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📍 Illinois

Chicago Italian beef

· Lunch

A sandwich of thinly sliced roast beef soaked in its own spiced jus and topped with giardiniera or sweet peppers.

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Chicago Italian beef: A sandwich of thinly sliced roast beef soaked in its own spiced jus and topped with giardiniera or sweet peppers.
Photo: jeffreyw · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia CommonsPhoto resized, converted to WebP and cropped for display.
⏱ 140 min🍽 6 servings📊 Intermediate🏷 Commonly associated
Preparation
20 min
Cooking
120 min
Waiting and resting
0 min

History

It was born in Chicago's Italian-American communities, where to stretch cheap cuts of beef they roasted them, sliced them very thin, and served them on bread dipped in the beef's own broth. It became popular at banquets and later in small shops around the city. You order it 'wet' or 'dipped' depending on how much jus it gets, with hot giardiniera or sweet green peppers.

Ingredients

Adjust quantities

Only numeric quantities at the start of an ingredient are adjusted. Descriptive quantities, seasoning to taste and timings remain unchanged; check them when changing servings.

Preparation

  1. 1

    Rub the meat with garlic, oregano, fennel, chile, salt, and pepper.

  2. 2

    Roast it at 160°C until cooked but juicy; let cool to slice thin.

  3. 3

    Heat the broth with the spices the meat released to form the jus.

  4. 4

    Dip the slices in the hot jus for a few seconds.

  5. 5

    Fill the rolls with the beef and a little jus; top with giardiniera or sweet peppers.

Cooking tips

  • Cool the meat in the refrigerator before slicing thinly and reheat the slices in the juices.

References to consult

References provide information about the dish, its context or a technique. Quantities in this version may differ from those in the source.

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