I have a love affair with Nordstrom Cafe’s French Dip sandwich! I’ve had several others and none really compare. Nordstrom Cafe’s has a delicious garlic aioli and the beef is tender and flavorful…mmmmm! I got an email from allrecipes.com with a recipe for Easy Slow Cooker French Dip and I figured, “sure, why not?” The reviews were great and plentiful with many suggested variations on the original recipe.
Feel free to check out the original recipe but I highly recommend that you follow mine (or something close to it). Unfortunately, when I deviate from a recipe, I kind of just throw things in and don’t measure but I will try to approximate 🙂 The result was tasty but I still need to play around with it…it could have been better. For one, I did not pay attention to the fact that the recipe called for the beef to be in the slow cooker on low for 7 hours…I didn’t have 7 hours so I did mine on high for about 4 hours. I am not sure if the meat would have been more tender if I had done low for 7 hours or if I had used the exact cut of meat called for or if I were a deli with a big meat slicer that could have sliced the meat thinner than I could with my largest and sharpest chef’s knife.
I don’t want to share only complete successes with you. There are plenty of us out there that try a recipe and fail. Well, I wouldn’t call this a fail but it did not meet my high expectations. The au jus could have been saltier (maybe I shouldn’t have used fat-free, low-salt beef broth) and I could have melted a bit more provolone over the top when assembling the sandwich. I bet this recipe would benefit from seasoning the meat liberally with salt, pepper and garlic powder and then searing in a pan before placing in the slow cooker. The true saving grace was the garlic aioli I made…follow this recipe exactly!
O.K., so let’s get to the recipes!
Easy Slow Cooker French Dip (adapted from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
- 4 pounds rump roast (I used a 3 pound eye of round beef roast)
- 1 Tbs. garlic powder (more or less to taste)
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
- 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French onion soup
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle dark beer
- Several shakes of worcestershire sauce
- French rolls (I just cut up a long baguette)
- Provolone cheese (optional)
- Garlic aioli (optional, recipe below)
Directions
- Trim excess fat from the rump roast, and place in a slow cooker*. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder to-taste. Add the beef broth, onion soup, worcestershire sauce and beer. Cook on Low setting for 6.5 hours. Remove the roast, cover with foil and let rest 10-15 min. Slice the meat across the grain and return to the slow cooker for an additional 30 min.
- Split French rolls and place the meat and provolone on one side and place under broiler until cheese is melted. Spread the garlic aioli on the other half of the roll.
- Put the sandwich together and serve with the au jus for dipping.
*I would recommend seasoning the roast liberally with salt, pepper and garlic powder and searing in a pan before placing in slow cooker.
Garlic Aioli (from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (I just used my garlic press)
- 2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Mix mayonnaise, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes* before serving.
Cooking, Crafting & Chaos 