Love A French Dip? An Italian Beef Sandwich With Spicy Giardiniera Is Even Better

Delish

A Chicago classic, this Italian beef sandwich recipe has slow-cooked roast in au jus on a soft French roll with spicy giardiniera and roasted sweet peppers.

Transcript

00:00 Hey y'all, it's Brooke in Delish Kitchen Studios

00:02 getting ready to make one of my top five

00:04 favorite sandwiches of all time, the Italian beef.

00:07 It's got all the best parts of a French dip,

00:10 a cheesesteak, and an Italian sub

00:12 rolled up into one satisfying package.

00:15 You might be thinking to yourself,

00:16 how is she about to make an authentic Italian beef

00:19 so far away from Chicago?

00:21 But don't you worry about all that.

00:24 I've got some tips and tricks

00:25 to help you get it just right.

00:29 The most important part of an Italian beef sandwich

00:32 is of course the beef.

00:33 And the cut that folks like to use

00:35 for an Italian beef sandwich is chuck roast,

00:37 so that's what I've got here in front of me.

00:40 It's about three and a half pounds,

00:41 and obviously before you cook any piece of meat,

00:45 whether it be big or small, chuck roast or otherwise,

00:47 you wanna season it before you get it into the pan.

00:50 So I'm going to cover this

00:52 in a good thick layer of kosher salt

00:55 and freshly ground black pepper.

00:57 The key to seasoning a big hunk of meat like this

01:00 is to not neglect the smaller size.

01:02 So make sure you're hitting those edges

01:04 and ends and corners as well.

01:06 Our meat's all seasoned up

01:07 and ready to get seared off in this Dutch oven.

01:10 Gonna add a little bit of olive oil to the pan.

01:12 It's really, really hot, which we want.

01:15 We want it on high heat

01:16 so we get a nice crust on the outside of it.

01:18 We're gonna cook it for about five minutes per side,

01:21 not neglecting the smaller size.

01:23 And then we're going to take that out.

01:25 I've got two onions here.

01:27 You can use two small onions or a large onion.

01:30 We're just going to thinly slice those.

01:32 Then I've also got three cloves of garlic.

01:34 We're gonna slice those as well.

01:36 I also have a green bell pepper here.

01:37 We're gonna slice that green bell pepper and then roast it.

01:40 And that's gonna serve as a topping for our final sandwich.

01:44 That roasted bell pepper is such a quintessential topping

01:46 for a classic Italian beef.

01:49 I knew I couldn't skip it.

01:50 Got the beef all seared off.

01:51 It's all nice and crusty on all of the sides.

01:54 I'm gonna reduce the heat on this pot to medium,

01:56 and then I'm going to add the onions and garlic.

02:00 We'll add a pinch of salt.

02:01 We'll let those get a little bit soft.

02:03 It'll take about five minutes.

02:04 And then we'll go in with the rest of our base

02:06 for the braise.

02:08 We're gonna add Worcestershire sauce,

02:09 dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme,

02:14 garlic powder, onion powder,

02:18 and a little bit of crushed red pepper flakes.

02:20 After all that's in the pot,

02:21 we're gonna cook it down for just a few minutes,

02:24 then deglaze everything

02:25 with a little bit of that beef stock.

02:27 Then we're gonna return the beef to the pot,

02:29 and I'm gonna add the rest of the beef broth right on top.

02:32 This broth is coming to a boil,

02:41 so I'm just gonna reduce the heat a little bit

02:43 so it's at a bare simmer.

02:45 And I'm covering this with a heavy lid.

02:48 And this is gonna go into a 325-degree oven for three hours.

02:53 All right.

02:55 Ooh.

02:56 That smells really good.

02:58 But it's not quite done yet.

02:59 This has been cooking for about an hour.

03:02 I just wanna give it a little flip

03:04 so that all of the meat has a chance to braise in the liquid.

03:08 Then we're gonna cover this back up,

03:11 put this in for another hour.

03:14 After that hour passes, we're going to uncover it,

03:17 flip it again, and then cook it for another hour.

03:25 Our beef is still simmering away in the oven.

03:28 While that's cooking, I'm gonna go ahead

03:29 and prepare one of the toppings that I mentioned,

03:31 which is roasted bell pepper.

03:33 It's not red pepper, it's not orange pepper, yellow pepper.

03:36 It's green pepper, so you know it's gonna have

03:37 that nice, slightly bitter bite.

03:40 To tame a little bit of that bitterness, though,

03:41 we're gonna roast them for about 20 minutes

03:43 in a 375-degree oven.

03:46 Gonna drizzle them with a little bit of olive oil,

03:48 sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and then pop 'em in.

03:51 (upbeat music)

03:54 That smells really, really freaking good.

04:00 I'm gonna transfer this big old piece of beef to a bowl,

04:04 and I'm gonna use my two forks

04:05 to shred it into smaller pieces.

04:08 Not really bite-sized, 'cause we do want them

04:09 to still be a little bit hearty for the sandwich.

04:12 And then I'm going to transfer all those shredded pieces

04:15 back to my jus, so they soak up all that jus fatty,

04:19 herby, onion-y goodness.

04:21 One of the most important parts

04:23 of a real, true Chicago Italian beef sandwich is this.

04:27 This is giardiniera.

04:28 It's basically a blend of pickled vegetables

04:30 with a little bit of olive oil added to it,

04:32 and it's so good, and it's so tangy,

04:34 and it cuts through that really fatty beef,

04:36 so it's a very important part.

04:38 Don't wanna skip adding this to your sandwich.

04:40 You can absolutely make this yourself at home.

04:42 We have a really simple recipe that we've linked below.

04:45 But if you wanna keep it super, super authentic,

04:48 there's a brand called Marconi

04:49 that a lot of the beef shops in Chicago,

04:51 so you can go that route, or you can try to make it yourself.

04:54 Got everything ready to assemble our Italian beef sandwich.

04:57 Slice the bread open, pile the beef in the center,

05:01 add those roasted green bell peppers,

05:03 and then top it with some of that

05:04 pickly, delicious giardiniera.

05:06 Once you do all that, the last thing to do is take a dip.

05:10 You can either dip the full sandwich in,

05:11 if you're an old pro at this,

05:13 but if this is your first time,

05:15 start with a small ladle

05:16 and just spoon some of the jus over your sandwich.

05:18 Oh boy.

05:19 The last thing to do is eat this.

05:21 And I did put plenty of jus on this,

05:23 so this should be nice and messy.

05:26 Good night.

05:31 I know I said this was in my top five favorite sandwiches,

05:33 but this might be in my top two.

05:35 It really has everything that you want.

05:37 It's got the soft roll, that beef is so incredibly tender,

05:41 and then it's got that really bright,

05:42 poppy pickled giardiniera on top.

05:45 It's such a great combination of textures and flavors.

05:49 Also, not to toot my own horn,

05:50 but this shredded beef, I feel like,

05:53 I could take this over sliced beef any day.

05:55 Don't tell the Chicagoans,

05:57 but I would definitely do shredded beef.

05:59 The shredded beef is so incredibly tender.

06:02 You have to use chuck for this

06:03 because it's gonna give you that right blend

06:05 of flavor and fat,

06:06 and it's really gonna break down and give you the best bite.

06:09 Also, I know you guys saw how much jus I put on this.

06:12 It makes an absolute mess,

06:13 but it's crucial because it soaks into the bread

06:16 and it makes the bread really soft and really easy to eat

06:19 'cause for an Italian beef like this,

06:21 we're not putting on mayo, we're not putting on cheese,

06:23 we're not putting on ketchup.

06:25 We're not doing any of those things that you might do

06:26 for a Philly cheesesteak or another kind of hoagie

06:30 or a chopped cheese.

06:31 This is a sandwich all its own.

06:33 I need a moment in private with this sandwich,

06:36 but if you want more awesome recipes just like this one,

06:39 keep it right here at delish.com.

06:41 (upbeat music)

06:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended