Chicago Italian Beef
My initial trips to Chicago were all about pizza and hot dogs. That was before I had a brother-in-law who counts Italian beef in his all time top foods. His love for this Chicago creation is quite infectious, and now trying at least one different Italian beef is on my to-do list whenever I'm in the Windy City. My last visit was before the pandemic though, and that has left me on a stint of making some of the things I can really only get in the Chicago area at home. First came depression dogs, then tavern-style pizza, and now the time for homemade Italian beef had finally arrived.
Although I've had quite a number of Italian beefs at this point, I'm not a native and not an expert, so I did a lot of watching videos and reading articles to get me on the right path. That started with the cut of beef, of which top round or top sirloin are the most commonly used. Neither were readily available in my area of North Carolina, but I finally found some good looking top sirloin at Wegman's and got two three-pound pieces because I figured I might as well make a lot while I was at it.
I had to make a hard choice when developing this recipe—go for authenticity, or go for what I personally think would be the most ideal flavor. I opted for the former, which led me to use beef bouillon to get the broth going. If I had gone the later route, I would have roasted some beef bones and oxtails and added those into the mix to get a more natural beef flavor.
One trick I use often at home is to enhance store bought chicken stock with additional vegetables to give it a more robust and homemade flavor. So I did add in onion, celery, carrots, and garlic, which is not what you would see most restaurants doing, but I think it was a good call in the end. What you will see all restaurants do is introduce a variety of seasonings to their stock, making each one slightly unique. As long as you go along the lines of Italian-centric flavors here, you probably won't go wrong. I ended up settling on a combo of oregano, dried basil, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper.
Once I had my high-sided foil tray loaded up with the beef, bouillon, veggies, and seasonings, I brought it outside to the smoker which I had running at 225°F. If I weren't going for authenticity here, I likely would have tossed a chunk of wood on the fire because it would make this recipe both more unique, and make cooking it outside make more sense (the oven is the traditional, and easier, way to cook your Italian beef).
From all the videos I watched, it seemed like the beef was always cooked to well done, or possibly beyond. I worried that might work well for the monster cuts used in restaurants, but could make these smaller pieces of sirloin a tad too tough. I would normally cook roast beef to rare or medium-rare, so bringing it to the medium-well territory of 150°F was against my nature. However, beyond doneness, I also wanted to make sure the beef spent enough time in the broth to both pick up and impart flavor, so I planned on letting it cook for a minimum of two hours, but it actually took three hours to get to 150°F, so I was happy with how the time and temperature ended up working out together.
Once done, I let the beef cool and strained the solids from the stock. I took a spoonful of the stock to taste the seasoning and it was quite intense and not the type of beef stock you would eat on its own. I worried that I may have messed it up, but ultimately that wasn't the stock's destiny, so figured the flavor may be just right for seasoning the beef later on. That beef needs to be cut very thin, so I employed my meat slicer for the job, but this consumer model struggled to get the paper thin slices I was after, so I settled for the best I could do. Minus a slicer, I would have used a knife or a mandoline and just get as thin as I could with either.
There are many variations of toppings for Italian beef, but the basic boils down to green peppers and giardiniera. I was lucky to find both mild and hot Marconi giardiniera at a store near me, so that was an easy part of the recipe to check off. The peppers were also quite simple with only needing to sauté slices of green peppers until tender.
The more difficult part was the bread. My brother-in-law told me I need Turano or Gonnella, but both had to be mail ordered in quantities above what I needed and for a hefty price. I read Amoroso's rolls from Philly are a decent stand in, and those I was able to get locally, so with all the pieces of an Italian beef sandwich ready, I started assembly by first warming the beef in the stock that I reheated in a crock pot. I piled the beef into a roll, then spooned on a little extra stock before nestling in a couple slices of peppers and finishing the sandwich with a spoonful of giardiniera.
Now I haven't eaten my way through all the Italian beef in Chicago, but from the references I do have, this sandwich felt pretty on point. The beef was incredible with a great tenderness and deep flavor that made any worry about the taste of the stock be unjustified. The simple pepper and giardiniera topping combo helped seal the deal on my impression of authenticity, and while the roll may have not been 100% correct, it was still very good and held up like a champ to being soaked in stock. I ate two sandwiches on the day I served these at a Meatwave, two more the next day, and then it was hard freezing the rest because I really wanted to just have another one everyday, but at least I know there'll be more sometime in the near-ish future.
