One of my fondest holiday traditions from my childhood is when my mom brews a big batch of apple cider in the slow cooker — my family and I ladle the apple cider into mugs once the cider is aromatic enough and top the drink with a mountain of whipped cream.
Seeing as apple cider has begun to match pumpkin spice’s fall popularity, I’m not surprised that the flavor has seeped into different avenues outside of the sweet world of donuts and lattes. One recently-viral recipe on TikTok stars apple cider pot roast as a new “cozy fall dinner.”
The recipe was posted on October 5 by Lauren Sephton (@brightmomentco) on TikTok and has now amassed 328K likes and 2.4M views.
To begin, Lauren slices a chuck roast into six pieces for maximum searing and seasons each side of each cut with a heavy hand of salt and black pepper. She then places each piece of roast one at a time into a hot dutch oven with olive oil to form a hard sear on each side until each piece is fully cooked.
Once all of the meat is done cooking, Lauren takes the chuck roast pieces out of the dutch oven and sautes yellow onion, garlic cloves, and chopped sage that is freshly picked from her own garden. She then deglazes the pan with half a cup of apple cider and stirs in dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce for depth.
Once the liquid mixture is completed, she places the browned beef back into the dutch oven so that they’re fully submerged, topped with bay leaves and a heap of carrots. She covers the dutch oven’s boiling contents with a lid, then pops it into the oven to cook low and slow.
While the pot roast is cooking in the oven for three to four hours, Lauren uses her free time to get started on making homemade creamy garlic mashed potatoes.
To start, she roasts a whole head of garlic in foil. She then roughly chops up about 2.5 pounds of peeled potatoes and boils them for 20 to 25 minutes until they’re tender enough to mash.
After adding the roasted garlic, butter, and heavy cream into the mix, the mashed potatoes are ready.
Plating the dish starts with a bed of mashed potatoes, with roasted carrots and the apple cider pot roast placed on top. Lauren finishes the plate by spooning the flavorful remnant juices from the pot roast on top.
“Now that’s comfort food! Looks so delicious,” said one commenter, and I couldn’t agree more: this looks like the warmest, most comforting plate of food I’ve seen on TikTok this fall.
While Sephton’s creamy garlic mashed potatoes look delicious, they’re not necessary to the star of the show: the apple cider pot roast. In fact, the pot roast seems to meld well enough with plenty of different side options.
Take a page out of TikTok creator @thisbykelsey’s book — make the pot roast with carrots and onions, then make a side of parmesan sage sweet potatoes. Sage is an herb that feels personal to fall, and with sweet potatoes, it won’t fail to be delicious.
To make the parmesan sage sweet potatoes, cook the sweet potatoes with the apple cider pot roast. Once the whole pot roast is done, remove the sweet potatoes and toss them with butter, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, sage, salt, and pepper, before roasting them until they’re crispy.
No matter what side you choose to make, this apple cider pot roast is sure to be one of the best dinners you’ll make this fall.