Pot Roast Is 10x Better With A French Onion Finish

A cozy pot roast is the perfect comfort food, and you can easily prepare it in the slow cooker for a hearty dish at the end of a long day. It's fine when served with the classic sides like mashed potatoes or roasted vegetables, but for a new spin that's just as comforting, try finishing the pot roast French onion soup style.

French onion soup is made from rich broth, caramelized onions, and a topping of Gruyère and toasted bread. As the pot roast cooks, its fat and juices render to produce a tasty broth right in the slow cooker or Dutch oven; you can even add a packet of onion soup mix as one of the few ingredients that builds major flavor. While the meat is tenderizing, caramelize the onions in a pan. Once cooked, all you have to do is transfer the pot roast and juices into an oven-safe dish, top it with the onions, a sliced French baguette, and shredded Gruyère, then bake it until the cheese is crispy and bubbling. The result is a heartier version of the soup with not only beefy broth but also chunks or shreds of tender beef.

There are three elements involved in turning your pot roast into a French onion-style dish: onions, bread, and cheese. Use yellow onions for the best caramelized onions. Yellow onions are just the right balance of sweet and pungent, so when they caramelize, they create the ideal flavor profile — sweet from the natural sugars hitting the heat, yet a subtle acidic tartness that still hangs on.

A sliced French baguette is a commonly used bread in this onion soup, and you can butter and toast it before adding it to the pot roast. No baguette? No problem: Try slicing up a sturdy sourdough loaf instead; it will hold up well and lend a slight tang that's oh-so moreish. Additionally, salted butter will give it a rich, savory flavor, and pre-toasting the bread will help it hold up better to the liquid from the pot roast as the whole dish bakes. And finally, don't skip freshly grated Gruyère. It's a mild, creamy cheese that gets ultra melty and gooey when it's heated up, giving you the ultimate cheese pull. If needed, you can swap it for Swiss or mozzarella, but make sure you don't use the pre-shredded kind; it often contains stabilizers that impact its ability to melt well. Similarly, use aged mozzarella, not fresh, unless you want the cheese leaking whey all over your meal.