Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Italian beef? Yes, chef!Ever since The Bear came out, everyone’s been running around calling each other chef, and everyone and their cousin have been asking us to put out an Italian beef sandwich recipe. Remember when Carmy had to use all his fine-dining cheffy skills to transform the wrong cut of beef into even-more-excellent Italian beef than the shop usually served? Yeah, we did that.Carmy just used a straight braise, but when you can dial in the exact braising temperature using sous vide or <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-induction-works">precision induction</a>, you can guarantee great, stress-free results without having to kick anyone off the line in a fit of blind chef rage. Both methods will get you perfectly cooked beef—firm enough to slice thin, tender enough that strips of beef won’t slide out of the sandwich, with a little herbal lift from a spice mix of ground fennel seed, coriander, black pepper, red pepper flakes, paprika, oregano, and thyme. Italian beef is sort of an odd duck of a sandwich meat, since it’s served hot, like <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-pastrami">pastrami</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/oven-barbecue-brisket">brisket</a>, or shaved ribeye in cheesesteaks, but it’s usually made from bottom or top round—tough, lean cuts that are best served in cold, thin slices in sandwiches because they don’t have a ton of intramuscular fat. The reason why Italian beef is warmed in the beef braising liquid (jus for most of us, “gravy” for you Chicagoans) is because it helps season the meat and makes the naturally lean meat seem “juicier.”For home cooks, the main obstacle to a good Italian beef sandwich is a deli slicer—it’s tough to get super-thin slices of round using a knife. Over the years, we’ve shown countless times that you can transform traditional braising cuts into sliceable roasts that eat like steaks cooked to a perfect medium-rare just by harnessing the power of a long, low-temperature cook, so we applied that method to a series of cuts—round, but also brisket and short ribs—and we found that short ribs gave us the most delicious and most consistent results. Cooked for 24 hours and chilled, you can easily carve off super-thin slices that are perfect for piling into a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/italian-sandwich-rolls">soft Italian roll</a>.The beef is so tender and beefy that it doesn’t need much else. It could be served in a “dry” sandwich with some <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/hot-giardiniera">hot giardiniera</a> and you’d be perfectly happy. But because we use <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beef-bouillon-cubes">Ultimate Beef Bouillon Cubes</a> in the braising liquid, you’re going to want to at least serve it “wet”—dousing the sandwich generously with the glutamate-packed gravy.

Precision Italian Beef