Perfect Roast Beef Sandwiches Recipe (Super Easy!)

Okay... so to start off this post, I have something to admit... sometimes I eat beef (although usually it's only at restaurants). Honestly, it's not often, I can't tell you the last time I purchased ground beef. And I will also admit that while I LOVED this meal I'm about to share with you, I would have loved it even more if I had been able to make it with bison (which I eventually plan to!).

BUT I really wanted a roast beef sandwich and our Farmers Market Sales have been STELLAR this year and so there just wasn't any bison roasts available for me to use! So I found myself at the meat counter at my local grocery store, picking out a nice, lean beef roast.

As I said, I plan to eventually (hopefully sometime this fall/winter) adapt this recipe for a bison roast as well, but for the meantime, this sandwich was so good, I want to share the beef version now!

If you'd like to go ahead and adapt this recipe for bison yourself, I would recommend lowering the oven temperature to 275*F, then check the roast after 2 hours and cook longer if necessary. That's my plan anyway!

As I said, I wanted to use a lean roast. So, I found a bottom round roast that looked pretty lean. This one was about 2 1/2 lbs. I began by rubbing the roast with olive oil, salt and pepper. I just did a light coat. I then placed it in a hot cast iron skillet and seared both sides for about two minutes on each side.

After searing the roast, I placed it in my roasting pan along with a cut up onion, a few cloves of minced garlic, 1 small can of beef broth, a bit of sweet red wine (I just poured a little in, probably a little less than a glass' worth -- if not measuring makes you uncomfortable, please see "rules of my kitchen"), small red and white potatoes, and about 2 cups of water (enough so that it almost covered the whole roast). 

I placed the lid on my roasting pan and put it in a pre-heated oven at 300* F for 2 hours with the goal to let it cook until it reached 125* F internal temperature. It was a lazy Saturday and the Husker Football team was the afternoon game which is when I was aiming to have the sandwiches ready. I wasn't sure how long the roast would end up cooking, so I actually put it in a little too early for a late lunch.

I woke up at about 8:00 to get the groceries I still needed and put this all together. I had my roast in the oven by 9:00 and went back to bed (ah the joy of life with few weekend responsibilities!) I woke back up at about 11:00 and can not begin to tell you how amazing the smell was!

Here's the roast when I pulled it out of the oven after two hours with an internal temp of 125* F. Obviously cooking times will vary based on the size and cut of your roast. I removed the roast from the pan and allowed it to rest, covered, on my cutting board for 15 minutes. Because it was done so much earlier than I was ready for, I left the potatoes in the broth (removing some for the beef) and placed it back in the oven on the lowest temp my oven allowed.

After the beef had rested, I sliced it as thinly as I could and placed it in a dish with the broth and back in the low-temp oven. 

Once game time was getting closer, it was time to make these into sandwiches!

To make the sandwiches, I took a loaf of french bread, cut it in half and sliced it into a top and bottom. I buttered the inside of each piece and placed them butter side up on a cookie sheet.

With my oven on 375*F, I placed the bread slices in for about 5 minutes to allow them to toast. 

Then, I removed the top slices, placing them on the plates and piled slices of roast beef and cheese (I chose a delicious chipotle cheddar) onto the bottom slices. If you want to include mushrooms or the onions from your broth, both of those would be great additions too! 

I then placed the bottom slices back into the oven to allow the cheese to melt, for about another 5 minutes. 

All that's left to do is place the top slice on and serve it up with the potatoes and the broth on the side as an au jus. 

Let me tell you, these sandwiches were phenomenal and a great way to kick off fall! I can not wait to make them again!