Crock Pot Beef-N-Pepper Sandwiches

We raise beef cows on our hobby farm, and that means I frequently have roasts in my freezer. Good, right? It sure is–mostly. The problem is that homegrown beef can be pretty tough sometimes, and that makes it a challenge. You gotta cook this stuff low and slow!

I’m pretty busy, so I love to use my crock pot for this kind of cooking. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The problem is that my family claims that crock pot dishes have a distinctive “taste”–and they don’t like it. In fact, my husband christened it the “stink pot,” and when they see it plugged in on the counter, there are quiet groans.

Y’all see what I’m dealing with here.

So let me tell you, when I stumbled across a crock pot recipe that my family raved over, that was a red-letter day. These beef/pepper sandwiches were so delicious that my family fought over the leftovers! I had to share this one with you. This stuff is amazing-good!

I adjusted this recipe from one on the Pioneer Woman site. You can check out the original version here.

Here’s my version:

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 approx. 3-4 lb roast (whatever cut happens to be lurking within easy reach in my freezer)

1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped fine

3/4 tsp salt (divided)

black pepper to taste

1 16 oz jar whole pepperoncini (this is a bigger jar than the Pioneer Woman used, but we loved the extra kick. Next time, I may go with sliced ones just so they’re distributed more evenly, but the whole ones worked!)

1 cup beef broth

6 tbsp butter (divided)

2 onions, sliced (I used two onions because one just wasn’t quite enough to go around!)

6 sub rolls, split

12 slices provolone cheese

Here’s what you do:

I took the frozen roast out early in the morning and put it in the crock pot (still hard as a rock) with the beef broth, the rosemary, 1/2 tsp of salt and a good sprinkling of pepper. I let it cook on high for about four hours.

By lunchtime it was good and thawed, so I added the undrained pepperoncini, changed the temp to low, and let it cook for another 6 to 7 hours.

About fifteen minutes before supper, I melted 3 TBSP of butter in a skillet, and added the onion, the rest of the salt (1/4 tsp) and a little more pepper. I cooked that until the onion was lightly browned, maybe 8 minutes or so?

I took the cooked roast out of the crockpot with a big slotted spoon and shredded it, removing the bone and excess fat. It fell apart beautifully! Then I returned the meat to the crockpot and lowered the heat to warm.

I buttered the rolls using the remainder of the butter and broiled them until they were lightly browned–just a couple of minutes.

Then I assembled the sandwiches. I removed the tops of the rolls from the baking sheet (I had split them completely in two pieces) and set them aside. On the bottoms I put a generous amount of meat on the roll (including any peppers that got scooped up), added the onions and topped each with 2 slices of the cheese. I put it back in the oven and broiled it just long enough to make the cheese nice and melty. Then I added the top halves, cut each sandwich in two and served them with the remaining broth for dipping.

We enjoyed these with fresh watermelon and potato chips–and they were absolutely scrumptious! It served my five folks easily with leftovers for them to squabble over the next day. Best of all–no more stink pot comments! Hope you enjoy this one as much as we did!

2 Comments

  1. lisadsapp on May 24, 2022 at 9:17 am

    This looks wonderful!! Adding to my Pinterest folder that has become my virtual cookbook.

    There’s a recipe for crockpot lasagna in Pinterest that is super easy and very delicious. Try that sometime and see what the family thinks.

  2. Sarah Taylor on May 24, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    Yummy I am saving this recipe! Thank You Laurel for sharing the amazing recipe.

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