Messy, Mouthwatering Drippy Beef Buns

This messy, drippy beefy sandwich is great on any rainy, cold day...or any other day for that matter.

We've had lots of beef dips before but never with peperoncini peppers until today - you can thank Ree Drummond for that! If anyone in your house doesn't like the peppers (they are quite mild) they are easy to pull out.

Based on a recipe from Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 lb blade pot roast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
2 cups beef stock
1-1/2 cups water
1 tbsp ground rosemary
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or crushed
1 375 ml jar of pickled peperoncini peppers (12 ounces)
dash of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
2 drops liquid smoke (optional)

2 medium onions, diced
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt

8 crusty buns

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F or 150 degrees C.
2. Season the roast by sprinkling salt and pepper evenly over it.
3. Add the butter and oil, over high heat, to a medium sized dutch oven or oven proof pot.
4. When the pot is very hot (almost smoking), seer the beef on all sides. You want a beautifully brown, caramelized colour on all sides.
5. Once seared, remove beef from pot and remove left over oil/butter. You don't have to clean the pot, just get rid of the extra fat.
6. Add back the beef, beef broth, water, rosemary and garlic.
7. Remove the stems, if desired, from the peppers (I usually just pull them off) and add them and all the juice from the bottle into the pot.
8. If desired, add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke.
9. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat.
10. Turn off heat, cover and place in the oven for 3-1/2 to 4 hours. To test: The beef should easily pull apart with a fork when done.
11. You can remove the beef to another bowl to pull apart or shred the beef (if your roast was held together by string - remove it!) with two forks or just keep it in the cooking liquid.
12. Heat saute pan over medium heat and add butter.
13. Add onions and salt.
14. Saute until golden brown, approximately 10 minutes.
15. Slice buns (you may want to take out some of the bread so you have room for more meat!) and pile with meat and onions. Add some extra beef cooking liquid to make a moist, drippy, beautiful mess of a sandwich!

If you want to make this the day ahead of time, complete step #10. Take out the peppers, cool and refrigerate overnight (beef and peppers separately). The next day, use a spoon to remove the layer of fat that congeals on top and discard it. Add the peppers back into the pan and reheat on stove top over medium heat. Go to step #11.

You can also toast your buns before loading them with meat - this is a good tip if your buns are really soft.

Enjoy!

Fresh rosemary.

Ground rosemary.

Spicy but not super hot.

Mouthwatering, right?

Practically falls apart.

Bacon Wrapped Turducken for Sunday Football

There are days for salad with no dressing and a squeeze of lemon. Sunday football and  especially Grey Cup on Sunday November 29th, isn't one of those days! Football calls for a little bit of decadence and a whole lot of easy. Easy dishes, that is. Because who wants to send the day in the kitchen when you could be watching the game? GO EDMONTON!

A perfect fit with game day feasting is a turducken! Specifically, a bacon wrapped turducken. That's right, a duck wrapped in chicken wrapped in turkey, wrapped in bacon I'll give you a minute to think about that........drooling yet? How about a layer of stuffing and another inside layer of bacon??!!!! Sorry vegetarians, this is not your kind of meal. Carnivores, jump for joy!

Echelon Foods has added just such a turducken to it's line of deliciousness. I've been a big fan of their turduckens for awhile now and have served them at previous Thanksgiving dinners- both the roast and the whole beast.  Our guests are always impressed!

But it's for more than the holidays. In fact, it's perfect for any game day and is sure to make a huge impression on your guests - a definite touchdown. It's easy to make - just defrost and throw it into your oven for four hours. And since you are putting such a show stopper on the table, you can add other premade or easy to make side dishes to round out the feast.

For our buffet, I made a quick batch of orange infused cranberry sauce, simple cheesy potato skins, raw veggies, chips, salsa, guacamole (store bought), date squares that I had made earlier in the week, all of our left over Halloween candy, and a few other dishes. Trust me when I say, the bacon wrapped turducken was the MVP of the game! The outer layer of bacon comes out crispy and the birds on the inside are quite moist.

I loved that with a little pre-planning I could watch the game with guests and not get stuck in the kitchen.

I highly recommend any of Echelon's turduckens but the bacon wrapped turducken roast will definitely score a touch down at your next football (or hockey or baseball or basketball or whatever sport you're into) feast. Echelon will deliver your bacon wrapped turducken frozen solid to your door (the dry ice is an added bonus!). You can start defrosting right away (it will take 2-3 days to thaw so factor that in  to your timing) or put it in your freezer until you need it.

Our roast easily fed 12 people and none went away hungry!

Note: I received a bacon wrapped turducken for review but opinions, as always, are my own.