Family get-togethers throughout the year are a part of my family’s DNA. But it’s the unofficial kickoff to summer—aka Memorial Day weekend—that is one of my favorite times of year because it means summer barbecues and weekly family get-togethers are on the horizon. For me, those family potlucks occur on a lake in the rolling hills of West Virginia, where my aunts, uncles, and cousins travel in for a weekend of food and fun.
Getting together each week makes for incredible memories—but it also means the days leading up to the weekend are full of menu planning. I love hamburgers and hot dogs as much as the next person, but eating those for three days every week can be tiresome, which is why my mom has an arsenal of recipes she rotates into our weekend getaways.
Some weekends it’s pizzas on the grill, others it’s ham and cheese sliders, usually followed by a campfire with s’mores or mountain pies. But for those big, long weekend celebrations, she brings out the heavy-hitter winners, like the pierogi casserole everyone loves.
While her cheesy, buttery, potato-filled pierogi casserole is legendary, there’s actually one recipe my family begs my mom to make even more: Mississippi pot roast.
My Mom’s Mississippi Pot Roast
Mississippi pot roast, or Mississippi mud roast as we call it, is an incredibly easy slow cooker recipe that requires only five ingredients, and is great any time of year. My mom simply puts a chuck roast in the slow cooker and tops it with a jar of banana peppers—juice and all—a stick of butter, a ranch dressing packet, and either a can of beef broth or a beef bouillon cube with some water.
Some recipes call for pepperoncini and an au jus gravy packet, but I think my mom’s way of making the pot roast is the best.
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The roast cooks on low until the beef is tender and swimming in a delicious, buttery, tangy, savory broth, about 8 hours. And, after a day on the lake, the meal is ready to serve with very little fuss—and no babysitting.
Now, while many people serve Mississippi pot roast like a true roast dinner, accompanied by potatoes and vegetables, my mom forgoes that. Instead, she shreds the meat to make sandwiches—similar to Chef John’s Mississippi Pot Roast Cheesesteaks.
However, we enjoy our Mississippi pot roast on sandwich rolls, sometimes topped with cheese and horseradish sauce like a roast beef sandwich.
It may not be the traditional way to eat Mississippi pot roast, but it’s what has my cousin excited to drive two hours to eat it over the Fourth of July weekend. However, if you really want to make it a meat-and-potatoes dinner, I’m sure my mom’s Mississippi mud roast also pairs well with her pierogi casserole, any time of year.
