Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches

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Recipe: Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches

Yield: Makes about 10 sandwiches with about 1/4 pounds of meat each.

Preparation time: 20 minutes.

Cooking time: Allow about 2 hours to cook and another 3 hours to firm the meat for slicing in the refrigerator if you don't have a meat slicer. You need 90 minutes to cook a 3 pound roast, or about 30 minutes per pound. You can cook this well in advance and refrigerate the meat and juice and heat it up as needed. You can even freeze it. This is a great Sunday dish because the smell of the roasting beef and herbs fills the house. After you cook it, you need another 30 minutes to chill it before slicing

Ingredients

The beef

1 boneless beef roast, about 3 pounds with most of the fat trimmed off

The rub

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

The juice

6 cups of hot water

4 cubes of beef bouillon (yes, bouillon, see the explanation below) *

The sandwich

10 soft, fluffy, high gluten rolls, sliced lengthwise but hinged on one side or Italian bread loaves cut widthwise into 10 portions (Gonnella, Turano, and D'Amato are the bakers of choice in Chicago)

3 medium sized green bell peppers

1 tablespoon olive oil, approximately

1 cup hot giardiniera

About the beef. Top sirloin, top round, or bottom round are preferred in that order. For tenderness, especially if you cannot cut paper thin slices. My friend David Rosengarten, the famous cookbook author and TV chef (get his free email newsletter), uses chuck, a fattier cut, so the meat will be more tender and flavorful. "Luxurious" is the word he used. Problem is that you'll have to chill the pan drippings after cooking in order to skim off the fat.

About the garlic. If you wish, omit the garlic powder and stud the roast with fresh garlic.

* About the bouillon. I have encountered lively debate on the makeup of the juice as I developed this recipe. Some insist you must use bouillon to be authentic, while others use beef stock, veal stock, or a soup base, and simmer real onions and garlic in it. The bouillon advocates have won me over on the authenticity argument, although I must confess, soup base is my favorite. Soup base is stock concentrated into a paste. It usually has salt added. Click here to read more about stocks, bouillons, consommé, etc. Feel free to substitute soup base or, best of all, make your own stock.

Serve with. A green salad with Italian dressing and French fries or tater tots. Kelson says "better to skip this and eat another sandwich."

 

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