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The Sandwich 100 · make it at home

Chicago Italian beef, dipped

3 hr (30 min hands-on), plus chilling · 6 sandwiches

Seasoned roast beef sliced thin and soaked in its own spiced juice, piled on a French roll and dipped whole if you want it 'wet'. Cooking the beef a day ahead and slicing it cold is how you get the thin slices.

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The real one

You need

• 1.3 kg (3 lb) beef top sirloin or top round roast
• 1 tbsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 tsp fennel seed, lightly crushed
• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 liter (4 cups) beef stock
• 6 crusty-outside, soft-inside Italian or French rolls
• For hot giardiniera: 1 jar (about 450 g) Chicago-style hot giardiniera in oil
• For sweet peppers: 2 green bell peppers, sliced and fried soft in olive oil

How to make it

1. Season and sear (15 min): Heat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Mix the salt, pepper and all the dry spices; rub half over the beef. Sear it on all sides in a little oil in a Dutch oven until brown, 8 minutes.
2. Roast in the juice (2 hr): Add the garlic, stock and the rest of the spice mix. Cover and roast until the beef reaches 57 C (135 F) inside for rosy or 63 C (145 F) for more done, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Lift it out and chill it completely, overnight is best. Keep the juice.
3. Slice (10 min): Slice the cold beef as thin as you possibly can, 1 to 2 mm, across the grain (an electric slicer or a very sharp long knife).
4. Soak (10 min): Bring the juice to a simmer, taste for salt, then turn it to the lowest heat and drop in the slices to warm through 3 to 5 minutes. Don't boil them or they toughen.
5. Build and dip: Pile beef into a split roll with tongs, top with giardiniera and/or sweet peppers. For 'juicy', spoon juice over; for 'dipped', grab the whole sandwich with tongs and dunk it in the juice for a second. Eat over the paper, leaning forward.

Tips

• A combo adds a grilled Italian sausage in the same roll.
• Freeze leftover beef in its juice; it reheats perfectly.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any shop's recipe.