Emily's Italian Beef

A couple of months ago I tried a recipe for Italian Beef for sandwiches in my crockpot. I was disappointed when the finished product fell short of my expectations. I'd hoped for more flavor and it didn't yield quite enough au jus. Then, last month, I put out the request for favorite slow cooker recipes. Emily, a friend of Krista's Kitchen on Facebook posted this simple recipe for Italian Beef. Emily wrote about her recipe, "I have several recipes that I like but my all time favorite came from my mother-in-law! The best part...(it's) also good for beef veggie soup, beef burritos/ tacos, enchilada filling, beef and noodles, hash and pot pies!!" She adds that when making this for Mexican dishes she adds taco seasoning and that "it freezes awesome!" I'm all for freezing extra food for future meals. Good call, Emily and thank you for a wonderful recipe!

This recipe possessed the flavor that my first attempt at Italian Beef was lacking AND yielded plenty of broth to soak into the sandwich bread. This is what I was looking for! Best of all, you only need three ingredients!

To begin, you need a roast. Emily recommended a rolled or tip roast, however I had this chuck roast in my freezer, so I went with that. To season the beef you need two packets of Zesty Italian seasoning and some Spicy V8 (I used the store brand).



Mix the seasoning packets and 12 oz. of the juice in your crock pot. Add the roast, turn to coat, then cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours. I ended up turning mine over once or twice during the cooking time to give each side a turn at soaking in "the juice". I know that this was totally not necessary, but the recipe is just so easy that I had to put my hands on it a couple of times to feel like I actually did something. Oh, I know that you lose 20 minutes of cooking time each time you lift the lid of your slow cooker, but mine cooks so fast that I wasn't concerned about losing heat.



At the end of the 8 hours, the roast was "fall apart tender". I moved it to a casserole dish, pulled it apart, and then transferred the beef back into the broth remaining in the crock pot. It went for a nice swim while I readied the sandwich fixings.



I decided that I wanted some sweet onions and peppers for our sammies so I sauteed them in a little olive oil on the stovetop until tender.



This was just about perfect...



But then I thought, "This would be even better with some provolone melted over the top." So I slapped on the cheese, fired up the broiler, and slid the sandwich underneath. Then I broke the #1 rule in broiling...



I walked from the oven. YUM...charred Italian Beef Sandwiches. I've said it before and I'll say it again: NEVER walk away from the oven when using the broiler. It's bad news, Man. But the good news? I was able to salvage this sandwich. I just got rid of the burned half of the hoagie roll and ate it open faced. Whew! Close one. I would have hated to waste such a delicious sandwich.

Here is Emily's recipe courtesy of her mother-in-law : )

Italian Beef

3-4# rolled or tip roast
2 pkgs Zesty Italian "Good Seasonings" or generic
1 can (12 oz) V8 or zesty V8

Crockpot on low for 8 hrs. Pull apart. Reheat in crockpot (if prepared ahead), serve with rolls and all the fixings.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

I've been on a Cooking Light kick lately. My grandma gave me a stack of old issues on my last visit home. I happened to have a few of these issues next to me when I wrote the meal plan for last week and this week. Of the four recipes chosen from Cooking Light, 3 have been wonderful. The Tomato-Provolone Sandwiches, the Deep Dish Pizza, and the Thai Rice Noodles with Chicken (I'm posting that one tomorrow) were winners. This recipe for Italian Beef Sandwiches is the one that fell short of my expectations. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't outstanding. For me, the 3 main problems with this recipe were: 1) even after marinating the roast overnight, the beef was still not terribly flavorful 2) the beef was supposed to be thinly sliced, however after slow cooking on LOW for 8 hours, the beef was so tender that it fell apart. Not that tender is bad, but there was no hope for slicing it. 3) the recommended amount of broth (14 oz.) was not enough. It needed more "juice".

Still, I'm posting this recipe because it has potential. If I make this again, I'll season my roast a little more, add more broth, and maybe throw a cube or two of beef bouillon into the crock pot.

Here's how the sandwiches began. After marinating a rump roast all night, place the roast and the marinade in a crock pot and cook on LOW for 8 hours or until tender. Here's my roast all ready to be sliced for sandwiches.



Only, try as I might, the beef wouldn't slice. It was too tender. Any pressure I applied with the knife to slice the roast just made it fall apart. After I "sliced" the beef, I strained the cooking liquid through a sieve. I returned the strained broth to the crock pot and then returned the beef to the liquid. At this point I gave the beef a good dose of salt and a sprinkle of pepper because it needed it!



The recipe calls for 8 Italian rolls, sliced in half and hollowed out. I piled a little more than the recommended 3 oz. of beef on each sandwich, so really there was only enough beef for 5-6 sandwiches. I drizzled some of the cooking liquid over each sandwich and then I sprinkled on a little mozzarella cheese.



I decided to put them under the broiler for a minute to toast the bread and melt the cheese. We all know that you're not supposed to move more than 5 feet away from the stove when you've got something under the broiler. At least that's my rule. But when the call came from the family room, "MOM!", I went. Minutes later I wandered back into the kitchen, another kid crisis happily solved. I absent-mindedly thought to myself, "Hmm. Something smells like it's burning." It only took about one more second before..."OH NO! THE SANDWICHES..." I may have also said something else which prompted my daughter to call from the next room, "Mom! You told us not to say that word!" Great. I could've have sworn I was out of earshot. Luckily, I had a couple of extra rolls. I just switched out the top part.



I topped these with some sauteed onions and peppers. I also squirted a packet of Arby's Horsey sauce that I found chillin' in the refrigerator door on top of my sandwich. Then it was good!



Italian Beef Sandwiches adapted from Cooking Light, October 2009

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich and about 1/3 cup cooking liquid)

Ingredients
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 (2 1/2-pound) rump roast, trimmed
2 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper (about 1 medium)
1/2 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella or provolone
6 (2-ounce) Italian rolls

Preparation
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large zip-top bag, and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

2. Place beef and marinade in an electric slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook on LOW 8 hours or until beef is tender. Place beef on a cutting board (reserve cooking liquid); let stand 10 minutes. Thinly slice beef; place in a shallow dish. Strain cooking liquid through a sieve. Reserve. Pour cooking liquid over beef.

3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Slice rolls lengthwise, cutting to, but not through, other side. Hollow out top and bottom halves of rolls, leaving a 3/4-inch-thick shell; reserve the torn bread for another use. Arrange beef on each roll. Drizzle cooking liquid over beef. Sprinkle with cheese. Broil for 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted. Top with onions and peppers. Serve with remaining cooking liquid for dipping.

Nutritional Information *based on the original recipe and serving sizes found HERE.
Calories:386
Fat:11.3g (sat 3.4g,mono 4.8g,poly 1.2g)
Protein:39.4g
Carbohydrate:29.2g
Fiber:1.8g
Cholesterol:102mg
Iron:5.4mg
Sodium:479mg
Calcium:52mg

To download or print this recipe click here!