Chicago Italian Beef
- Level: Intermediate
- Yield: 1 sandwich
- Total: 2 days 3 hr 30 min (includes brining and cooling time)
- Active: 1 hr
Ingredients
Baguette (if I have to tell you what kind of bread to use, you probably shouldn't be making this sandwich)
Roast and Beef Juice, recipe follows
3 Sweet Peppers, recipe follows
Giardiniera, recipe follows
Roast and Beef Juice:
1 cup Italian seasoning
1 cup fine sea salt
1/3 cup ground black pepper
1/4 cup granulated garlic
1/4 cup granulated onion
1/4 cup dried oregano
One 1 1/2- to 2-pound sirloin roast
1/4 cup olive oil
Beef base, if needed
Sweet Peppers:
1 green bell pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for cooking
Salt and pepper
Giardiniera:
3 cups white vinegar
3 tablespoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons oregano
2 1/2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
2 yellow onions
2 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
2 jalapenos
1 serrano pepper
1 cup olive oil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Cut bread two-thirds of the way through. Toast bread in oven until crispy on outside.
- Drop sliced Roast into simmering Beef Juice. Jam beef in baguette. Dip sammich in beef juice pot.
- Drop Sweet Peppers into Beef Juice to get hot and wet.
- Add Giardiniera to sammich. Drape peppers across the beef.
- Serve with more Beef Juice on the side.
Roast and Beef Juice:
- Mix together the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, granulated garlic and onion and oregano in a bowl until combined.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Cover roast with spice mix (you will have some spice mix left over). Drizzle olive oil over top of roast. Place roast on a rack with water in the bottom of the pan (don't let the water touch the meat). Roast until the internal temperature registers 118 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 hour. Let roast cool. Reserve the juice.
- Thin-slice roast, as thin as you can. Can't slice thin? You are screwed. Or you can buy your chef friend a six-pack and she will do it for you. Save beef scraps!
- Portion roast slices into 5- to 7-ounce balls.
- Pour all the extra juice and beef scraps in a pot. If there's not enough juice, add some beef base and some water. Taste. Make sure it's not too salty. Simmer for 1 hour, strain and put juice back on to simmer.
Sweet Peppers:
- Split pepper in half, then clean white membrane out of it. Cut halves into thirds.
- Heat saute pan on high heat. Once hot, add olive oil. Drop in peppers skin-side down. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Let pepper blister and char, then flip peppers and cook for another 2 minutes. Turn heat off and let peppers rest.
Giardiniera:
- Put the vinegar, salt, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, black pepper and 2 cups cold water into a 4-quart container and stir until the salt has dissolved.
- Cut carrots, celery, onions, green peppers and red peppers into 1/3-inch uniform dice.
- Thinly slice jalapenos and serrano (approximately 1/8-inch thick).
- Place cut veggies into brine and stir well until all ingredients are combined.
- Cover and refrigerate for 2 days. Stir in olive oil.