Listen: Deli style roast beef, that you made at home is where it’s at! I’m telling you guys!
Let me break it down because I know you’re thinking…why? Why make my own deli style roast beef, when I can just go to the actual deli and buy some? Because it’s damn delicious, that’s why! And because it’s so easy. And because you know what’s in it. That deli meat is typically full of sodium and who knows what. And because that cheap ass eye of the round that feels like shoe leather when cooked … that’s what your gonna use.
Just think of the money you’ll save!
Not even a recipe really, just a method. I like to rotisserie the beef on my Kudu. If you don’t have a rotisserie on your grill but you’re lucky enough to have the Instant Pot Vortex, you can easily do it on that. You can also put this in your oven and slow roast. You can just straight up smoke it if you want. Acacia wood makes for especially tasty roast beef.
This makes great French dip sandwiches, but my favorite, my absolute favorite way to eat this is on sourdough bread, sharp cheddar cheese, and horseradish sauce slathered on!
Enough chitter chatter, let’s get to it!
Homemade Deli Style Roast Beef
Make delicious deli style roast beef at home!
Ingredients
- 2-3 pound eye of the round roast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- or
- Use your favorite rub or seasoning mix.
- olive or grape seed oil
Spritz, Optional for Rotisserie or Smoking
- 1/2 cup beef broth or water
- 1/2 cup red wine
- or
- premixed wine marinade
Instructions
Rotisserie (Grill Rotisserie or Vortex)
-
Add the seasonings together if using or grab your favorite rub/seasoning mix. Lightly coat the meat in oil. Liberally season the meat with the spice mixture.
Get your coals hot, if using coals. Get your grill hot if you're using a gas grill with rotisserie. Turn your in-house rotisserie on. Side the meat on to your rotisserie. Cook it!
This is personal preference, but if you want to spritz the meat while cooking, which is what I do, mix 1:1 of red wine and beef broth or water. You can also use a pre-made wine marinade mixture. If you don't want to bother with the wine, straight beef broth works too.
With a meat thermometer, check the internal temperature. ***See the chart at the bottom for temperature references. When it's at the desired temperature, remove it from the rotisserie stick. Let it rest for about 20 minutes. Place in the fridge to chill. When chilled through, slice thinly with either a very sharp knife or a meat slicer.
Smoking
-
Add the seasonings together if using or grab your favorite rub/seasoning mix. Lightly coat the meat in oil. Liberally season the meat with the spice mixture.
Get your smoker prepared and smoking. Get your grill hot if you're using a gas grill and a smoke box. Smoke until your meat thermometer reads the desired temperature. ***See the chart at the bottom for temperature references. When it's at your desired temperature, remove it from the smoker. Let it rest for about 20 minutes. Place in the fridge to chill. When chilled through, slice thinly with either a very sharp knife or a meat slicer.
Oven
-
Preheat your oven to 225°.
Add the seasonings together if using or grab your favorite rub/seasoning mix. Lightly coat the meat in oil. Liberally season the meat with the spice mixture.
Place on a roasting pan or dish. Cook at 225° until your desired temperature is reached. ***See the chart at the bottom for temperature references. When it's at your desired temperature, remove.
**Optional with Oven Roasting: If you want a darker color on the outside, heat up a cast iron skillet with oil on high heat. Sear each side for 2 minutes.
Let it rest on a cutting board for about 20 minutes. Place in the fridge to chill. When chilled through, slice thinly with either a very sharp knife or a meat slicer.
Recipe Notes
After slicing, place in a zip lock bag. It’ll keep about five days. You can easily freeze this after slicing. If you have a vacuum sealer, it will keep forever. If not, just freeze in zip lock bags, trying to get as much air out as you can. This will keep about 2-3 months.
A meat thermometer is crucial for this to come out how you prefer your roast beef. This is the one I use for these kinds of things. It’s cheap, reliable and you can slide it in your pocket.
**If searing your roast beef, you’ll want to realize that that will take your temperature up a little bit. You may want to undercook by about 5 degrees to get the temperature you want after you sear it and it rests.
***Temperature Guide:
| Rare | 120 – 125° F 49 – 51° C |
| Medium Rare | 130 – 135 ° F 55 – 57 ° C |
| Medium to Medium Well | 140 – 145 ° F 60 – 63 ° C |
Anything above medium well will yield a dry, sorry piece of meat. It is eye of the round, after all.
I’m rating this a five because your writing was funny! Well, and, having done this a lot I know the recipe is right on.
I hope you have time to answer this. Undoubtedly slicing thin is very key, in fact… except for overcooking the meat, thin slicing is the key. I use a meat slicer, it’s the only way. That said… hopefully you’ve had an Arby’s roast beef sandwich sometime in your life so you’ll know what I mean when I ask, at that amount of time, even though it’s sliced razor thin, it is a tender piled high as an Arby’s?
I ask because I have done all three of the methods described and now I prefer to sous vide the eye then sear. I’ve tried two hours, 4 hour, 8 hours, 18 hours, 24, 30, and all the way up to 36 hours in the water bath. At 36 hours, a thin sliced eye of round, temp 128°, is tender like Arby’s when piled high.
At four hours, yes, it’s okay, and when razor thin sliced it’s not the shoe leather that eye is when thick sliced, but it’s still chewy. Tasty, but piled high, a bit chewy. So I’m hoping actually that you’ll confirm my conclusions with your answer.
Btw…. great pictures. I’m going to watch the video too. Oh another btw, I have had similar success with the other round roasts, but my favorite now is the shoulder roast. Anywhere between 24-30 hours at 128° sous vide then seared, and you have tender and juicy mouthfuls of piled high roast beef every bite.
Lots of food for thought Frank…
First off, thanks for the kind words!
Second, I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t had an Arby’s roast beef in at least 2 decades but if I remember correctly, no, I would say not as tender when piled high.
That being said, I am definitely going to try your sous vide/sear method and report back. I love, love sous vide anything. Do you do anything special while sous vide, like butter or anything else AND do you think a few chipotle in adobo while sous vide would give a nice smoky flavor?
Sliced thin, like you did in your video, that’s just fine for me too. In particular I was trying to make it crazy tender like Arby’s when piled high. Since you know sous vide then you know if you have to extend the time you won’t dry it out or overcook it. Say you try 6 hours, take it out, try a few slices, hmmm, let’s see what happens at 8 hours… etc. Back in the sous vide.
You probably also know that long times on more expensive cuts make them mushy. But roasts…. tender, not mushy. Again tho, say you put an eye in in the morning and let it go effortlessly for 8-10 hours, it will be ready for dinner and very tender if piled high.
One of the things I liked about your article is the idea of saving money. Recently our grocery had a bogo on shoulder roasts. Bingo! I mention that because it relates to why I typically do not preseason my sous vide meats…. it’s because I tend to by in bulk, so to speak, and vacuum seal it for the freezer. So I season when I’m searing and then add butter when I plate it. That said, “a few chipotle in adobo” sounds fantastic!! It certainly wouldn’t ruin the flavor, and if you’re meat is already thawed and just use the water immersion method to seal the bag, I bet it would taste amazing.
I perused your YouTube channel. Great stuff!! I forget if I subscribed, I meant to so I’ll check. You use a favorite toy of mine, the instant pot, and you have some excellent recipes. I have the Ultra which lets me select specific temps so I use it to sous vide. I think it cooks a few degrees warmer than the set temp, so I typically set mine at 120-123 depending on thickness. The longer I can sear it and not cook it, the better it is for me.
One more thing and I’ll quit running on, I’ve recently purchased the Ninja Foodi Grill. Besides being a near-smokeless indoor grill, it air fries, bakes, roasts, and dehydrates. I’ve resisted the air fryer craze mainly because of how you access the cook chamber in most of them. However with the Ninja you just lift the lid like an old fashioned waffle iron. And, I have to say, the airfryer feature is amazing. Frozen skin-on bone-in chicken thighs, 20-24 minutes later, crispy skin outside, juicy tender inside. Once you get the hang of it, you will integrate it like you did the IP. Lol, given your enthusiasm for this stuff, I suspect, like me, you’ll look for reasons to use it. Crazy easy to clean, incredibly versatile, and a ton of recipes and techniques online.