Chicago Roast: Slow Cooker Italian Beef
Chicago roast borrows flavors from Chicago style Italian beef and the buttery “internet sensation” known as Mississippi Roast. It's a beef chuck roast slow cooked with giardiniera until it’s falling apart tender. The meat is shredded and coated in the succulent gravy released during cooking, flavored with onions and red wine. Chicago Roast is incredibly rich, ready to pair with potatoes, pasta, or egg noodles. Of course, it's also right at home as a sandwich.
EQUIPMENT
- medium size slow cooker
Ingredients
- 1 3-pound beef chuck roast
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ large onion sliced
- ½ cup mild giardiniera mostly solids
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried basil
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes omit if using hot giardiniera
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ cup red wine
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 inch parmesan rind (optional)
Instructions
- Rub salt and pepper all over the roast, then rub on the flour. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. Brown the roast about 3 minutes per side over medium-high heat.
- Put sliced onions in the slow cooker pot. Set the roast over the onions in slow cooker.
- Use a slotted spoon to scoop giardiniera from jar, measuring out mostly vegetables with just a small amount of the oil. Pour 1/2 cup of giardiniera on top of roast.
- Sprinkle oregano, basil, fennel seeds, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes over the roast.
- Add chunk of butter on top of the roast.
- Pour red wine into slow cooker pot with roast. Tuck the bay leaf and parmesan rind (if using) between roast and side of slow cooker pot.
- Put the cover of the slow cooker in place.
- Set to low heat and cook for 7 - 8 hours or until roast is very falling-apart tender and shreds easily with little to no resistance.
- Remove bay leaf and parmesan rind. (Though I prefer to leave all the drippings, if you like, now would be the time to skim out a little of the accumulated fat, though some is needed to provide succulence to the meat.)
- Use two forks to pull apart or shred the roast, stirring gently to coat the beef with fat and juices released during cooking.
Notes
- As a substitute for red wine, use an equal amount of water or stock, in which case I would also add a tablespoon of red wine vinegar.
- Use hot giardiniera in place of mild for more heat/spicy flavor.
- Using a parmesan rind to flavor the jus is optional. Omit if you don't have one. But consider this a suggestion to keep rinds from Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese that you've used up. They are useful for adding flavor to stocks and sauces. I keep a stash in the freezer.
- When the chuck roast is done, it will be falling-apart tender. The internal temperature of the meat will be about 200 degrees F. At this point, connective tissues have dissolved into gelatin. The meat fibers, though well done, have a perceived tenderness - "the delightful texture of slow-cooked meats" - that comes from shredding the meat and coating it with the accumulated juices from cooking. (reference: On Food and Cooking, 2004, by Harold McGee, p 150-152).
- Serving Suggestions: Serve with egg noodles or elbow pasta. Cook some sliced carrots or broccoli in the boiling water along with the noodles for an easy way to add vegetables. Or pile the shredded beef on rolls for a sandwich. Add some sautéed green peppers, maybe some pickled jalapeños, or melt some mozzarella on top.