BBQ That Food Truck in, “That Recipe for BBQ Roast Beef Manhattan.”

Hey y’all, it’s Bobby Wagner, and I’m back to BBQ That! This time, I’m teleportin’ the BBQ That Food Truck up to Indiana, to tackle a really unique specialty that showed up in the 1940s: the Roast Beef Manhattan. It was first made in an Indianapolis deli and named by workers in a Naval ordnance factory during WWII. If you’re not a Hoosier, you might know this dish as a hot roast beef sandwich; callin’ it a Manhattan is more of a midwest thing. It’s a delicious open-faced sandwich served on bread with roast beef, mashed potatoes, and heaps of gravy, with the bread cut corner to corner to form a “V” on the plate. Oh, and gettin’ the truck up there was a cinch; I just wrote the name of the dish on my menu board, and poof! One trip to the local grocery store later, I’m ready to get going. So enough with the history, let’s BBQ That!

Can’t have Roast Beef Manhattan without the meat, so our first step is makin' some crazy good roast beef. You’re gonna want to get yourself a 2-3 pound chuck roast, some small onions, 5 cloves of garlic, a few celery sticks, some large carrots, a pound of red potatoes, a good tablespoon of tomato paste, 2 cups of beef broth, and some good ol’ salt and pepper. Give everything a good rough chop, except for the roast, add it all to a deep roasting pan, or any deep oven safe pan ya got layin’ around, and season ‘em well with the salt and pepper. Get your roast nicely seasoned with S&P and lay it on top of the veggies. Pour in your beef broth so it gets about halfway up the roast, then chuck it all in a 275° F oven for 3½ hours. Make sure to check if it’s fork tender, and give it another 30 minutes if it still feels a bit too tough. Once you’re happy with the roast, pull it out, shred it, and set it aside, and there’s your oven-made roast beef. 

Fish out your potatoes and veggies, dump ‘em in a big bowl, and start mashin’. Now this is one of the easiest homemade mashed potato recipes out there. Get your milk or cream in there, butter, and some good old Redneck Lipstick BBQ sauce. Once it’s all mixed up, boom, you got some BBQ mash. Now you’ll wanna pour your beef broth and add it to a pot, then mix in a slurry of either flour or cornstarch and water (a good mix is usually one tablespoon to ¼ cup of cold water). After addin’ your slurry of choice, cook it all down until it’s nice and thick. As an awesome topping, take a cup of sour cream, and mix in a good sprinkle of Redneck Lipstick seasoning. Lastly, toast up some white bread, cut diagonally, then top with your BBQ mash and shredded beef, hit the beef with a sprinkle of Redneck Lipstick seasoning, top with your BBQ sour cream, gravy, and finish it all with thin sliced green onions. Get yourself a big ol’ bite and BOOM; this ain’t even fair. And that there is the Redneck Lipstick recipe for an amazing Roast Beef Manhattan. 

That’s gonna be all for now; let us know in the comments below where you’d like to see the truck head to next, and how you’d complete the sentence, “BBQ That_____.”

Recipe for BBQ Roast Beef Manhattan, by Redneck Lipstick

• 2-3 pound chuck roast
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 celery sticks, chopped
• 3 large carrots, chopped
• 1 pound small red potatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cups of beef broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Milk or cream to taste
• Butter to taste
• 1-2 slices of white bread
• 1-2 small green onions, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 275° F, then add all dry ingredients except the roast to a deep roasting pan. Salt and pepper ingredients to taste. Salt and pepper roast separately, then lay on top of the veggies. Add beef broth to pan, making sure to add enough to cover halfway up the roast. Cook for 3 1/12 hours, checking after time is up if roast and potatoes are fork tender. If not, cook for an additional 30 mins, or until fork tender.

Remove beef from pan and shred. Remove potatoes and veggies out of the broth and make mashed potatoes by adding some milk or cream, butter, and Redneck Lipstick BBQ sauce. 

Strain beef stock into a saucepan, and add either a slurry of flour and water, or cornstarch and water. Use 1 tablespoon of flour or cornstarch to 1/4 cup cold water. Add to stock and cook over a medium flame until reduced and thickened. 

Combine 1 cup of sour cream and 2-3 tablespoons of Redneck Lipstick seasoning for BBQ sour cream.

Toast white bread, then cut corner to corner. Add BBQ mashed potatoes, top with shredded beef, sprinkle with Redneck Lipstick seasoning, top with BBQ sour cream and finish with chopped green onions.