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This bacon-wrapped sirloin roast is rich, savory, and made with just four ingredients. The bacon slowly seasons the beef and creates flavorful juices in the bottom of the Slow Cooker. You’re going to love how special it feels with very little prep.
Why You’ll Love It
- Just four ingredients — sirloin, bacon, kosher salt, and black pepper.
- Slow Cooker ease — minimal prep and no added liquid needed.
- Bacon keeps it juicy — perfect for leaner sirloin roast.
- Flavorful pan juices — spoon them over sliced beef, mashed potatoes, and vegetables.
Ingredient Notes
Buy a beef sirloin roast in the 2 1/2- to 3-pound range, and trim off any big, thick pieces of exterior fat if your butcher has not already done it. You don’t need to carve it down to nothing; just remove the obvious heavy parts. The bacon brings plenty of richness on its own.
Thick-cut bacon is important here. Thin bacon can work in a pinch, I suppose, but it tends to shrink and shift around more. I like a regular smoked thick-cut bacon—not maple unless I’m deliberately going for that sweet-and-salty thing. Applewood-smoked is lovely, and hickory is stronger, obviously.
Use kosher salt, not table salt, for the stated amount. Kosher salt has a different texture and saltiness, so if all you have is table salt, use less and proceed carefully. Freshly ground black pepper is nice here because there are only four ingredients; each one gets noticed. That said, I have used the pepper shaker when the grinder was empty. The world continued spinning.
And pat the roast dry. It feels like one more fussy kitchen instruction. But dry meat holds the seasoning better and helps the bacon cling instead of sliding around like it’s trying to escape the situation.
Ingredients
- 1 beef sirloin roast (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), trimmed and patted very dry
- 10 to 12 slices thick-cut bacon, enough to cover the roast well
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, or a good many turns of the grinder
Instructions
Place the sirloin roast on a cutting board and pat it very dry with paper towels. Dry it more than you think you need to—rushing this part can leave the bacon slippery and uncooperative. Turns out meat is not interested in any schedule.
Sprinkle the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper over every side of the roast, pressing the seasoning gently into the meat. It may seem like a lot of pepper, but this is a big piece of beef and the bacon softens everything as it cooks.
Lay the bacon slices on your cutting board, overlapping them slightly to make a rectangle wide enough to wrap around the roast. Put the seasoned roast at one end and roll it up snugly in the bacon, covering as much of the beef as you can. Tuck the bacon ends underneath, or secure a few stubborn pieces with toothpicks if necessary. Toothpicks can be easy to forget, but sometimes bacon has plans of its own.
Turn your Slow Cooker to LOW while you finish getting the roast ready, so the crock warms up a bit. This is not a dramatic make-or-break thing, but it gives the bacon a little head start on rendering.
Set the bacon-wrapped roast seam-side down in the center of the Slow Cooker. Do not add broth, water, wine, or cola. You need no added liquid here. The bacon and beef will make plenty of savory juices all by themselves.
Cover and cook on LOW for 4 1/2 to 6 hours, until the roast reaches about 130°F in the thickest part for medium-rare or 140°F for medium. Start checking toward the earlier end if your roast is closer to 2 1/2 pounds or if your slow cooker runs hot. The bacon should be fully cooked and lightly golden, and there will be a generous pool of rendered fat and beef juices in the crock.
If you want crisper, deeper-browned bacon—carefully move the cooked roast to a foil-lined baking sheet, leaving the juices behind in the slow cooker. Broil it on the top oven rack for 3 to 5 minutes, watching every second near the end. Bacon goes from golden to “well, that’s charcoal” in the blink of an eye. Let it rest right there on the baking sheet afterward.
Transfer the roast to a cutting board, tent it loosely with foil, and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Do not skip this. The rest lets the juices settle back into the meat instead of running across your cutting board and making you sad.
Remove any toothpicks, then slice the roast across the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices, keeping the bacon around each piece as best you can. Spoon some of those bacon-beef juices from the slow cooker over the sliced roast and serve right away. Mashed potatoes underneath are not required, but they are very wise.
Variations
For a garlic-herb version, you can mix the salt and pepper with 2 to 3 minced garlic cloves and 1 teaspoon dried thyme or rosemary before rubbing the roast. That technically turns this into more than four ingredients, and I do enjoy being able to say “four ingredients” with a straight face, but garlic and rosemary are awfully good with beef.
For a sweet steakhouse glaze, brush the bacon with about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup before broiling, sometimes brown sugar instead. It is delicious, though a little rich unless there’s a sharp salad alongside it.
Smoked paprika is fine here. Not bad at all. But the bacon already brings enough smoke, and the paprika makes the outside darker before broiling, so it can look like it is burning. Some experiments deserve a standing ovation; some just need to be politely thanked and shown the door.
If you have a smaller roast, around 2 pounds, begin checking it at 3 1/2 to 4 hours. A larger roast—up to 3 1/2 pounds—may need closer to 6 1/2 hours. The thermometer is your friend here, so keep it handy until dinner is nearly ready.
Storage & Reheating
Cool leftovers fairly quickly and get them into a shallow container in the refrigerator within 2 hours. They’ll keep well for 3 to 4 days. Save a little of the cooking juice with the sliced beef because it helps tremendously when reheating.
Warm slices gently in a covered skillet over low heat with a spoonful or two of the juices, just until heated through. You can use the microwave, too—cover the meat loosely and heat in short bursts—but don’t blast it into oblivion. Lean sirloin gets tough when it’s pushed around too much. The leftover roast makes a very fine sandwich with mustard and a cold slice of tomato.
Final Notes
There is something deeply satisfying about pulling a roast from the slow cooker and finding out the simple thing actually worked. No complicated sauce. No marinating overnight. No stack of pans in the sink that looks like a crime scene.
Just beef, bacon, salt, pepper—and a little patience near the end.
Slow Cooker Bacon Wrapped Sirloin Roast
Ingredients
- 1 beef sirloin roast 2 1/2 to 3 pounds, trimmed and patted very dry
- 10 to 12 slices thick-cut bacon enough to cover the roast well
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper or a good many turns of the grinder
Instructions
- Place the sirloin roast on a cutting board and pat it very dry with paper towels.
- Sprinkle the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper over every side of the roast, pressing the seasoning gently into the meat.
- Lay the bacon slices on a cutting board, overlapping them slightly to make a rectangle wide enough to wrap around the roast, then roll the seasoned roast snugly in the bacon and tuck the ends underneath or secure them with toothpicks if necessary.
- Turn the slow cooker to LOW while you finish preparing the roast so the crock warms slightly.
- Set the bacon-wrapped roast seam-side down in the center of the slow cooker without adding broth, water, wine, or cola.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4 1/2 to 6 hours, until the roast reaches about 130°F in the thickest part for medium-rare or 140°F for medium and the bacon is fully cooked and lightly golden.
- For crisper, deeper-browned bacon, carefully move the cooked roast to a foil-lined baking sheet, leaving the juices in the slow cooker, and broil on the top oven rack for 3 to 5 minutes while watching closely.
- Transfer the roast to a cutting board, tent it loosely with foil, and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove any toothpicks, slice the roast across the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices, and spoon the bacon-beef juices from the slow cooker over the sliced roast before serving.