I use Cream of Mushroom Soup instead of Beef Broth and it makes an Excellent gravy!! I get nothing but compliments when I make it :) I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com. It's called "Awesome Slowcooker Pot Roast" I think it has 1,200 positive reviews, if that helps :)

~ Homemade

Oh wow!!! Thank you! I would have never ever have thought to use that!

I use the pot roast cooking bag with the seasonings. I stuff the bag with carrots, onions, bell peppers and potatoes. Really good! I sometimes make it in the crockpot like you but my DH is tired of that one too...love the cooking bag one though!

We really like this one. Most times I cook the veggies separately and just serve then with the roast - mashed turnips, sliced carrots, etc.

BEEF POT ROAST

1 tbsp olive oil
4 lb boneless cross-rib roast
salt and pepper

Heat oil in a Dutch oven. Season roast with salt and pepper.
Brown well and remove from pan.

2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp each chopped fresh rosemary and thyme (or 1 tsp dried but the fresh is much tastier)
2 cups beef stock
2 cups water
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp red wine (optional)

Add onions and garlic to pan. Cook about 4 minutes.
Add herbs, stock, water, balsamic vinegar, and wine.
Bring to a boil. Add beef.
Cover tightly and cook in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes.

2 carrots, cut in chunks
½ turnip, cut in chunks
2 baking potatoes, cut in chunks

Add carrots and turnip (and potato, if cooking with roast. Sometimes I do oven-roasted potatoes or dumplings, instead of putting potatoes in with roast)

Remove beef and vegetables to a platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
Bring juices to a boil and reduce until you have approximately 2 cups.
Add flour or cornstarch to thicken.

To serve, slice the meat and arrange on platter over vegetables. Spoon gravy over the top or serve on the side.

I use an eye roast and Dutch oven on top of the stove. Would rather have good meat capable of creating it's own good broth.

Trim the fat and put the fat pieces in the bottom of the pan at medium high heat to liquify it.
Whilw fat is rendering, pat salt, pepper all over it, thena coating of white flour.

Put the roast in the pan of hot fat, at high heat and brown it.Turning 2 or three times(seals in the juices).

Turn heat down, add onions (pearl or large slices) and a cup of water. Put a lid on the pot and turn the heat down to medium low.

Check frequently and add more water if necessary until the meat looks like it's an hour before serving. Then add more water, peeled potatoes and baby carrots. Put lid back on the pot and cook until potatoes are done.

Remove vegetables, make gravy (I use flour and water to thicken) and serve.

One envelope onion soup mix
Two can cream of mushroom soup
Four tablespoon worcestershire sauce

Best cut of meat for this is a 3-4 pound thick cut seven blade chuck with or without bone.

Brown the roast on all sides.
Mix together the above ingredients and pour over roast.
I've done this in the crockpot but I think it's better done in the oven.

I don't add vegetables to this recipe. It's melt in your mouth fork tender meat and gravy. I serve potatoes,noodles or rice and vegetables on the side.

I am so glad that I asked! I love all the new ideas! It is so interesting to see how differently other people make it. I would have never thought to add bell peppers, turnips, or worcestershire sauce. Very clever indeed.

Barbara, you put a lot of extra effort into yours. Is it a recipe that you thought of on your own?

Thank you all again, very much.

I cook mine like Monica cooks hers, but I like the looks of Barbara's recipe and I am going to try that.

If you don't already, try browning your meat first and then adding the scrapings into the crock pot. Actually, I would suggest cooking it in a pot on the stove or the dutch oven as susggested. I used a crock pot for quite a while and never really noticed until I went back, how much better a roast tastes cooked in a pot on the stove. I think the little brown bits mixed in w/ the gravy really help.

I've never personally liked the mushroom soup gravy recipe, but I have tried some recipes where some of the liquids call for beer or consumme soup or even coffee. Try adding a bay leaf. Or, you could even andd a can of chopped tomatoes -- now you won't really have a smooth gravy for potatoes and it becomes/tastes more like a stew, but it's pretty good. And, have you tried not using the onion soup packet and just adding a chopped onion, or heck I've even just thrown in a hole one before and let it cook down. The soup mix taste can get kind of old.

Here's a recipe for a Crock Pot French Dip made with a roast(you can use chuck). If you like the idea, but don't have all the specific ingredients, there are a lot of other variations on the site. It's a little different than a regular roast and gets really good reviews.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slow Cooker French Dip

I don't use a crock pot. I just cook mine in the oven in 13"x9" pan. I cut it into 5-8 pieces depending on the size of the roast. I like to add the Lipton Beefy Onion soup and water to about 3/4 of the pan. I bake covered at 350 degrees for about four +/- hours. It comes out nice and tender. If I want it browner, I take the foil off and leave in the oven for around 10 minutes.

Another thing I like to do with a roast is to make it into Beef Burgandy. Don't use red cooking wine. It's too salty. Just use the regular kind. Here's a crockpot version of the recipe that looks like it could be good. I'd probably add cream of mushroom soup too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Crock Pot Beef Burgandy

I've tried several recipes and pot roast always comes out tasting about the same but this one stuck out as particularly good.

(copied from my blog)
Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Caramelized Onion Gravy
The Essential Eating Well Cookbook Copyright 2004

1 4-pound boneless top or bottom round beef roast, trimmed of fat, twine on
(I didn't trim or tie my roast)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
½ cup brewed coffee or 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules dissolved in ½ cup boiling water
I used brewed coffee
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed with 2 tablespoons water

1. Season beef with salt and pepper. Heat ½ tablespoon oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef and sear until well browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a 4-quart slow cooker.
2. Add remaining ½ tablespoon oil to skillet; reduce heat to medium. Add onions and cook, stirring, until softened and golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and thyme; cook, stirring, for 1 minute more. Stir in coffee and vinegar; pour onion mixture over beef.
3. Cover and cook on high until beef is tender but not falling apart, about 4 ½ hours. Transfer beef to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for about 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, pour juices from slow cooker into a medium saucepan. Skim off fat. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan. Cook, whisking constantly, until gravy has thickened slightly, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Remove twine from beef and carve. Serve with gravy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Caramelized Onion Gravy

Not sure if I got this one on here or where it came from but it's good too. I haven't made this one for awhile....might have to try it again this week end.

MOUTH WATERING SUPER EASY POT ROAST

1 pot roast that fits your slow-cooker
1 can Cola "classic"
1 envelope of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix

Place a 3-4 lb pot roast in slow-cooker (or large enough to fit the size of slow cooker you will be using).
Pour half an envelope of Lipton Onion Soup mix over the roast. Pour the entire can of cola over roast, and then top with remainder of soup mix.

Set slow cooker on high and cook for 4 hours. Turn pot roast over about half way through cooking time.
The meat falls apart - it's so moist! YUM!!!

For years I cooked it the same ole way with potatoes, onion, carrot, broth...
Then my daughter married into a Filipino family and I've adopted the tasty way they make theirs :)

Asian Pot Roast
1 chuck roast
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 large onion sliced thick
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce

Lay sliced onion on bottom of a dutch casserole, pot roast on top of that. Mushroom soup spread on top of pot roast and drizzled with vinegar and soy sauce.
Bake in 350* oven for 2+ hours or until roast is "falling off of bone.
Serve over rice.
YUMMY

Heather, the original recipe came from a Bonnie Stern cooking column in the Globe and Mail newspaper. I sort of tweaked it a bit. The original recipe called for soy sauce but I didn't like the taste so I put in red wine - who wouldn't!! It makes a much nicer gravy than the soy sauce as well. I also use a good balsamic vinegar. We have it probably twice a month and enjoy it every time.

Some yummy sounding recipes/ideas for that chunk of beef here. I will be trying some of them for sure. I asked my butcher for a 'round bone beef roast' recently. He told me that beef roasts are no longer being cut that way...too expensive he said. The meat market gets more out of the beef with the current way of butchering. He did agree that the the round bone roast was much tastier than what is normally offered today.
I made a pot roast a couple weeks ago that we loved years ago. I had forgotten about it because when DH had his first heart surgery in 1983 beef was off our menu for about 20 years.

This make the tastiest gravy!
Pot roast of your choice
1 can of tomato soup
1 package dry french onion soup mix
Brown the roast on top of the stove. Pour the soups over the top. Cover and bake at 325 till done. You can add whatever veggies to the pan when roast is nearly done. I love mashed potatoes with the gravy from this. No need to thicken the gravy..in fact you may want to thin it some with water before serving.

I am just amazed at all the different things that have been mentioned. I am not a good cook by any means, I only wish that I had the ability to be as creative as some of you. I have a hard time coming up with things on my own that I think will taste good if I mix them together.

I appreciate all of your ideas very much. Thanks again! :)

I just use red wine, onion soup mix, a dash or two of balsamic vinegar, a few peppercorns, salt, regular pepper, bay leaf, some fresh sliced garlic, and whatever herbs sound good.

I agree with wildchild about the 3-4 pound thick cut seven blade chuck. Brown both sides, cook in either the slowcooker or covered roasting dish in oven. Throw in a few red potatoes, chunks of carrots, onions, mushrooms, whatever, about 45 minutes to an hour before serving. Optionally, thicken up the residual wine mixture with a little bit of flour/water mix.

I am always surprised when i hear of people who have never heard the mushroom soup recipe. It is all i have ever used and is in every church cookbook around here lol... i am not a mushroom soup fan, but it makes the most delicious roast..yum

Here's mine and don't let the horseradish scare you. It does NOT make it hot. I get raves on this all the time.
This is my grandmother's recipe(don't know where she got it)
Pot Roast
1/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoon pepper (I use freshly ground)
Beef Chuck Roast (as a note: I always use this cut)
2 Tablespoons shortening (Crisco)
1 jar (5 ounces) horseradish (Do NOT use "prepared" with additives)
1 cup water
Carrots
Potatoes
Onions

Stir together flour, 1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt and the pepper. Rub this mixture on the meat. Melt Crisco in large skillet (Dutch oven). Brown the meat over medium heat on all sides.
Reduce the heat and spread the horseradish (use the whole jar) on both sides of the meat. Add the water and simmer on top of stove for about 4 hours or till tender.
About an hour before the meat is done you can throw in your veggies (carrots/potatoes/onions)
Keep on warm platter while you make the gravy

To make the gravy:
Pour the drippings into a bowl and leave the brown particles in the pan. Let fat rise to top of drippings, skim it off and reserve 1/4 cup. Put the reserved fat in the pan. Blend in 1/4 cup flour and cook over low heat stirring till smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat.
Measure meat juice. Add enough water to make 2 cups liquid and stir into the flour mixture. Heat to boiling stirring constantly. Season with Salt and Pepper.