Jimi’s Italian Beef

Hardware

• Slow-Cooker
• A sharp knife 🙂
• Patience

Ingredients

• 5 lbs well marbled rump roast (no substitutions)
• 20-25 oz beef bone broth (Kitchen Basics recommended)
• 1 (0.7 oz) pack Good Seasonings Italian salad dressing mix (yeah, I ain’t fuckin’ around)
• 1 (16 oz) jar pepperoncini peppers, seeded and sliced (Vigo or Mezzitas)
• 1 (16 oz) jar giardiniera, drained (Marconi brand)
• 3-4 red bell peppers, seeded/ribbed and sliced thin lengthwise (~⅛”)
• Salt and fresh cracked pepper medley, to taste (4-pepper mix recommended)
• Hoagie rolls or french baguettes (cut for servings and sliced to open)

Directions

1. Cook first 5 ingredients (meat fat-side up) in a Crockpot on LOW for a total of 18 hours, following the intervals:
   • 6th and 12th hours: Turn over meat
   • 17th hour: add the bell peppers. Taste broth and correct with salt/pepper
   • 18th hour: Pull roast apart with a fork until fully shredded (remove any large chunks of fat remaining, it’s done its job)
2. Serve using tongs, pile bread with meat and juice.
3. Lay strips of bell pepper on top of the meat and drizzle with more juicy goodness.

A couple slabs of picante provolone is not traditional, but Sweet-Jesus, is it good. Go ahead, if Fat Tony Two-Toes asks, I’ll say I don’t know nothin’ ’bout nobody doin’ anythin’.

Love, Jimi

Notes

• Taste the pepperoncini, they can be barely spicey, to having a serious kick. Adjust amount as necessary.
• If you don’t see rump roast in the meat case, ask for it. The butcher can prep it within a few minutes. It will usually have a fairly thick rind of fat on it, you can trim a few exceptionally thick parts if you want but keep most of it.
• Giardiniera means very different things to different regions/brands, so using Marconi is important.
• This meal freezes very well, so don’t bother trying to cut the recipe in half. just freeze what you don’t use in portions (2-3 cups each for two people) and microwave when you’re in the mood for it.
• Have you read any of my other recipes? Notice how 4-pepper mix keeps coming up? Go out an’ fuckin’ buy some ya mooch. It elevates everything. Salt and pepper are ‘finishing’ spices, buy the best you can afford.

Context

So, Nick and Andrea (who make a great batch of this at least once a year) gave me a bottle of Marconi’s giardiniera for I think the second time in the past year; I suspect they’re dropping hints, so I went and did a thing.
While I’ve never been to Chicago, I have had this many times over the years made by people from Chicago (mentioned above), as well as cooks & chefs from the area. I’ve picked their brains for quite some time and I think I’ve got a pretty solid representation of the good stuff.