Crock-Pot French Dip Sandwiches

The new year has started off with a bang in our household.

My husband and I run a small business and we are in the midst of preparing to relocate. I will be speaking more of this insanity as we move through this fun and completely stress free event (NOT!).

I experienced some technical issues with my site last week which shut it down for a day. I then spent the day trying to decipher sentences like – “Then just re-import the sql file to your database.”  Oh, well now that you put it that way, of course I get it!

I guess I should feel lucky that in almost a year and half of blogging I’ve never had any problems of this sort. I came away with some important lessons learned. Make sure you are backing up your database daily and make sure you’ve got a good tech person that understands exactly what an sql file is and how to re-import it. Thankfully, I had both.

Then there was the visit to urgent care with Boy #4 who is now sporting a dandy blue cast on his left arm. What’s a new year without a visit to urgent care? That’s what I always say.

Under the circumstances it seems it is an appropriate time to share another Crock-Pot recipe with you all that I have made on many crazy days over the years.

When the going gets tough, the tough pull out the Crock-Pot… or something like that.

These Crock-Pot French Dip sandwiches are based on a recipe I found on Allrecipes many years ago. I’ve changed it up a bit, as always, and added a creamy horseradish spread that adds loads of flavor and a nice little bite.

The grocery list – Campbell’s French Onion Soup, beef broth (or base to make broth), BEER!, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and an approximately four pound beef roast. For the creamy horseradish spread, you’ll need some sour cream and creamed horseradish.

Not pictured but vitally important, some french sandwich rolls and a couple of tablespoons of buttah.

I’ve used just about every type of beef roast for this recipe. This time around I went with a beef round rump roast. Use whatever type of beef roast you’d like or whatever looks good at the store that week. My rump roast was nice and lean but if there is a lot of excess fat around the edges of your roast, be sure to trim it so you’ll have a nice clean au jus for dipping. Update: After making this recipe a gazillion times, I’ve determined I get the best result when I use a boneless chuck shoulder pot roast. Click HERE to see more about this cut of beef that I buy from Costco.

I don’t always call out brands and no, I’m not being compensated in any way by Campbell’s, but their French Onion Soup is a great base for the au jus.

Start off by pouring the beef broth and the Campbell’s French Onion Soup into ye olde Crock-Pot.

Now, grab a bottle of beer and explain to your 18 year old son why you are grabbing a bottle of beer at 10:00 in the morning. Then pour it into the Crock-Pot and make sure that he sees you doing this so he doesn’t think you’re drinking beer at 10:00 in the morning. This is a very important step. Fear not, the beer imparts a wonderful flavor to the cooking sauce which will eventually become the dipping sauce.

Whisk in the Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder.

Place the roast in the liquid. Place the lid on the Crock-Pot, set it to LOW, and walk away. You should let it go for at least 7 hours or longer. You can start this baby as early in the morning as you’d like and it will be good to go at the dinner hour.

When you’re good and ready, slice the cooked roast on the diagonal and against the grain.

Return the sliced meat to the liquid, which we can now call au jus, and pretend we are all sophisticated and stuff while we are Crock-Pot cookin’.

Time to whip up the Creamy Horseradish Spread. Mix together about 1/2 cup of light or regular sour cream (I always use light) and 1 tablespoon creamed horseradish. You can use more horseradish if you want more of a bite and honestly, I just eyeball it, but this ratio is good for us.

Spread some softened butter on your sandwich rolls and place them on a baking sheet under your oven’s broiler for just a couple of minutes till lightly toasted.

Assemble the sandwiches.

Spoon a little of the au jus into a small bowl to serve on the side…

…so you can do this.

And, that my friends is another good as gold Crock-Pot recipe to add to your list.

Crock-Pot French Dip Sandwiches

Prep Time Preparation 5 minutes

Cook Time 4-20 minutes

Total Time 7 hours 5 minutes

Serves 8 servings     adjust servings

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Ingredients

• 4 pounds boneless beef roast (preferably chuck shoulder pot roast)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can or 1-3/4 cups beef broth
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French onion soup
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle beer
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 6 French rolls 2 tablespoons butter

Creamy Horseradish Spread

• 1/2 cup sour cream, light or regular
• 1 tablespoons creamed horseradish

Instructions

1. Add beef broth, French onion soup, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder to the slow cooker. Whisk to combine.
2. Trim excess fat from the roast if necessary, and place into the liquid in the slow cooker. Cook on Low setting for 7 hours or up to 9 hours.
3. Combine the sour cream and creamed horseradish in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
4. Transfer meat from the slow cooker to a cutting board. Slice on the diagonal, and transfer sliced meat back to cooking liquid in Crock-Pot.
5. Preheat oven broiler. Spread butter on to sandwhich rolls and broil till nicely browned.
6. Assemble sandwiches by filling the sandwich rolls with some of the meat, spread with some of the creamy horseradish spread and serve with the au jus for dipping.
7. Adapted from Allrecipes.com