New Orleans Po Boy Beef Sandwich Recipe

Growing up in Due south Louisiana, po'boys were but about as common every bit hamburgers are today. In small towns back and so, we didn't have a burger chain on every corner. Information technology was mostly mom-and-pop sandwich shops and greasy spoon cafés that put out their home-cooked specialties, especially a downwards-home Louisiana roast beef po'boy.

My roast beef po'boy is all about the beefy season, rich gravy and crispy French loaf. (All photos credit: George Graham)

I grew up in Washington Parish an hour due north of New Orleans on the Mississippi land line. Located far from whatever saltwater, ingredients for po'boys were less nigh shrimp and oysters and more than about meat. Ham and cheese, smoked sausage, meatball, and most especially, roast beef.

For me, a sloppy, gravy-drenched roast beef po'boy is the definitive statement of what this famous S Louisiana sandwich is all well-nigh. I grew up on one of the best around at a piffling joint called Capo'due south in my hometown of Bogalusa. This Italian family knew the art of the po'boy and their roast beef po'boy had just the right residuum of beefy flavor to crispy toasted French bread. In all these years, I've non had one every bit skilful.  Until recently.

I've sampled roast beef po'boys in my Acadiana and constitute no clear winner, so I recently ventured over to New Orleans on my quest to repossess my roast beef po'boy prize. I did my research beforehand and discovered the odyssey of local New Orleans restaurant reviewer Brett Anderson'southward similar quest. A food author I admire, I decided to follow Brett's trail to the ultimate roast beef po'boy, but I conspicuously admit, I was determined to prove him wrong.

I began to see that Brett was right on several of the most heralded sandwich shops. The world famous tourist haunt Mother'southward was my outset cease and lowered the bar with their debris-infused version that was sorely lacking. Johnny's in the French Quarter fell short. Even the acclaimed Parasol in the Irish Aqueduct merely didn't live upward to my memories. Nor did Parkway Tavern's critically acclaimed sloppy mess of a roast beefiness po'boy.

R & O's is known for its bill of fare of Italian favorites, but it is their Creole roast beef po'boy that I crave.

And then I headed over to Brett'southward option — R & O's.  On the lakefront in Bucktown, R & O's has earned its reputation as an Italian lunchroom that puts out a menu of broad-ranging New Orleans food including pizza, fried seafood, salads and red-gravy specialties of all kinds. And po'boys.

Let me say information technology clearly; R & O'southward roast beef is po'male child perfection. As I simultaneously analyzed and devoured this masterpiece, it was evident that the culinary execution of this roast beef po'male child was genius on all iii cardinal levels – beefiness, gravy, and bread.

In degrees of importance, let me dissect this roast beefiness po'boy for you. Start, the beef was not your typical cooked down until falling apart beef roast and so typically found on most sloppy versions. The meat had the texture of a good flank steak or skirt steak slow-roasted and chopped into pieces, not shredded or sliced. And then the gravy was full of beefy flavor with the required thickness that blanketed the meat and soaked the bread at merely the right balance.

Leidenheimer's colorful delivery truck is an unmistakable sign of quality.

And the bread–oh, my God–the bread!  Leidenheimer bakery has over 100 years of history baking po'boy bread for adept reason. Ane seize with teeth into this lightly toasted sesame seed-laden staff of life and you will conspicuously understand why. This breadstuff holds up and provides the framework to construct this wonderfully wet sandwich without disintegrating into a soggy mess.

This is the i-and-simply original R & O'south roast beef po'boy. Perfection!

Let me say it once again; R & O's roast beef is po'boy perfection. Crispy, crunchy French bread dipped in rich brownish gravy hugging a generous mound of roast beef dressed with shredded lettuce and ripe tomatoes and merely a slather of Blueish Plate is po'male child nirvana and a sensory overload for a Louisiana male child with babyhood memories.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't go the detailed roast beef po'boy recipe from the good folks at R & O's.  And so, I was on my own.  As I experimented in recreating this sandwich with my Cajun recipe, I tin assure yous my version will never be as expert as the real affair. Sitting in that Bucktown lunch house looking out the window at the lakeshore levee while devouring that roast beef po'boy masterpiece is hard to indistinguishable, but I will try.  And after yous gustatory modality my Cajun recipe version, so please make a pilgrimage to R & O'south for the real deal and allow me know if I fifty-fifty come close.

Brett, I volition never incertitude you again.

Roast Beef Po'boy

Total time

2 hours 40 mins

• 4 pounds flank steak, tenderized
• Kosher common salt and freshly footing blackness pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 whole yellow onion, peeled and quartered
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• half-dozen cups water, plus more if needed
• two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• one tablespoon Zatarain'due south liquid crab eddy or i tablespoon Acadiana Table Cajun Seasoning Alloy, meet recipe hither
• two tablespoons cornstarch
• two tablespoons cold water
• ii tablespoons flavoring and browning sauce, such as Savoie'south or Kitchen Bouquet
• 4 individual 10-inch po'boy loaves
• ane stick unsalted butter, melted
• Sesame seeds
• 1 cup quality mayonnaise, such every bit Blue Plate
• eight slices ripe tomato
• ii cups shredded iceberg lettuce
• Sliced dill pickles
• Hot sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Season the beefiness with common salt and black pepper. In a large black iron pot with tight fitting lid on medium loftier rut, pour the oil and bring to a sizzle. Add the beefiness and brownish the meat on both sides until nighttime brown. Lower the heat and add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Add enough h2o to cover the beefiness. Comprehend the pot and permit simmer for 1 60 minutes checking every xx minutes to add more water if needed.
3. Remove the beef to a cutting board. With a big knife, chop the beef into thumbnail size pieces. Cover and keep warm.
4. In the pot with beef cooking liquid, turn up the heat to a gentle boil and add the Worcestershire and crab boil. Make a slurry with the cornstarch and an equal amount of cold water. Add the slurry to the pot and stir. Once it comes dorsum to a boil, information technology will thicken. The thickness of the gravy should pour easily, yet glaze the back of a spoon. Add more than of the cornstarch slurry to thicken or more water to thin information technology to the proper consistency. If needed, add together a spoonful or 2 of browning sauce to darken the gravy to a cute medium dark brown. Sense of taste the gravy and add salt and black pepper if needed. Add the chopped beef to the gravy and keep warm.
5. Slice the po'boy bread in half lengthwise. Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place the tops on the lesser halves and onto a baking tray to broil in the oven. Estrus the bread only long enough to smell the sesame seed aroma and crisp the superlative of the loaf. It should form a hard outer chaff that when you tap it, information technology makes that distinguishable sound of hardness, just the soft inner bread remains moist and fluffy. Remove the bread from the oven.
6. Open the halves exposing the within of the top and bottom. Slather the bottom half with mayonnaise and using a slotted spoon, add a generous portion of beef and gravy on elevation. Layer two large slices of tomato on top of the beefiness and mound with shredded lettuce. Hold the meridian half of the staff of life in your hand and quickly dip it into the beef gravy to soak the inside and place on superlative to shut the sandwich. Garnish with sliced dill pickles and serve with hot sauce on the side.

Look for pre-tenderized flank or accept your butcher run information technology through his tenderizing machine. Expert French staff of life is crucial. If you are outside of Louisiana, notice a skillful Vietnamese bakery and you volition be surprised at how close their traditional French loaf is to the perfect po'boy bread. Or y'all can order Lafayette-based Poupart's French bread po'boy loaves online at Cajungrocer.com.

3.5.3217

The sign of a cracking roast beef po'boy.

YOUR SEAT AT THE TABLE: If you lot similar this Cajun cooking story and Cajun recipe then a ccept my personal invitation to subscribe by entering your email at the bottom or top correct of this page.  It's quick and painless.  You volition receive an electronic mail alert and exist the first to see when new Cajun cooking stories and Cajun recipes are added.
Thanks, George.

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Source: https://acadianatable.com/2015/05/25/roast-beef-poboy/

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