Monday, March 23, 2009

Chicago-style Italian Beef Sandwiches

This is one of our favorite beef roast recipes. You can use chuck roast to make it because it will be tender and tasty with all of the added Italian spices added.

Place a 3-4 # beef roast and 1 cup of beef broth or water in crock pot. Spice beef with garlic powder, onion powder, fennel, salt, pepper, dried or fresh oregano, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook for 6-8 hours or until very tender. 

Remove roast from crockpot and strain juice. Cool both in the refrigerator until fat hardens in juice. Skim fat from juice and remove fat from beef and cut or shred roast into thin slices. You can use any beef roast (sirloin tip, chuck roast, bottom round). Place roast beef and the juice from the crock pot into a large pot. To it add:

2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sesame seed
2 tsp. fennel seed
5-10 pepperoncini peppers, sliced, but not seeded
1/4 c. of juice from pepperoncinis (don’t skip this!)
Black pepper and salt to taste
1 thinly sliced sweet pepper (I use red, orange or green)

Juice should cover or nearly cover meat (if not, add  water or more canned of beef broth), bring to a boil and simmer until pepper is tender.

Serve on toasted Kaiser rolls w/ a slice of provolone cheese on the bottom. Serve with sauce for dipping. Can also serve with giardiniera pickled veggies atop.

This recipe takes a little planning, but you can cook the beef in the crock pot the day before and then it takes no time at all to make up the Italian beef (maybe 1/2 hour) the next day.

It has no artificial ingredients and no preservatives! Serve with homemade oven fries or Guiltless Parmesan Roasted Potatoes and Italian broccoli (Cook broccoli, add freshly grated parmesan cheese and spritz with low-fat Italian dressing for a tastey and healthy side dish!!) or zucchini stir fry with onion and Italian seasoning. 

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