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Chef Jeff makes Italian beef | Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: recipe

Chef Jeff Shares Chicago-Style Italian Beef Recipe

November 18, 2021 By Lucy Mercer Leave a Comment

We live in a quiet neighborhood, with lots of trees, a nice street for walking and not much traffic. We also have some of the best neighbors you could ever ask for.

My friends the Millers, Jeff and Martha, and their daughter, Kaitlyn are the best kind of neighbors.

The Millers know how to neighbor. We stop and talk when we’re out walking. I can ask them to pick up my mail and water my garden when we’re out of town. When we bake, we share extras, and when someone’s sick, or there’s a crisis, there’s a warm meal to be shared. Food is, after all, one of the best and probably easiest ways to connect with friends.

Jeff is a big-hearted guy who loves to cook and to talk about good food.

Today, I’m sharing Chef Jeff’s Chicago-style Italian beef, as he cooked it for us in the summer of 2021.

Italian beef sandwich on a plate
Chef Jeff’s Italian beef sandwich. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books.

Chef Jeff’s Italian Beef Recipe

Italian beef is bottom round roast stuffed with garlic and pepperoncini and bathed in the brine from the pepperoncini jar. Jeff roasts the beef until it’s tender, the meat is then sliced and piled high on hoagie rolls, topped with giardiniera and served to a happy crowd. This is a crowd-pleasing favorite. In fact, Jeff says he once cooked 50 pounds of meat for Italian beef sandwiches.

Give Jeff’s recipe a try. Make it on a Saturday when you have the time to prepare and cook the meat. You can freeze the leftover roast and make hearty beef sandwiches to pack for lunches or heat up for a weeknight dinner. You’ll also have plenty to share with neighbors.

Tray of sliced Italian roast beef
Chicago-Style Italian beef. Photo by Lucy Mercer.

Chicago Style Italian Beef Recipe

This is a perfectly imperfect recipe, which is my way of saying your mileage may vary. You can use a smaller cut of meat, and if you do, adjust the cooking time, checking the temperature of the meat until it registers 130 degrees Fahrenheit for medium rare. You can carve the finished roast with a good sharp knife, but Chef Jeff recommends a meat slicer for uniform, thin slices.

Ingredients

7 pounds bottom round roast

2 heads of garlic, broken into cloves, peeled and sliced

2 (16 oz.) jars pepperoncini peppers, save the brine

Fennel seed

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a roasting pan by lining it with foil.
  2. With a sharp knife, trim the fat off the roast. Plunge the knife into the roast and insert a pepperoncini pepper and a garlic clove in each cut. Take your time here. The idea is to infuse the meat with the peppers and garlic. When you’re through with one side, flip the roast over and repeat on the other side.
  3. Place the stuffed roast in the foil-lined pan and sprinkle fennel seeds all over. Pour the pepperoncini brine around the roast.
  4. You can put the meat in the oven and roast until medium rare. The seven-pound roast took 1 1/2 hours to reach an internal temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit for medium-rare.
  5. Next, let the roast rest until it can be easily handled. You can slice it by hand with a sharp knife or use an electric slicer (very handy if you’ve got a big roast).
  6. To assemble the sandwiches: toast hoagie rolls and pile on the meat. Add the pan juices and giardiniera to make it your own.

Roasted Italian Beef Step-by-Step

Garlic and pepperoncini | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Garlic and pepperoncini. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Chef trims roast beef | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chef Jeff trims the roast beef. Photo by Lucy Mercer/ A Cook and Her Books
Chef cuts meat | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chef Jeff cuts stabs holes in the beef and inserts pepperoncini and garlic. Photo by Lucy Mercer/ A Cook and Her Books
Beef in roasting pan | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Stuffed roast ready for the oven. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Pouring pepperoncini brine over roast | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chef Jeff pours the pepperoncini brine over the roast. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Adding fennel seed to roast | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chef Jeff shakes the fennel seed onto the roast. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Oven ready roast | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Stuffed beef roast ready for the oven. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Chef slices roast beef | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chef Jeff carves the roast into thin pieces on a meat slicer. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Chef prepares beef sandwich | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chef Jeff prepares the Italian beef sandwich. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Jar of giardiniera
Marconi is the preferred brand of giardiniera in the Miller household. Photo by Lucy Mercer
Chicago style Italian beef sandwich | Photo by Lucy Mercer | A Cook and Her Books
Chicago style Italian beef sandwich. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books
Best neighbors
Martha, Jeff and Kaitlyn Miller, contributors of the Chicago-Style Italian Beef recipe. Photo by Kaitlyn Miller.

Update: November 26, 2022

A friend called on Thanksgiving morning to say that Jeff passed away suddenly overnight. We were planning to celebrate the feast together that afternoon.

I remember this meal and how much Jeff enjoyed sharing his love of cooking. We laughed over his stories about working in the airline industry in the 80s and 90s. I regret that I didn’t make time to get more of his recipes, because they were gold.

Share your loves while you can, friends. And when you make Italian beef, raise a glass to Chef Jeff.

Tell Me About Your Favorite Recipe for Sharing

I’d love to know more about the recipes and meals you share with friends. Reach out on Instagram or Facebook to talk about good food, good gardening and good neighbors.

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