Slow Cooked French Dip

  4.4 – 25 reviews  • Beef
Level: Easy
Total: 4 hr 15 min
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 4 hr
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  1. 1 beef chuck roast (about 2 1/2-pounds), trimmed of excess fat
  2. Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  3. Olive oil, for searing
  4. 2 medium onions, chopped
  5. 8 cloves garlic
  6. 1 bay leaf
  7. 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  8. 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  9. Few dashes Thai hot sauce, optional
  10. 2 cups onion or beef broth
  11. French bread, sliced lengthwise, for serving
  12. Soft herb-flavored cheese, for serving (recommended: Boursin)

Instructions

  1. Special equipment: stoneware slow cooker
  2. Cook’s Note: If you do not have a stoneware slow cooker that doubles as both a saute pan and Dutch oven, saute everything in a pan, then place into the slow cooker to cook.
  3. Sprinkle the beef with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the sleeve to the slow cooker on the stove over medium-high heat. Add the beef and sear until brown on all sides. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, Thai hot sauce and broth. Place the sleeve in the slow cooker and turn the slow cooker to its lowest setting. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, until the meat begins to fall apart with the pull of a fork.
  4. Remove the meat from the slow cooker and slice the beef into 1/4- inch slices or shred it, depending on your preference. Ladle off the fat from the top of the jus and discard. Reserve the jus from the pot. Slather both sides of the French bread with the cheese and top with some of the beef and the onions from the pot. Serve with a side bowl of the jus.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 of 4 servings
Calories 554
Total Fat 22 g
Saturated Fat 7 g
Carbohydrates 28 g
Dietary Fiber 4 g
Sugar 6 g
Protein 63 g
Cholesterol 171 mg
Sodium 1210 mg

Reviews

Mary Case
This turned out really good, I strained the jus and reduced it for about 30 min on the stove. While that was reducing I added the shredded beef back to the crockpot with a little jus and the onions (I picked out the garlic and the bay leaves). I added provolone cheese, arugula and a horseradish cream to the sandwiches and toasted them under the broiler. I didn’t use the other cheese in the recipe. It’s a fun recipe, we’ll definitely make it again.
Margaret Hubbard
This was delicious! The Boursin cheese really made the sandwich. My only complaint is that it took much longer than 4 hours on low to cook a 3lb roast. It took 4 hours on low and another 3 hours on high to be able to shred the meat.
Misty Knox
I made this recipe and it turned out wonderful. I had to play with the amount of hot sauce as we like ours a little more on the spicy side.

Definitely worth making.

Lauren Ashley
Very good! All in the house really liked how tender the meat was and the great taste.
Joshua English
This was not like any French dip I have ever tasted, and not in a good way. First off a 3 pound roast took over 6 hours on low, so make sure to allow for that time adjustment. Second, the flavor of the au jus was just bad. We couldn’t use it as a dip. It had a very odd flavor to it — too much garlic and worcestershire? don’t know. Ended up using an au jus packet mix to have for dipping the sandwiches. Not great, but better than what came out of the crockpot with this recipe. So disappointing after waiting all day for it to cook! Guess my search continues for a slow cooker French dip. 🙁
Henry Wiggins
Our family thought this just tasted like pot roast on bread, because really that’s all it was. We could have done without the tomato paste in the juice, it didn’t seem to add anything in particular to the recipe. It didn’t taste bad and it was easy, but we will keep looking for a better French Dip recipe.
Natasha Nelson
My first time for this dish and everyone liked it! So easy too. Thank you.
Lisa Michael
so delicious!!! This is my second time making this.
John Dillon
Beware browning in your crock pot stoneware if you aren’t sure it can take direct heat from the stove. I thought mine could and learned the hard way. Fortunately, I was able to replace my crock pot at the store, so no harm no foul.

The au jus is very tasty, yet, if you don’t like a little heat in your food then forgo the Thai hot sauce. I like heat, so I didn’t mind.

One of the reasons I am giving this 4 stars is I think the cooking time for the meat is wrong. You should definitely go for low and slow. If you are unfamiliar with crock pot cooking, you may want to look up recommended cooking times. Another thing, I strained my au jus so it was free of the onions, garlic and bay leaf. Though, if you like onions, you may want to keep them in, or scoop them on later.

I tried my sandwich with the Boursin spread. It was okay. Yet, I preferred mine with swiss or provolone.

Richard Gardner
OMG. This is amazing. So easy and delicious, the leftovers are just as good. This is a new staple in my home. First Aaron recipe that I’ve made and I’m so impressed. I used slices of herbed Fontina as the cheese and got par-baked french bread BUT, this recipe is fail-proof! Great job Aaron!

 

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