Saturday, January 24, 2009

Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches

Something that I've enjoyed making for a Sunday dinner is Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches. This is something that's simple, and everyone will enjoy !!

3 to 4 Pound Beef Roast (Chuck, Bottom Round, or the cut of beef you want)
Salt
Pepper
Beef Stock
Chicken Stock

Remove the roast from the refrigerator. Let it sit out so that the meat relaxes at room temperature.

In the meantime, I use a cast iron enamel pan/pot that I can cook both on the stove and in the oven. You can get these rather inexpensive at Target or Kohls (by the way .. they're great to have).

Salt and Pepper both sides of the roast. Lightly massage the salt and pepper into the roast. Let sit for 10 minutes or so.

Take the cast iron enamel pan and place on the stove and heat at Medium High Heat. Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the pan and let the oil heat up until it slightly starts to smoke. Add the roast to the pan and sear on each side about 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Once the roast has seared, remove the roast from the pan and add a little beef broth and scrape up the roast bits from the bottom of the pan (there's lots of flavor with those beef bits).

In the meanwhile, turn on your oven to 325 Degrees.

Put back the roast into the pan and add more beef broth and some chicken broth until it almost covers the roast. Put on the lid of the pan and transfer to the oven. This is called braising, which is a wonderful technique to cook meat.

Take this pan and put into the oven and let cook approximately 2-1/2 hours. LOW and SLOW is the key. If you cook meat LOW and SLOW, the fibrous tissues within the meat will come apart and you will have delicious and tender meat.

After 2-1/2 hours, open the lid to check the meat. Make sure that it's tender. If it still tastes a little chewy, put back into the oven. Drop the temperature to 290 Degrees and cook for another 30 minutes. Again .. LOW and SLOW. You want the fibrous tissues to disappear and you want tender meat. LOW and SLOW.

Remove the pan from the oven. Remove the roast from the pan and let it sit out for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. You want the meat to rest so that all the juices infuse back into the entire roast. If you were to cut into the meat immediately after removing from the pan, all the juices are at the edge of the meat and the center will be dry.

In the meantime, you can take your juices that are still in the pan and that becomes your Au Jus if you want to dip your sandwiches.

Cut the meat into thin slices. Serve on good buns with cheese and condiments of your choice !!

ENJOY !!!

1 comment:

  1. This sounds great. I think I might make this my dinner for Tuesday night. Sounds simple enough on a busy day like mine. I'm glad you started this blog!

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