Chicago Italian Beef Recipe?

I’m working with that recipe (crock pot) and another I found on the net right now.

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I’ve used this Crock pot recipe. Reminds me of Portillos. Or, I think you can actually order Portillos Italian beef kits from their website

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I have some friends from Chicago who will make Italian beef sandwiches using a similar recipe. If in a hurry, they will use deli roast beef and just let it simmer for a an hour or two in the crock pot to soak up the flavors.

To take it up a notch, grill some Italian sausages and make an Italian beef and sausage sandwich.

Watching this with interest. When we go to Chicago, Portillos is always a stop, along with Rizza's on Clark Street a mile or so north of Wriggley Field.

Here is a recipe for Italian Beef.

Crock Pot Italian Beef

2-5 pound Chuck Roast, Rump Roast, Pot roast, Sirloin Roast (your choice – I use whatever is on sale)
4 cans Beef broth
1 teaspoon Pepper
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1 teaspoon Lawry’s garlic seasoning
1 teaspoon Basil
1 package Good Seasonings Italian Dressing
1 or 2 large onions, sliced
1 or 2 jars peppercorn peppers (pepperocini) – seeded, or whole depending on desire
1 or 2 green peppers, sliced

Cook onions, peppers and pepperoncini in 1 can of beef broth for an hour at low heat until they are limp – these are used to dress the completed sandwich. I like to cook the veggies separately, but you can put them in the crockpot if you like, just not for longer than the last hour or two, else they fall apart and go to mush, which is bad.

Place beef in crockpot and add seasonings. Pour 3 cans beef broth over ingredients and cook at medium or low all day. When beef roast is falling apart, remove and shred (pull apart) with fork, returning meat to broth. I'm certain you can do this in the oven at 225 in a tightly covered roaster pan for overnight or all day.

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Nothing is Portillos though. When I was with Groen, we made a Capcold unit for them that they used to cook their Italian Beef roasts in their central commissary. They cooked it there and shipped to the locations. I never went to the central kitchen though and they had someone else do the installation of the cooker, which was essentially a several hundred-gallon square, SS crockpot with lots of controls to do overnight cooking of Cryovac packaged roasts with seasoning added to the cryovac bag.

They bought the seasonings preblended from someone and I was never able to find out who did the blend for them, or how much they used.

Some folks keep their secrets very secret.

I've made the first recipe in the Pioneer Woman link below. I've done it quite a few times and really enjoyed it. I added sliced onions to it. I also ordered the Tenuta's Italian seasoning shown in the picture. It's good stuff. This reminds me I need to order some more. As I recall you can buy the one with salt and I believe there's one without salt. I bought both when I needed to control the salt in something else.


Italian drip roast.

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I've made the first recipe in the Pioneer Woman link below.

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The crock pot recipe linked above says that it is “adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe,” with a link to the same one you link.

I must say I had a Portillos when in Chicago and it was pretty bland. Had all the stuff on it, but was just "Meh". The beef had no real flavor that I can recall.

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grandscape

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This one. I went on Sunday morning before open and the line was already snaking around the parking lot.

This one is a little different and excellent. Needed provolone to set it off
https://www.vindulge.com/pulled-roast-beef-sliders/

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Italian Straccato

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Sounds good. I will have to try that.