Shockingly Simple French Dip Sandwiches

Late April. Cody is on day ninety-four of his sentence. The thirteenth Saturday visit. He has finished The Grapes of Wrath and has started East of Eden. The volunteer creative writing workshop he is in on Wednesday evenings has him writing a second short story, this one about a sister and a brother in a small Oklahoma kitchen. He is not letting me read this one yet. I am not pushing.

The Sonic is moving into its busy season. April has gotten warm enough that the after-school cherry-limeade rush has started picking up, and the four-to-eight shifts are the four-to-eight shifts again the way they were last summer. I am back to coming home in a polo that smells like fryer grease and cherry lime concentrate, which is a smell that I have decided is going to be on my body for the next four months no matter what I do about it.

So Sunday I made the Shockingly Simple French Dip Sandwiches as the Sunday batch-cook. The recipe is from Averie Cooks and the title is not lying. The whole sandwich is a chuck roast slow-cooked in beef broth with a packet of dry onion soup mix, shredded after eight hours on low, piled onto toasted hoagie rolls with provolone melted on top, served with a small bowl of the strained cooking liquid for dipping. The whole thing happens on autopilot.

The math: a 2.5-pound chuck roast on the markdown rack at Walmart, $7.84. A 32-ounce carton of beef broth, $1.99. A packet of Lipton onion soup mix, $0.69. A pack of six bakery hoagie rolls, $1.99. Provolone cheese from the deli, $1.99 for a half pound. Butter from the kitchen. Total: about $13.50 for six sandwiches that fed Mama and me Sunday and Monday and Tuesday with leftovers, $2.25 per sandwich, which is about a third of what the same sandwich costs at any chain restaurant in this city.

The technique is the slow-cook-then-shred-then-toast. You put the chuck roast in the slow cooker at nine in the morning. You pour the broth and the soup mix over it. You put the lid on. You leave it. Eight hours later the roast is fork-tender and the broth has become a deeply savory au jus that has absorbed the meat’s flavor.

You shred the meat with two forks directly in the slow cooker, leaving it in the cooking liquid for fifteen minutes to absorb. While that happens, you split the hoagie rolls, brush the cut sides with melted butter, top with provolone, and broil in the oven for two minutes until the cheese is melted and the rolls are golden at the edges. You strain the cooking liquid into small individual bowls for dipping. You pile the shredded meat on the bottom half of each roll. You close the sandwich. You serve with the au jus bowl on the side.

The dipping is the trick. The bread soaks up the au jus on the way to your mouth. The meat is already wet but gets wetter. The cheese is already melted but the warm broth re-melts it slightly. The whole sandwich is the kind of sandwich that, when you eat it, you understand why it has its own name in the sandwich world.

Mama got home Sunday at six. The slow cooker had been going since nine in the morning. The kitchen smelled like a steakhouse. She walked in and said, baby, what is happening in here. I served her the sandwich. She closed her eyes after the first bite. She said, this is restaurant food, baby. I have stopped being surprised when she says it.

Cody, when I told him about the French dip on the Saturday visit, said, save me a Sunday for that one when I get out, Kay. I said, I will save you every Sunday.

The recipe is below. The trick I want you to keep is the dipping bowl of strained au jus — do not just spoon broth onto the sandwich. The dipping ritual is what makes a French dip a French dip.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 6–8

Ingredients

3 lbs boneless chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
1 (10.5 oz) can condensed beef broth
1 (10.5 oz) can condensed French onion soup
1 (12 oz) can or bottle beer (such as a lager or pale ale; beef broth can be substituted)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6–8 hoagie or sub rolls, split
6–8 slices provolone or Swiss cheese

Instructions

Load the slow cooker. Place the chuck roast in the bottom of a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the condensed beef broth, French onion soup, and beer (or additional beef broth) over the roast. Add Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and black pepper.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 7–8 hours, or on HIGH for 4–5 hours, until the beef is completely tender and falls apart easily when pulled with two forks.
Shred the beef. Remove the roast to a cutting board and use two forks to shred the meat. Discard any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded beef to the slow cooker and let it soak in the juices for at least 10 minutes.
Toast the rolls. Set your oven broiler to high. Arrange the split rolls on a baking sheet. Broil for 1–2 minutes until lightly golden. Watch closely so they don’t burn.
Add the cheese. Using tongs, pile shredded beef onto the bottom half of each roll. Lay a slice of provolone or Swiss over the beef and return to the broiler for 30–60 seconds, just until the cheese melts.
Serve with au jus. Ladle the cooking juices from the slow cooker into small bowls or ramekins for dipping. Serve the sandwiches immediately alongside the au jus.

Nutrition (per serving)

Shockingly Simple French Dip Sandwiches — The Slow-Cooker Sandwich That Becomes Three Dinners