An easy recipe for crock pot French dip sandwiches that are melt in your mouth tender and bursting with a wonderful flavor. Topped with cheese and dipped in au jus, it is a casual dining delight.
Introduction
I came home from work last week, and my wife was smiling... an "I have an idea" smile. She shows me a nice-looking beef roast and dummy me said, ok roast beef for Sunday family company, and I started talking side dishes.
She interrupted, saying that "you're doing French dip." Now I love French dip, and it has become my standard lunch if we're out and about. And I have become a real critic.
She even had the recipe. I didn't have the ingredients for that recipe, so a little Google, a little from this, and some from that recipe. I had a plan.
Start with a nicely trimmed beef roast. Brown to get some Maillard reaction, cook in a crock pot in a nice juice and in caramelized onions. Then, slice about 2 hours before done and finish cooking for ultra-tender wonderfully tasty meat.
Serve on a hoagie bun after topping with cheese and browning under the broiler. Finally, serve au jus which happens to be the cooking liquid.
My Rating
My wife has already awarded it the recipe of the year.
🐄The Beef
Your beef roast needs to be nicely trimmed, so you don't have to pick out uneatable things. And it has to have good marbling to be tender. Two to three pounds will do nicely.
The beef choice is up to you. Sirloin and eye of round are commonly recommended but maybe a bit lean. A nice chuck roast is a good choice. My favorite is an English cut chuck roast.
I think it is great to brown the meat some and also precook the onions although a lot of the crock pot French dip recipes skipped these steps—it will add flavor.
🧀The Cheese
Use a mild creamy type of cheese for French Dip Sandwiches like provolone or mozzarella cheese which is my choice as the best choice.
Monterey Jack cheese would also be good choice but avoid strongly flavored cheeses like sharp cheddar which will mask the flavor of your sandwich.
✔️Tips
- The Worcestershire Sauce and soy sauce makes the beef stand up and scream beef.
- Beef broth has improved a lot in recent years and is worth using.
- The beef is cut across grain just to make it easier to shred after it is cooked a few hours more. You don't want long strands of beef.
- The liquid in the crock pot is the perfect au jus for dipping.
- Store meat and juice separately. Good in refrigerator for 3-4 days. Also should freeze well for about 3 months.
📖Sandwich Recipes
Oven Fried Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches
What to Do With Leftover Beef Tenderloin? Philly Sandwiches
30 Minute Grilled Chicken Sandwiches
🖼️Step-by-Step Instructions
Start with a nicely trimmed beef roast. Salt and pepper to taste.
Over medium-high heat, add two teaspoon oil, and when hot, brown the roast for about 3 minutes per side. Then move roast to the crock pot.
Add two large sliced onions to the pan and cook for a few minutes until clearing then add two cloves of garlic and cook one more minute. Move to the crock pot.
Add two cups beef broth, ¼ cup soy sauce, and two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce. Mix well.
Cook on low for 7 hours but at the 5-hour mark remove meat and slice across the grain into ¼ inch slices and
Return to the crock pot to cook for the final 2 hours.
At the end of cooking, break up the slices a little to make serving easier.
To serve, cut hoagie buns into half. Top the bottom half with meat and provolone cheese—Cook under a broiler for a few minutes until cheese is nicely brown. Also, toast the tops of buns for a brief time.
Serve with the cooking solution as au jus for dipping.
📖Full Recipe
Crock Pot French Dip
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds beef roast
- 2 onions - large sliced
- 2 cloves garlic - crushed
- 2 cups beef broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
To serve
- Hoagie buns
- Provolone cheese
Instructions
- Start with a nicely trimmed beef roast. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Over medium-high heat add two teaspoons of oil and when hot brown the roast. About three minutes per side. Move roast to the crock pot.
- Add two large sliced onions to the pan, and cook for a few minutes until clearing, then add two cloves of garlic, and cook one more minute—move to the crock pot.
- Add two cups beef broth, ¼ cup soy sauce, and two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce—mix well.
- Cook on low for 7 hours, but at the 5-hour mark, remove meat, and slice across the grain into ¼ inch slices,
- Return to the crock pot to cook for the final 2 hours.
- At the end of cooking, I like to break the slices up a bit to make serving easier.
- To serve, cut hoagie buns into half. Top the bottom half with meat and provolone cheese. Cook under a broiler for a few minutes until cheese is nicely brown. Also, toast the tops of buns for a brief time.
- Serve with the cooking solution as au jus for dipping.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- An easy recipe to adjust both in size and taste.
- Avoid a roast that has too much connective tissue that you will need to sort out later. The beef choice is up to you. Sirloin and eye of round are commonly recommended but a nice chuck roast is a good choice. My favorite is an English cut chuck roast.
- The crock pot needs to be big enough for the beef to have some space around it.
- Brown the beef before adding it to the crock pot will add good flavor to the beef.
- Cook the onion a bit before adding it to the crock pot.
- Cut the beef across the grain.
- Use the cheese of your choice, but provolone cheese is my first choice, followed by mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese. But avoid strong cheeses like sharp cheddar.
- Store leftovers refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Store the au jus separate from the meat.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition
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Originally published March 12, 2016. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Dawn Porter
Like you, French Dip sandwiches are my restaurant go to for lunch. At home I love a French dip made with left over prime rib. When I make a roast in my crockpot I brown the roast then put it in crockpot. I add a packet of French onion soup to one can of Pepsi; stir it up and pour it in the crockpot on top of the roast and cook on low. I really like it both for a roast meal and French dip for the left overs. This coming weekend I’m going to give your French dip recipe a try. I like the slicing it partway through the cooking. I’m sure it will be a hit.
Love the dog pictures! My sister and her husband live in Oregon and have two rescue Great Pyrenees they adore.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Dawn,
Welcome to the blog.
I like the cutting as you approach the end of cooking. It gets the flavors all the way through and it is extra tender and moist.
Dan
kathy
Love you recipes - have saved many and everything I've tried comes out great, so thanks for that! Just a question on this - wouldn't an eye of round be too lean to make this nice and juicy? I love eye of round, but just wondering about this question.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Kathy,
Welcome to the blog.
I agree, it is lean but with cross-cutting and the braising method of cooking. It comes out fine. I have used it several times. Sirloin can have some of the same issues.
I think I will edit this to suggest chuck with the others as options since that is what I now use most of the time. My favorite cut for this is an "English-cut" chuck roast which is generally well marbled and has less waste than standard chuck roasts.
Dan
Jon Barker
This is a totally tasteful recipe!!! I love it! I can’t eat onion so I just omit and the flavor is so delightful! I grab a French baguette and dip away!!! Thank you!
Kat
For years I always cooked my roasts in the crock pot, slicing them midway through. I've been doing them in the Instant Pot lately (I just cut them in half at the beginning) and I find they are even more tender. (I slice right at the end and return to the pot to coat with gravy). This recipe, because of the liquid involved, could also just as easily be made in the pressure cooker. Can't wait to try it.
Kimberlee Kleine
Thanks so very much for all of your information! I look forward to enjoying this recipe tonight!
Kimberlee Kleine
Hi Dr. Dan!
I'm looking forward to making this recipe but wondered if you can help me out. It seems no matter what crockpot I have purchased, they all seem to cook a little warmer than the typical crockpot because even on low, my dishes are always ready way before the recommended cooking time. With that being said, can you please tell me what temperature you think the roast should be at before taking out and slicing as you have directed? I will then put it back in the crockpot as you suggest, but I need to go by temperature and not by time because I can't trust my crockpot's low temperature setting.
Thanks so much for all of your wonderful recipes
Kimberlee!
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Kim,
Ok, this one is a bit hard. I didn't nor have others measured it. Having said that, I will say 140 give or take a bit. You don't want it fully cooked at this point. I cut it so the liquid can penetrate the meat better for flavor. Most others don't do that. But I want it fall-apart tender at the end. So using a chuck roast, I want to get into the 165 plus range at the end. My wife would say 175. She likes that fall apart pot roast type meat here.
On to the crock pots. I don't test crock pots but Cooks Illustrate still does and in the past, I have read many engineering articles on this. All crock pots should top out at 211 temperature on both high and low. It is just the time it takes to get there. On low, most should take 7-8 hours to get to that temperature and about half that on high.
This is generally controlled by a thermostat and those seem to have improved over time. Some old crock pots relied on resistors and the temps just kept climbing. I don't think those are even sold anymore. Also, if the thermostat goes bad, that can also happen.
I have two thoughts on it why you have issues.
1) Some brands (email me if you want a name) did (and I suspect still do) concentrate their heating elements too much in one or two areas (that is cheaper) but then those areas will "run hot". Since most crock pot cooking is a bit "sloppy" anyway, most don't notice.
2) The total mass of what you are cooking can affect this. Crock pots do best when loaded between 1/3 and 2/3 full. If you cook small amounts in a large crock pot, it can cook faster.
KitchenAid and Cuisinart usually are the winners for Cooks Illustrated testing. I have had good luck with both those brands and All-Clad (they usually are not tested by CI).
Hope that helps.
Dan
Barb Durand
Hi Dan! would a London Broil cut of beef work?? or would a bottom round rump roast be better?? Thanks in advance...
~Barb
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Barb,
Welcome to the blog.
Neither of those cuts excite me. You need something with some marbling. Definitely not the London Broil but the rump would be ok if well marbled.
Dan
Peter Beckles
Have no crockpot.
Is there a stovetop version?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Peter,
Welcome to the blog.
You should be able to do this with a Dutch oven. It will cook faster, probable about half the time. Just keep at a very low simmer. This is all just a guess since I have not done this but my guesses are usually good.
Please report if you try this.
Dan
Veronica Marie
My beef came sliced already... not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I’ll find out in 7 hours!!
Your website is super friendly. Thank you for existing!
DrDan
Hi Veronica,
Welcome to the blog.
I hope the sliced beef worked well for you.
Thanks for the note and compliment.
Dan
Trish
Made tonight was really really good I added more wwsauce and beef broth with a tablespoon of better the bullion. Meat tender full apart good. And best dipping ever.this is my go to forever