pound of carrots fit with the lid sitting flat.
Tips
Serve it over mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles. Noodles win, because they hold onto more gravy.
Regular Pepsi. Not diet. The sugar is what makes the sauce rich.
Don’t lift the lid. Every peek lets heat out and adds time. Mine was fork-tender right around hour seven.
Leftovers keep in the fridge up to 4 days. Reheat gently with a splash of water, because the gravy tightens up when it’s cold.
Variations
Dr Pepper or Coke. Any regular cola works the same way. Same sugar, same acid.
Baby potatoes. You can nestle a pound under the roast. I wouldn’t. Mashed potatoes on the side soak up the gravy better than potatoes that cooked in it.
A second can of Pepsi. Skip it. More soda doesn’t mean more flavor. It means sweeter, runnier gravy.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Chop the onion and measure everything out the night before. Keep the carrots whole.
Don’t build the whole pot in the cooker insert and refrigerate it overnight. A cold insert takes longer to heat up, and the beef sits in the in-between temperatures for too long.
Cooked leftovers freeze fine for up to 3 months. Pack the shredded beef with a good amount of gravy. I rarely have any left to freeze.
FAQ
Can I use Coke instead of Pepsi in pot roast?
Yes. Any regular cola works, same sugar and same acid. Pepsi is just what I buy.
Do I have to brown the roast first?
No, and I’d skip it. The whole point of this recipe is that it’s set-and-forget. Browning adds 15 minutes, a hot pan and one more thing to wash, and the soup mix and mushroom soup already give you plenty of savory depth. Nobody at my table has ever asked where the sear went.
Can I cook pot roast on HIGH?
You can, and a 3 lb roast is usually done in 4 to 5 hours. But LOW gives you more tender meat. If you have the time, use LOW.
Can I put a frozen roast in the slow cooker?
No. Thaw it in the fridge first. A frozen roast spends too long warming up in the temperature range where bacteria grow.
Does a Pepsi pot roast taste like soda?
No. The cola mostly disappears and leaves a deeper sweetness behind. Think of the gravy on a French onion pot roast, just rounder and a little sweeter.
Final Thoughts
If there’s any left, pile it on toasted hoagie rolls with a slice of provolone, run it under the broiler for a couple of minutes, and dunk the whole thing in the leftover gravy. Next-day dinner, done.
Set-and-Forget Pepsi Pot Roast
Some dinners eat your whole afternoon. This Pepsi pot roast takes about ten minutes to load, then the slow cooker does the rest. Fork-tender chuck roast, soft carrots and a sweet, salty gravy.
Ingredients
Method
- Rub the roast with salt and pepper and set it in the slow cooker. Go easy on the salt, because the soup mix is already salty.
- Tuck the carrots and chopped onion around the meat.
- Pour the Pepsi over the top, then sprinkle on the soup mix.
- Spoon the cream of mushroom soup over everything. No need to stir.
- Put the lid on and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours, until the beef pulls apart easily with a fork.
- Shred or slice the roast and spoon those juices all over it.
- Top with green onions and serve right from the pot.
Notes
Serve it over mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles to soak up all that gravy.
Use regular Pepsi, not diet. The sugar helps the sauce turn rich and a little sweet.
Don’t lift the lid while it cooks. Every peek lets heat escape and adds time.
Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat gently with a splash of water.
Cook time is 6 to 8 hours on LOW. The total time above uses the 8 hour end.
