Crockpot Italian Roast Beef

This Italian roast beef in the crock pot is a chuck roast cooked low for 8 hours with Italian seasoning, garlic, pepperoncini, and giardiniera, then shredded and piled onto hoagie rolls with provolone and a small bowl of the cooking juice for dipping.

It is the home version of a Chicago Italian beef, shredded instead of sliced thin, and built around the part most recipes treat as a garnish.

The giardiniera goes into the pot with the beef, along with 1/4 cup of brine from the pepperoncini jar, so the juice comes out sharp, salty, and a little hot instead of tasting like plain broth with meat in it.

Count on about 9 hours from the first cut to the first sandwich, with 15 minutes of that spent doing anything.

Why You’ll Love It

• One 3-pound chuck roast makes 8 sandwiches
• No searing and no seasoning packet
• 15 minutes of prep, 8 hours on low
• Giardiniera and pepperoncini cook in the pot, not just on top
• The cooking liquid doubles as the dipping jus

Ingredients

For the Beef

3-pound boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of large fat pieces

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups low-sodium beef broth

1 cup sliced pepperoncini, drained, plus 1/4 cup brine from the jar

1 cup Chicago-style giardiniera (mild or hot), drained

For the Sandwiches

8 hoagie rolls, 6 to 8 inches long

8 slices provolone

Extra giardiniera and pepperoncini, for topping

Steps

1. Pat the roast dry and rub the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes over every side. Press the seasoning in with your palm so it stays on the meat instead of washing off into the liquid.

2. Spread the onion and garlic across the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker, then set the roast on top.

3. Pour the broth and the 1/4 cup of pepperoncini brine around the roast. Scatter the sliced pepperoncini and the drained giardiniera over and around the meat.

4. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Leave the lid on the whole time. The roast is done when a fork twists through it with no resistance and the meat pulls away in long strands. Beef that still holds together in a block needs another hour, not a sharper fork.

5. Move the roast to a cutting board or a wide bowl and pull it into shreds with two forks or a pair of meat shredder claws. Throw out any big pockets of fat and gristle you find as you go.

6. Return the shredded beef to the liquid in the slow cooker, stir it through, and cook on low for another 30 minutes. This step is what makes the sandwiches taste seasoned all the way through instead of only on the outside of each strand.

7. While the beef soaks, heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Split the rolls without cutting all the way through, open them like a book on a half sheet pan, and toast for 4 to 5 minutes until the cut sides are crisp. Toasting matters here because the beef is wet and an untoasted roll turns to paste in a minute.

8. Lay a slice of provolone in each roll, then lift the beef out with 12-inch tongs, letting the excess liquid drain for a second, and pile it over the cheese. Put the filled rolls back in the oven for 2 minutes to melt the provolone.

9. Ladle the cooking liquid into small bowls, one per person, and serve each sandwich with its own jus and extra giardiniera on top. Dip the end of the roll before each bite, or spoon jus over the top for a wet sandwich.

Helpful Tips & Substitutions

The pepperoncini brine is doing real work, so measure it instead of guessing. It brings the acidity and salt that make the jus taste like an Italian beef stand instead of pot roast liquid, and 1/4 cup is enough for 2 cups of broth without making it sour.

Use Chicago-style giardiniera, the oil-packed kind with chopped celery, carrot, cauliflower, and peppers, not the vinegar-packed Italian antipasto style with whole vegetables. The hot version makes a noticeably spicy jus. Mild is the safer pick for a mixed table, with hot offered on the side.

This is a shredded sandwich, not a sliced one. A Chicago stand roasts the beef rare, slices it paper thin, and warms it in gravy. The slow cooker cannot do that, and chuck cooked for 8 hours shreds. The texture is closer to pulled beef, which is the honest trade for a method that needs no attention.

Searing is optional. If you want a deeper, browned flavor, sear the seasoned roast in 1 tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes per side first. The recipe is written without it because the pickled heat from the peppers covers a lot of the gap.

Chuck is the right cut because it shreds and stays moist. Bottom round and rump work but come out drier and more fibrous, so if you use them, serve the beef wetter with extra jus.

Low-sodium broth is deliberate. Between the pepperoncini, the brine, and the giardiniera, regular broth pushes the jus into salty territory. Taste before serving and add salt only if it needs it, which it rarely does.

High for 4 to 5 hours works in a pinch, but the beef is less tender and the strands come out shorter and drier. Low for 8 hours is the setting this is built for.

Skip the 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes if you are using hot giardiniera. Both together push it past where most people want a sandwich to be.

Serving Ideas

Serve the jus in individual bowls rather than one shared bowl, since a dipped sandwich drips and everyone wants their own.

For a combo the way Chicago does it, add a grilled Italian sausage link to the roll under the beef.

Oven fries or kettle chips are the usual side, and a plain green salad with red wine vinegar and olive oil cuts the richness.

If you are feeding a crowd and want a second slow cooker going, Crockpot French Onion Soup is a natural partner, since it uses the same provolone and the same crusty bread.

For a sandwich filling in the same spirit but sweeter and smokier, 11 Crockpot Pulled Pork Dinners has the pork versions.

More ways to cook the same cut are in 9 Crockpot Chuck Roast Dinners.

Leftover beef goes over a baked potato with provolone melted on top, or into a bowl with the jus and a handful of giardiniera as a low-carb version with no roll.

Make-Ahead & Storage

The beef can be cooked a day ahead. Shred it, return it to the juice, cool, and refrigerate in an airtight container. Reheat it in a saucepan over medium-low heat until steaming, which takes about 10 minutes, and it tastes better than it did on day one because the pickled flavor keeps soaking in.

Leftover beef in its liquid keeps 4 days in the fridge. Always store it in the jus. Shredded beef stored dry turns stringy and tough within a day.

It freezes well for 3 months in quart freezer bags with enough jus to cover the beef. Portion it into sandwich-sized amounts so you can thaw two servings instead of eight. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat in a saucepan.

Do not freeze or refrigerate assembled sandwiches. The rolls soak through and the cheese goes rubbery. Store the beef, toast fresh rolls, and build them when you eat.

The jus separates in the fridge with a layer of orange oil from the giardiniera on top. Skim it off or stir it back in, either is fine, but do not throw it away thinking something went wrong.

The flavor peaks on day two, so if you are cooking for people, make it the day before and spend the evening toasting rolls instead of waiting on a roast.