French Dip Sandwiches
This French dip sandwich layers juicy roast beef, melted provolone, caramelized onions, and horseradish sauce onto crisp toasted rolls, with a deeply savory quick beef jus for dipping. Using good deli roast beef keeps the recipe easy and approachable, while a few homemade components make it taste much more ambitious than the effort involved.
Ingredients
Caramelized Onions
- 1000 g onions, julienned
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 50 g water
- 80 g salt
Quick Beef Jus
- 900 g beef stock
- 14 g powdered gelatine
- 30 g Beef Better than Bouillon
- 50 g Worcestershire
- 8 g salt
Horseradish Sauce
- 75 g mayonnaise
- 75 g sour cream
- 50 g prepared horseradish
- 3 g salt
Assembly
- 2 large soft hoagie rolls, 12-14 inch
- 680 g medium roast beef, thinly sliced
- 8 slices provolone cheese
Instructions
Make the Caramelized Onions
- Combine the julienned onions, 8g salt, butter, and 25g (a splash) water in a 5-7 qt heavy bottom pot. Cover with a lid and cook over medium to medium high heat, stirring every 5 minutes, until onions have softened and released their moisture, about 10-15 minutes.
- Remove lid, reduce heat to med-low, and stir every 2 minutes until moisture evaporates and onions begin to brown and fond develops on the bottom of the pan.
- Add a splash of water (about 3-4 Tbsp) to deglaze, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browning from the pan. Repeat this process every 5-7 minutes for 35-50 minutes until the onions are caramelized and softened.
Make the Quick Beef Jus & Horsey Sauce
- Combine beef stock, Worcestershire, bouillon, and 5g salt in a saucepan. Whisk in the powdered gelatin while the liquid is still cool, then bring the jus to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce by half. This should take 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl combine sour cream, mayonnaise, prepared horseradish, and 3g salt. Stir until completely smooth. Taste or seasoning, then keep in fridge until sandwich time.
Assembling the French Dip Sandwiches
- Cut off the ends of the hoagie rolls. Cut each in half so you have 4 rolls total, then slice each in half lengthwise. Put the halves back together then toast rolls in 400℉ (200℃) oven for 5 minutes.
- Pull rolls from the oven, open the halves, and add 2 slices of provolone over the bottom half of each roll. Return to the oven (open-faced) and toast for another 3-4 minutes until the cheese has melted.
- Bring the just temperature to a warm 130-140F (57°C) and swirl beef slices through the liquid for 15-20 seconds to just warm through.
- Transfer 4 slices of beef (170g) to the bottom of each roll, making sure to ribbon and layer each slice of beef.
- Add a thin layer of caramelized onions on top of the beef and spread a thin layer of horseradish sauce on each top roll. Close the sandwiches and press firmly to glue everything together. Gently cut in half with a serrated knife.
- Taste the hot jus one last time for seasoning. It should be borderline salty. Serve in a warm ramekin next to your sandwiches for dipping.
Turn off the oven and add oven-safe jus containers to the oven at this point to warm them.
After warming the beef and transferring it to your sandwiches, return the jus to a simmer so it's hot and ready for serving.
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