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