Chipotle Roast Beef Sandwiches

January first, 2025. I made the pork and sauerkraut. The apartment smelled like luck by noon. Owen said "smell good" which is a new sentence and which I wrote in my notes because I write things down when they are too good to trust to memory alone. Ryan had two helpings. The babies had small pieces of the pork, which they ate, and small pieces of the sauerkraut, which Owen regarded with diplomatic neutrality and Nora ate with the enthusiasm she reserves for things with strong flavors, which is most things.

Ryan told his parents on Christmas that he had been put on the lieutenant candidate list. He told his parents on Christmas and he told me in November and I waited for him to tell his parents in his own time, which he did, and I watched his mother's face when he said it and she looked like what she was: a woman watching her son become the kind of person she hoped he would become. His father, who is a quieter version of Ryan, nodded and said "that's right" and that was the whole conversation, and that was sufficient, and Ryan looked satisfied with it afterward in the way he looks satisfied when things happen in the right register.

January in Chicago is its own specific discipline. I have the winter cooking fully in gear: the slow cooker runs at least twice a week, the freezer is stocked, the soup pot is out on the counter where it stays from November through March. This is the architecture of winter meals in this household and I have built it over four years of Chicago winters in this apartment and it holds.

New year resolution: none. The year has its own plans. I have mine. We will negotiate when we meet in the actual days. For now: the soup is on, the babies are napping, Ryan is home, the apartment is warm. Begin.

The pork and sauerkraut is a once-a-year ritual, but the slow cooker that made it possible runs on a schedule of its own from November through March — and this chipotle roast beef is one of the reasons it earns its counter space. It has the same quality the whole season has: low heat, long time, the apartment filling with something that makes people wander into the kitchen to check. Ryan’s two helpings of everything lately, and this one earns them.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 15 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 lbs beef chuck roast
2–3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
2 tablespoons adobo sauce (from the can)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6 sturdy sandwich rolls or hoagie buns
Provolone or pepper jack cheese, sliced (optional)

Instructions

Season the roast. Pat the chuck roast dry with paper towels. Season all sides with salt, pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, and oregano.
Build the slow cooker base. Scatter the sliced onion and garlic across the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the seasoned roast on top.
Add the chipotle mixture. In a small bowl, stir together the beef broth, tomato paste, chopped chipotles, and adobo sauce. Pour the mixture over and around the roast.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4–5 hours), until the beef is tender enough to shred easily with two forks.
Shred the beef. Transfer the roast to a cutting board and shred with two forks, discarding any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded beef to the slow cooker and stir it into the cooking juices.
Assemble the sandwiches. Pile the beef onto rolls. If using cheese, lay slices over the hot beef and let them melt for a minute before closing the sandwich. Spoon a little extra cooking juice over the top if you like it saucy.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chipotle Roast Beef Sandwiches — The Slow Cooker That Keeps January Running