Smoked Italian Beef Sandwich Chicago Style

Ready to take your sandwich game to another level? This Chicago-style smoked Italian beef is juicy, flavorful, and dripping with tender beef and peppers. Piled into a hoagie bun, dipped in its own juicy, it’s the kind of sandwich legends are made of. 🔥

📋Quick Recipe Card

🛒Ingredients

• 2–3 lb beef chuck roast
• Bear & Burton’s W Sauce
• Blazing Star Beef Rub
• 16 oz beef broth
• ¼ cup sliced banana peppers (with juice)
• ¼ cup hot giardiniera (with juice)
• 1 packet Italian dressing mix
• 6 hoagie buns
• Slices of provolone cheese (optional)

🔥Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Preheat your smoker, pellet grill, or oven to 250°F (121°C).
2. Coat the roast, rub the W Sauce over all sides of the chuck roast.
3. Apply rub, season thoroughly with Blazing Star Beef Rub on all sides.
4. Smoke Phase 1, place roast on cooker and smoke for ≈ 3 hours.
5. Prepare the braise liquids, when 3 hours are up, transfer roast into a pan. Add banana peppers + juice, giardiniera + juice, Italian dressing mix, and beef broth. Cover with aluminum foil.
6. Continue cooking, return pan to cooker and smoke at 250°F for about 1½ hours or until meat is tender (internal temp around 205–208°F).
7. Rest, remove the roast and let it rest in the pan, covered, for 30 minutes.
8. Shred, move the roast to a board or pan and pull apart into shredded beef.
9. Strain the juices, remove peppers, strain the liquid, and separate fat from the jus.
10. Toast buns, lightly toast hoagie buns.
11. Assemble, pile shredded beef into buns, add some of the strained peppers, top with provolone if desired.
12. Dip & serve, dunk the sandwich in the strained jus for that iconic Chicago-style “dipped” bite.

💡Pro Tips

• Use flanken-cut or similarly thin-cut roast, if possible, it shreds easier.
• Don’t skip resting, it lets juices reabsorb and makes the roast easier to shred.
• Use a fat separator or chill the jus to remove excess fat for cleaner dipping juice.
• Add extra giardiniera or banana pepper juice for a spicier kick.
• Serve warm, the cheese melts, the meat is juicy, and the bun absorbs the jus just right.

🛒Shop the Flavors

• Blazing Star Beef Rub
  
• Bear & Burton’s W Sauce

• Iron Oak BBQ Pits 115 Offset Smoker used in video
• Grill Blazer Grill Gun Use Discount Code blazingstar for 10% OFF