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    🏠Home » Recipes » Beef Recipes

    Crock Pot French Dip

    Apr 10, 2021 | Last Updated Apr 10, 2021 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

    Recipe Table of Contents    
    4.23 from 131 votes

    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.

    image of a French dip sandwich with dip on a gray plate.

    Table of Contents
    • 🐄The Beef
    • 🧀The Cheese
    • ✔️Tips
    • 📖Sandwich Recipes
    • 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
    • 📖Recipe
    • 💬 Comments

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    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 rating system. Great 5 out of 5

    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

    Easy Chicken Salad

    What to Do With Leftover Beef Tenderloin? Philly Sandwiches

    30 Minute Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

    This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

    101's Best Recipes, Beef Recipes, Comfort Food Recipes, Crock Pot Recipes, Featured | Crock Pot Recipes, Small Crock Pots Recipes
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    🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

    beef roast with broth and seasonings

    Start with a nicely trimmed beef roast. Salt and pepper to taste.

    browning a beef roast in a gray pan

    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.

    slices of onion in a black pan

    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. 

    pouring broth on top of onion and meat in a crock pot

    Add two cups beef broth, ¼ cup soy sauce, and two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce. Mix well.

    slicing the beef roast into slices

    Cook on low for 7 hours but at the 5-hour mark remove meat and slice across the grain into ¼ inch slices and

    sliced beef roast in the crock pot with liquid

    Return to the crock pot to cook for the final 2 hours.

    shredded beef in a spatula over the crock pot

    At the end of cooking, break up the slices a little to make serving easier.

    sub halfs on a sheet pan

    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.

    French dip sandwich with dip on gray plate

    Serve with the cooking solution as au jus for dipping.

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    📖Recipe

    image of a French dip sandwich with dip on a gray plate.

    Crock Pot French Dip

    From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
    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.
    Tap to leave a Rating
    4.23 from 131 votes
    Print Email CollectionCollected
    Prep Time: 12 minutes
    Cook Time: 7 hours
    Total Time: 7 hours 12 minutes
    Servings #/Adjust if desired 8

    Ingredients

    US Customary - Convert to Metric
    • 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.
      beef roast with broth and seasonings
    • 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.
      browning a beef roast in a gray pan
    • 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.
      slices of onion in a black pan
    • Add two cups beef broth, ¼ cup soy sauce, and two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce—mix well.
      pouring broth on top of onion and meat in a crock pot
    • Cook on low for 7 hours, but at the 5-hour mark, remove meat, and slice across the grain into ¼ inch slices,
      slicing the beef roast into slices
    • Return to the crock pot to cook for the final 2 hours.
      sliced beef roast in the crock pot with liquid
    • At the end of cooking, I like to break the slices up a bit to make serving easier.
      shredded beef in a spatula over the crock pot
    • 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.
      sub halfs on a sheet pan
    • Serve with the cooking solution as au jus for dipping.
      French dip sandwich with dip on gray plate
    See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

    My Private Notes

    Click here to save your own private notes only you will see. These will print and be saved for your next visit.
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    Recipe Notes

    Pro Tips:

    1. An easy recipe to adjust both in size and taste.
    2. 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.
    3. The crock pot needs to be big enough for the beef to have some space around it.
    4. Brown the beef before adding it to the crock pot will add good flavor to the beef.
    5. Cook the onion a bit before adding it to the crock pot.
    6. Cut the beef across the grain.
    7. 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.
    8. Store leftovers refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Store the au jus separate from the meat.
    Nutrition is only for the meat and not for sauce, bun, or cheese.
     

    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 Estimate

    Calories : 151.4 kcal (8%) | Carbohydrates : 3 g (1%) | Protein : 24.7 g (49%) | Fat : 3.8 g (6%) | Saturated Fat : 1.3 g (7%) | Cholesterol : 62.4 mg (21%) | Sodium : 103.2 mg (4%) | Potassium : 436.1 mg (12%) | Fiber : 0.5 g (2%) | Sugar : 1.2 g (1%) | Vitamin A : 1 IU | Vitamin C : 2.3 mg (3%) | Calcium : 31 mg (3%) | Iron : 2.1 mg (12%)
    Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
    Course : Main Course
    Cuisine : American

    © 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

    Originally published March 12, 2016. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Dawn Porter

      April 11, 2021 at 2:15 pm

      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.

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        April 11, 2021 at 2:18 pm

        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

    2. kathy

      April 10, 2021 at 12:27 pm

      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.

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        April 10, 2021 at 1:12 pm

        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

    3. Jon Barker

      November 16, 2020 at 8:34 am

      5 stars
      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!

      Reply
      • Jan

        February 06, 2022 at 10:11 am

        5 stars
        I don't know about the rest of you but I'm lucky to find any meat of any kind much less a roast.
        I would like to try this recipe very much, but with no meat to be found I guess it will have to wait
        Love the puppies. I lost my last year with lung cancer. But I was told that that kind of dog comes with it.
        Thanks for all of the other recipes I have tried of your, they have been great
        Have a good day and God bless

    4. Kat

      August 19, 2020 at 10:41 am

      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.

      Reply
    5. Kimberlee Kleine

      January 19, 2020 at 1:02 pm

      Thanks so very much for all of your information! I look forward to enjoying this recipe tonight!

      Reply
    6. Kimberlee Kleine

      January 18, 2020 at 5:43 pm

      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!

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        January 18, 2020 at 7:18 pm

        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

    7. Barb Durand

      July 28, 2019 at 9:16 pm

      Hi Dan! would a London Broil cut of beef work?? or would a bottom round rump roast be better?? Thanks in advance...
      ~Barb

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        July 28, 2019 at 9:29 pm

        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

    8. Peter Beckles

      April 16, 2019 at 10:04 am

      Have no crockpot.

      Is there a stovetop version?

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        April 16, 2019 at 1:04 pm

        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

    9. Veronica Marie

      January 10, 2019 at 8:53 pm

      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!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 11, 2019 at 7:05 pm

        Hi Veronica,
        Welcome to the blog.
        I hope the sliced beef worked well for you.
        Thanks for the note and compliment.
        Dan

    10. Trish

      November 04, 2018 at 9:15 pm

      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

      Reply
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