Slow Cooker Italian Pot Roast
26 Comments Jun 21, 2024
Updated Jan 11, 2025
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A chuck roast, spaghetti sauce mix, and veggies are all you’ll need to whip up this tasty Slow Cooker Italian Beef Dinner. Pair it together with your favorite rolls, homemade biscuits, or cornbread for a quick and easy meal option.
Another delicious and easy crock pot meal to try that features a roast and packets is my Slow Cooker 3 Packet Pot Roast or Gerogia Pot Roast.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Slow Cooker Italian Beef Dinner
With only 5 ingredients, you may be surprised how much flavor this crock pot Italian beef dinner has. Thanks to a Spaghetti Sauce Mix, it packs all the flavors you need! Adding the onion, carrots, and red potatoes makes for a delicious one-pot dinner your whole family is going to enjoy (even the littles).
This dinner also requires quick prep and cooking time. The dump-and-go method allows you to free up time to get things done while dinner slow-cooks in the background. If you’re looking for a quick and easy meal to put on the dinner table tonight, this meal is worth trying. You may also like my slow cooker leg of lamb.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chuck Roast: Use a 3 lbs. beef chuck roast for this recipe to yield plenty of slow cooked Italian beef.
- Red Potatoes: Cut the potatoes into quarters, about 4 cups total (or about 3 potatoes).
- Carrots: Peel and slice carrots lengthwise.
- Onion: You’ll only need about a cup of sliced white onion.
- Tomato Sauce: Creates a delicious flavor to the sauce.
- Spaghetti Sauce Mix Packet: McCormick’s thick and zesty spaghetti sauce mix.
- (Full Recipe is in the recipe card below the photos).
Step-by-Step Ingredients
Step One – Place the beef in the middle of the slow cooker.
Step Two – Add the carrots and onions to one side of the beef, and the potatoes to the other side.
Step Three – Pour over the tomato sauce on top of the beef and vegetables.
Step Four – Sprinkle the spaghetti seasoning over everything.
Step Five – Cover and cook on HIGH for 6 hours WITHOUT opening the lid during the cooking time. This will make the beef fall apart tender.
Step Six – Remove and shred beef or cut on a cutting board for serving.
Step Seven – Return the beef back to the crockpot with the vegetables. Serve with the sauce from the slow cooker. Enjoy!
How to Serve
- This is a dinner all in one so you can serve a helping of shredded beef, veggies, and potatoes on a plate and enjoy it as is.
- You can also pair it with additional sides such as crusty rolls, pickled vegetables, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, or any veggies of your choice.
- Turn the shredded meat into Italian beef sandwiches by putting a helping on hoagie rolls (or hoagie buns) topped with provolone cheese slices, green peppers, and pepperoncini pepper slices. These are typically served with an au jus sauce but you can use the sauce created by the tomato sauce and seasoning packet.
Substitution Trick
Add 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar for a rich addition to the dish.
Recipe FAQs
Store any leftover Italian beef in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat over medium heat on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Yes. Instead of a chuck roast, you can use rump roast or bottom beef round roast. It should still yield fork-tender beef.
Jarred marinara can be used instead of a spaghetti packet and tomato sauce, though you will have to go heavy on salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and oregano.
Here are more beef recipes to try!
- Slow Cooker Swiss Steak
- Slow Cooker Eye of Round Roast
- Slow Cooker Classic Pot Roast
- Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
- Slow Cooker Rump Roast
- Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches
- Slow Cooker Smothered Burritos
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Slow Cooker Italian Pot Roast
How to Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. beef chuck roast
- 4 cups red potatoes, sliced
- 3 cups carrots, sliced
- 1 cup white onion, diced
- 15 oz. tomato sauce
- 1.40 oz. packet McCormick thick and zesty spaghetti sauce mix
Instructions
- Place the beef in the middle of the slow cooker.
- Add the carrots and onions to one side of the beef, and the potatoes to the other side. (see notes)
- Pour over the tomato sauce on top of the beef and vegetables.
- Sprinkle the spaghetti seasoning over everything.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 6 hours WITHOUT opening the lid during the cooking time. (see notes)
- Shred or cut the meat for serving.
- Serve with the sauce from the slow cooker.
- Enjoy!
Sarah’s Notes
- Jarred marinara can be used instead of a spaghetti packet and tomato sauce, though you will have to go heavy on salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and oregano.
- Store any leftover Italian beef in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat over medium heat on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- Instead of a chuck roast, you can use rump roast or bottom beef round roast. It should still yield fork-tender beef.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
Love! One of my go-to recipes now for a family of 6. Love its simplicity and big flavor. Sometimes I serve it with Knorr alfredo noodles. Sometimes I leave out the potatoes in the recipe, add more carrots, and serve it over mashed potatoes with a buttered roll on the side. Thank you so much for this recipe!
We love it! I am eating leftovers from the weekend right now! Yummy!! Picked because husband is a full-blooded Irishman who likes Italian food. We use the slow cooker every weekend so he has good food all week while I am at work. I used Ragu sauce- added more to cover all the veggies and meat, because he likes veggies very tender. Surprising how well tomato-based sauce works with potatoes! I added a half-can of tomato paste because it was in freezer left from another recipe. We will make it again very soon. I wanted to use more veggies because they come packaged that way. If you do this be sure to add more sauce to cover them.
I’m so glad you tried this. The sauce goes amazing with everything!
Buono. James Beard woulda been proud to know YOU. he was an old associate 1970s. Keep It UP
I love your videos!
Turned out great with a few modifications. The base recipe is a good starter. I had a 2 lb roast, added a 2nd can of sauce, 1 cup water and a whole lot of seasoning, the base recipe makes for a very bland flavor. I added 1 tsp garlic powder, 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp oregano, dash crushed red pepper and 1 can diced tomato’s.
Now, after my additions, the flavors were busting out.
Actually I would recommend a bit more sauce as by the time the dish left overs cooled off, much of the broth had absorbed into the carrots and potato’s, maybe another 8oz. can. Otherwise fantastic recipe, thank you!
Not bland at all if you use the McCormick packet she recommended. Not sure how you could find it bland with that.
This has become a staple in my home. Provided you can find the Mccormicks packet. My question is can this become a freezer meal? Thanks for your reply Sarah.
Would Rotel diced tomatoes work as well?
yes, it will be a little spicy though.
Made exactly as recipe was written, came out excellent!! Having non-red-meat eater kids home from college, do you think chicken breasts would work??
Thanks!