72 Reviews of Chicago Italian Beef

From: M. LaMons

On Oct 20, 2004

Absolutely the very best ever. For those of you, like me who don't know what Giardineira is ....It can be found in the pickle section of your grocery store. a long wait on finish but well worth it. Thanks for this great recipe!

From: sugarpea

On Aug 19, 2003

Went through all the Italian Beef recipes and chose this one since I'm originally from south of Chicago and wanted the taste I had grown up with. I actually got an "I love you" from Dh (who's never had an Italian Beef) for this one. It's that good. I would go to the max w/ the 'heat' next time.

From: Tom Jay

On Apr 21, 2007

I grew up in the Chicago area. There was a place called Novi's, in Berwyn, that had the best beef for years. They cooked their roast in water to produce the gravy. only a small amount of the roast peaked out from the water. If you add garlic, crushed red pepper, minced giardiniera along with a tablespoon of the giardiniera juice you will get a fantastic gravy. Never add oregno or other green herbs or spices. In Chicago the roast is cooked until well done then sliced very thin after it cools. Gonnella bread is the final touch. It is similar to french bread. Serving options are wet (extra gravy poured inside the sandwich) sweet peppers (cooked green peppers over the beef) and/or giardiniera over the beef. PS one final touch. Refridgerate your gravy and remove the layer of fat that congeals for a better tasting sandwich, unless you love fat. For the Carms taste leave the fat in the gravy.

From: QL7

On Jul 22, 2004

Wonderful! Will be making this again. I used a 2 &1/2# roast, 1/2ed the ingredients and the cooking time and it turned out great

From: RevRob750

On Feb 1, 2006

Friggin Incredible! Being from Chicago I can honestly say...this is it!!! A buddy of mine ate 3 full sandwiches and I have never seen him eat anything (while having a few cold ones, which we were). Thanks a million!

From: Chicagopm

On Jan 21, 2007

This was great! I played with it a little bit though. I cooked a 4lb. roast on high overnight, lightly cooked the green pepper strips in a little oil in a pan, lightly toasted the rolls in the oven before I put the meat on it and added 2 thin slices of Muenster cheese over the beef and green peppers and put the sandwiches back in the oven until the cheese melted. I also put a little bit of horseradish sauce (not plain horseradish) on the rolls before I put everything else on it. Thank you so much for posting this recipe!

From: Carol16

On Nov 21, 2004

This is an excellent recipe! Made it for a crowd and everyone loved it. It may sound spicy, but it is more flavorful than spicy. The pepperocini's make all the difference. I didn't go quite 18 hours and it was still excellent. You'll be hooked!

From: Debby H

On Dec 27, 2004

I have never had Italian Beef before, but this recipe is to die for. Instead of the french bread I used a hard roll which worked very well. I also served it with a custard cup full of juice for dunking. Huge success.

From: ChicagoRN

On Sep 11, 2008

Moonbugz, this recipe is GOLDEN!!! I have tried about 5 different Italian Beef recipes from this site and AllRecipes trying desperately to make a beef like those I grew up on in Chicago. While many of them were decent, they weren't excellent and they certainly weren't authentic. I grew up near Carm's and while it wasn't my favorite place to get beef's, it was a definite contender. I followed your recipe pretty closely. I used two 2.5 pound roasts, used 2 packages of Italian Seasoning, used 1/2 of a large jar of spicy pepperoncini and used half of a large jar of HOT giardiniera. I omitted the green peppers because I didn't have them and also because my favorite beef's never included green peppers (unless you added them to the side) and HOLY COW were these off the charts EXCELLENT! My husband is from New York and doesn't know what an Italian Beef is and he's never thought much of all my previous attempts at making it. He couldn't stay out of my crockpot before dinner was even done! That is a HUGE compliment! Also, using two smaller cuts of beef caused the cooking time to decrease quite a bit. Mine was falling apart by the 13 hour mark. I'm salivating just thinking about the leftovers today and the gravy bread the day after that! TO DIE FOR! This is my official favorite Zaar recipe of all time - brings me home! Thank you Moonbugz! OUTSTANDING!

From: djmastermum

On Oct 21, 2005

I wish I could make this, but I don't know what a lot of the ingredients are, or where I would even get them, living in Australia!! Sounds wonderful, as all you lucky people who have made it no doubt already know