Name: Tremendous Hot Roast Beef Sandwich
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 180 min
Total time: 195 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 3 lb beef chuck roast; 1 tbsp kosher salt; 2 tsp black pepper; 2 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp smoked paprika; 2 tbsp neutral oil; 1 large yellow onion, sliced; 4 cloves garlic, smashed; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 4 cups beef broth; 2 bay leaves; 4 sprigs fresh thyme; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 2 tbsp unsalted butter; 12 slices soft white sandwich bread; as needed mashed potatoes (optional, for serving)

Tremendous Hot Roast Beef Sandwich

Prep

15m

Cook

180m

Total

195m

Bigly says

Pay attention. The hot roast beef sandwich. The OPEN-FACED one. White bread on the plate, sliced beef piled high, gravy poured over the whole situation, mashed potatoes on the side getting friendly with the gravy because gravy doesn't believe in fences. The greatest sandwich in the diner pantheon — and there IS a diner pantheon, it's real, I've been there, beautiful place, very gold, of course they let me eat for free, I'm Bigly.

Most places — and I'm not naming chains because we are CLASSY, but you know who you are — serve you what they call a hot roast beef sandwich and it is a crime scene. The beef is gray. The gravy is brown water. The bread is one of those soggy little napkins masquerading as a slice. You bite it, the sandwich gives up, it just COLLAPSES, it surrenders before the fork even gets there. Sad. So sad. My grandmother — tough woman, ran a kitchen the way a general runs an army, would slap a wooden spoon out of your hand if you reached for a packet of anything — she would have looked at one of those sandwiches and called the place a museum of disappointment. Then she would have made one herself, on the spot, with whatever she had. That's the lineage we're cooking from.

My version uses chuck roast — chuck, the workhorse of the beef world, more flavor than any cut you can name, fight me about it — slow-braised until it falls apart, then SHAVED, not sliced, SHAVED, and piled on white bread that is unapologetically WHITE BREAD because this is not the place for whole-grain seedy nonsense, save that for your sad Tuesday salad. The gravy is from the pan drippings. Real gravy. From the actual beef. Not from a packet. Packet gravy is a national embarrassment. End of discussion.

Ingredients

3 lbbeef chuck roast(ask the butcher to tie it if it's loose)
1 tbspkosher salt
2 tspblack pepper
2 tspgarlic powder
1 tspsmoked paprika
2 tbspneutral oil
1 largeyellow onion, sliced
4 clovesgarlic, smashed
2 tbsptomato paste
2 tbspWorcestershire sauce
4 cupsbeef broth
2bay leaves
4 sprigsfresh thyme
1/4 cupall-purpose flour(for the gravy)
2 tbspunsalted butter
12 slicessoft white sandwich bread(yes, the soft kind, do not bring me sourdough today)
as neededmashed potatoes (optional, for serving)

Steps

1
Preheat oven to 300F. Pat the chuck roast dry. Mix salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika and rub all over the roast.
2
Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the roast on all sides until deeply browned, about 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
3
Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Stir in the Worcestershire.
4
Pour in the beef broth and scrape the bottom of the pot. Add bay leaves and thyme. Return the roast to the pot. The liquid should come halfway up the sides — add water if needed.
5
Cover and transfer to the oven. Braise 2.5-3 hours, until the meat is fork-tender and pulls apart easily.
6
Transfer the roast to a cutting board. Strain the cooking liquid, discarding solids. Skim excess fat from the surface but save 3 tbsp of it.
7
Make the gravy: in a saucepan, whisk the 3 tbsp reserved fat with the flour over medium heat for 2 minutes to make a roux. Whisk in the strained cooking liquid in a steady stream. Simmer 5-7 minutes until thickened. Whisk in the butter. Taste and season.
8
Slice or shave the beef thin against the grain. Toast or warm the bread slightly. For each sandwich, place 2 slices of bread on a plate, pile beef on top, and ladle gravy generously over the meat AND the bread. Serve with mashed potatoes if using, with more gravy on top of those too.

One more thing

This is a sandwich you eat with a fork and a knife, you wear a napkin like a bib, and you don't care, because dignity is for sandwiches that aren't this good. You sit at the table, you take the first bite, you close your eyes, and somewhere a jukebox plays a song you forgot you knew. That's the Bigly hot roast beef effect. Time travel. Cheap time travel. Three hours of braising and suddenly you're back at a Formica counter in 1962 and your problems are gone. Just gone. Beautiful.

★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★

Ask Bigly about Tremendous Hot Roast Beef Sandwich.

Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.

Tremendous Hot Roast Beef Sandwich

Ingredients

Steps

KEEP COOKING.

Tremendous Bangers and Mash

Huge Beef and Noodles

The Best Beef Burgundy

The Best Beef Pot Pie