Slow Cooker Italian Beef
This slow cooker italian beef is perfectly seasoned, melt-in-your-mouth tender and absolutely heavenly served on crusty rolls.
This recipe has been around since the beginning of time (ok, so maybe just since the beginning of this here blog -but you know what I mean), and let me tell you, it is one of my very favorite ways to cook up beef in the slow cooker.
It is perfectly seasoned, melt-in-your-mouth tender and absolutely heavenly served on crusty rolls (I love to use this roll recipe, in fact) with provolone cheese.
I’ve adapted the recipe by tossing the prepackaged seasoning mix and upping the everyday spices that probably reside in your pantry right now.
This one is definitely a keeper!
FAQs for Slow Cooker Italian Beef
Yes! I’ve done it for 70 minutes on high pressure
Usually baking it in a covered, heavy stockpot (that’s oven safe) at 250 degrees for about 4-5 hours should do the trick.
I don’t trim it unless there are large pockets of fat easily trimmed.
I usually shred this and put it in a 9X13 pan and pour a bit of the cooking liquid over it so it is moist but not dripping with liquid.
Yes! When cooked and prepared, the meat freezes well. I usually reheat it in the slow cooker or on the stovetop.
What To Serve With This:
French Bread Rolls, or a Crusty Roll (for the bun)
An awesome side like this: Barbecue Macaroni Salad, Coleslaw, or these Boston Baked Beans
Fresh vegetables and/or green salad
Slow Cooker Italian Beef
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 pounds chuck roast
Instructions
- In a liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine water and beef broth with salt, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, onion salt, parsley, garlic powder, and bay leaves. Whisk to combine.
- Place roast in slow cooker and pour seasoning mixture over the meat. Cover, and cook on low for 9-10 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.
- When done, remove bay leaf, and shred meat with a fork (keep the shredded meat in the slow cooker with the juices). Serve on crusty rolls with cheese, if desired.
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from allrecipes.com
A lifelong Chicagoin, so I know Italian Beef and this recipe is spot on. Huge hit with the family and so easy to throw together in the morning and have ready to go when I get home from work.
If you put onions, carrots, celery and potatoes on top of the beef, this makes a perfect and super easy pot roast. My family loves this recipe. (As sandwiches and as pot roast)
How long would I cook this in the oven? typical roast time about 3 hours?
Probably – a lot depends on what temperature you’ll use and what kind of pot you have.
How much sodium is in this recipe per serving
How long do I cook in an instapot if my 5lb roast is frozen? Thanks
I don’t know – sorry! I’ve never cooked a fully frozen roast in the Instant Pot.
Love love LOVE this recipe!!! I usually double the sauce ingredients for us to use to dip our sandwiches in. One of our favorite go to recipes. You’ve outdone yourself again, Mel!
Hey Mel, this is one if my family’s favorite recipes of yours. Love, love, love it! I do make a couple of tweaks that I think you’ll like. I keep all the ingredients the same, but I omit the water and when it is finished cooking I strain out all the juice put it in a fat seperator and put all of that flavorful broth in a pot to reduce a bit, then whisk in a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch. It becomes the most glorious gravy to top the meat, absolute perfection with a nice homemade crusty roll and some provolone. Thank you for you blog
Love the tips – thank you!
We loved this! The combination of spices is spot-on and much preferred over needing to track down a packaged mix. I went with a frozen venison roast and cooked it for 75 minutes in my pressure cooker. Tonight I used the leftovers on slider rolls with Munster cheese — I brushed the top of the rolls with melted butter and sprinkled with Italian herbs and Parmesan. Baked covered at 350 for 20 minutes then uncovered for 15 minutes. Thank you so very much for sharing — this one is staying in the dinner rotation. Delicious!
Have you ever made this in an instant pot?
Yep – I cook it for about 70 minutes high pressure.
This was so easy and delicious!! I used a 2.5 lb round roast, cut in three pieces and cooked it for 50 min in the instant pot- perfection!! Fall apart tender and great flavor! Topped on your French bread rolls, provolone and peperoncini and it was a crowd pleasing dinner. Thanks Mel!!
Did you decrease the amount of seasoning or liquid?
Delicious! I used the same amount of spices for a 4-lb roast and it tasted great. It easily fed 6 adults with plenty of leftovers. My particular roast was not shredding at hour 9, so I had to turn it up to high for the last hour.
This looks great. Would I reduce the spices for a smaller roast? There’s only 2 of us, so the 5 lb would be too large. Also, do you have any recommendation on buns to buy at the store? Thanks.
Yes, you could reduce spices if it’s half the size of a 5 pound roast, or similar. I like brioche type buns – if your store has those (usually buy the hamburger buns), they are my favorite storebought.
Hi Melanie! I want to thank you for posting this recipe. I am not fond of recipes that call for Italian dressing mix as that has some pickling mix in it. This is perfect! I am from Chicago and we add halved sweet peppers and onion to the cooking process and serve the sandwiches with hot peppers, dill spears and thick fries. I make my own bread and this recipe is fantastic on the homemade bread! This is good! And I do not have to go out for a good beef sandwich ever again.
Wondering how many pounds of chuck roast it would take to feed 25 as the main dish at a potluck?
That’s always a bit hard to know for sure, especially not knowing if they are all adults or a mix of kids and adults. I’d say probably around 8 pounds.
Thanks. They are all adults. This sounds perfect.
Mel, my family and I all loooove this recipe! Any ideas how to adapt it to the Instant Pot? I’m an instant pot newbie and very intimidated by it!!
Hi Kristin – for a full roast (not cut into pieces), I’d probably cook it in the InstantPot for 75 minutes (manual –> dial up to 75 minutes). If you cube the roast into pieces, you can probably cut 15-20 minutes off the time. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much, Mel! I’ve used the instant pot as a slow cooker but have yet to pressure cook ( scaredy cat!!). What a time saver though, I’ll have to give it a go!
My family of 5 loves this recipe & we love to make nachos with the leftovers!! Excellent roast!
Yum, yum! None of the ingredients looked like anything special, but magic happened in the crockpot. Great recipe!
This was great and I will make again when our boys come home for a visit this summer. It’s so nice to have recipes like these when we are out having fun and I don’t want to be tied to the kitchen. I only found a 3 lb chuck roast but I kept all the spices and liquids the same…turned out fine. We really liked dipping the sandwiches in the extra juice. I chose to use muenster cheese and add sautéed mushrooms because we love ’em! Also I thought the salt amount was fine and even added another pinch to the cooked meat. We had extra since it’s just two of us and I’ve frozen the juice and meat separately. Looking forward to another meal of this in the future. Thanks Mel…I love your website!
I know this is an old recipe but i had a question for you before I tried it. We don’t have a slow cooker so was wondering if I could make this on the stove or in the oven? Any suggestion for how long or temp? Thanks.
Usually baking it in a covered, heavy stockpot (that’s oven safe) at 250 degrees for about 4-5 hours should do the trick.
We made this a few times now, and we love it! Though I usually use only a 3 pound chuck roast without changing any other ingredients, it still works great!! I make your French bread rolls, and top the sandwiches with provolone as suggested. So good! Thanks for sharing this.
I am trying to mix up our dinner routine with 2 new recipes a week-this week they were both from your website. I made this one yesterday and it was delicious! I was a little nervous that it was just spices, broth, and meat-but it’s just like life-often times simplest is best. Thanks for yet another wonderful recipe.
I love this recipe with your French Bread Rolls! I did reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp. I also add 8 oz of pepperoncini rings and 8 oz of Chicago-Style Giardiniera Italian Sandwich Mix to the slow cooker, set it and 9 hours later you have an absolutely delicious meal. My husband requests this often. Thank you!
Just made this with your Loaded Baked Potato Salad for a Memorial Day party of 16 adults and 14 children tonight. (I also had hot dogs for the littles.) It was a smashing success, and I loved being able to “fix dinner” at 7 am and be done with it! Thanks!
Would it be okay to make the mixture the night before? Thanks!
So make step 1 the night before and refrigerate it?
Stephanie – Yes, that would work fine.
Hi Mel,
This is my first time cooking a chuck roast. So it has a bunch of ribbons of fat that seem to hold it together. Are you supposed to try to trim any of that, or leave it on?
Ellen – I don’t trim it unless there are large pockets of fat easily trimmed.
I made this today for Sunday supper with your French Bread rolls. Another favorite Mel recipe! So easy and convenient with the method using a slow cooker. And another “thumbs up” from the whole family for the deliciousness of the meal.
Used rolled brisket. Fresh garlic and onion.
Sealed tight in creuset casserole
2 hours AGA baking oven 180C
Basted and 2 hours simmering oven
Moist and gorgeous
Do you drain the juice/liquid before serving this? I’ve made something similar and it was so juicy and the bread got soggy. Thanks!
Janette – I usually shred this and put it in a 9X13 pan and pour a bit of the cooking liquid over it so it is moist but not dripping with liquid.
I make this with 2 frozen tri tip roasts. Delicious! One of our faves. Thanks!
Tastes great on day one, then reheating the leftovers with some A-1 and served on more rolls with cheese tasted Philly cheesesteak-ish. Yum! Great meat to have around. Thanks!
Another one of your recipes that hit the mark with my family! You have yet to fail. 🙂 My 15-year-old son said, “This isn’t just good, it’s awesome good!” The mix of seasonings was spot on. The hubby and kids devoured the entire roast in one sitting! I’ll take that as a compliment. 🙂
It may have already been suggested, but to make it more like true Chicago Italian Beefs, use shaved beef, available from a local butcher or the meat counter at some grocery stores. Definitely tastes more authentic to me that way. Trying your french bread rolls now for a batch I’m making tonight! Yum!
Laura – I think the original recipe from allrecipes has the seasoning packet but I haven’t made it that way in years.
Mel, I have used this recipe a couple times and have loved it! Am I crazy or did this recipe used to have a packet of Italian seasoning mix in it?
This italian beef went over so well with my boys. I love your recipe that it does not call for one of those awful italian seasoning packets…uck. Hubby said the seasoning really made the difference. Another Great Recipe Mel!!!!
I just made this for the first time last night and the whole family loves it. We will now be using it instead of our regular shredded beef recipe. I made your French Bread rolls to serve this on and it was all so yummy! Thanks so much!
This recipe was PERFECTION. I will never use another shredded beef recipe again. Thank you so much for posting this–it is now going on our regular meal rotation. I love that it’s freezable too. I just make it in bulk, freeze, then have delicious shredded beef meals to make in the future! Thank you.
Let me second that thank you. We’re waiting to confirm our one year old has a
soy allergy. Soy is in everything! Even though I make most of our food I still have to
watch things like soup mixes and condiments. So thanks for sharing this adaptation.
This is my favorite way to cook roast.
Thank you for taking the prepackaged soup mix out! It seems like most slow cooker meat recipes use soup mixes. Due to my husbands health concerns we have to live a low sodium life. I appreciate the use of individual spices do I can judge how much salt we can handle. Thank you for doing this blog!
Your Italian beef looks quite easy and I KNOW it’s tasty because everything you make is! Having said that, believe it or not, my Italian beef is even easier. Hard to believe, but it is. And it’s as delicious as it is easy. I’d love for you to try it some time and let me know what you think! http://www.fransfavs.com/2011/10/italian-beef/
Lauren – yes, this cooked and prepared meat freezes well. I usually reheat it in the slow cooker or on the stovetop.
Hey I just had one quick question- would this meat freeze well? I figure it would but thought I should ask. Because I would love to make this and then freeze leftovers for future meals. It looks divine!
Okay, I was given a recipe for “Roast to Die for” and I’m pretty sure it was the one off of Allrecipes.com that you modified for this recipe, or at least very similar. Let me just say that it didn’t hold a candle to your version. It didn’t smell as good while cooking, wasn’t as tender, and just wasn’t as good. I love your version and will be craving it now for awhile until it’s time to make it again.
Oh and by the way, it was what I was making for Easter Dinner, so it kind of turned out to be a flop! Bummer!
Courtney – I’m kind of nervous to say this but every time I’ve made this, I actually think it could use more salt. I know that sounds crazy with the amount of salt in the recipe (and granted, I usually use a very low-sodium beef broth) but it seems to be the case for me. However, if you are worried about salt content, I’d use onion powder instead of onion salt but I’d keep the 1 teaspoon salt.
Mel, I made your Chili Verde last week in the oven and it was awesome. Now I want to try this Italian Beef. It seems like there is a lot of salt in this recipe (beef broth, salt, onion salt and the salt in the dressing mix). Is it overly salty? Do you think it would be ok if I cut out the teaspoon of salt and just used onion powder instead of onion salt? Besides overcooking stuff, my other biggest fear is oversalting. I am still new to this cooking thing
Hi Kristyn – try googling homemade Italian-dry mix. I know there are a lot of recipes online that might help! I have one I’ve tweaked over the years but I hesitate recommending it for this recipe since I haven’t tried it in this recipe. Glad you are enjoying the recipes!
Hi,
Any ideas how to make my own dry Italian-style salad dressing mix? I live overseas and can’t find that in the stores here.
Thanks! I cook from your site at least 2-3 times a week and everything is always super yummy!
Kristyn
Made this tonight and even used your french bread recipe for the first time. They both turned out amazing! Your site continues to be my go-to for recipes. Thank you so much!
Made these tonight for dinner and they are AMAZING on toasted steak rolls with melted garlic butter & sliced provolone!!! THANK YOU for a great and easy recipe!
Made this for dinner tonight. Delicious. It may possibly replace my favorite french dip sandwich recipe. The whole family enjoyed it. Thanks!