Ugly and also delicious
Pickled Pepper Pull-Apart Beef is an easy and flavour-packed Halloween meal
I have known Sheri Castle, a fellow North Carolinian, for many years. She is a generous person and cooks with a wry sense of humour and extensive knowledge of Southern food. .
Sheri was the first person to introduce me to chocolate gravy. I thought that it was a joke, but it is a very real thing and she is famous for popularizing it outside of Appalachia.
She is also the first to introduce me to pickled pepper pull-apart beef. I had never heard of it until I was leafing through her new cookbook, “Instantly Southern.” Its recipes are adapted to today’s new-found love of multi-pots and pressure cookers.
What appealed to me about this recipe is that it is super simple and uses a pressure cooker to its best advantage. It’s essentially a beef chuck roast that is pressure cooked and flavoured by the brine of pickled peppers.
Sheri told me that “it’s the kind of recipe that you tell to your sisters and your neighbours and then everyone gives it their own little tweak!”
My tweak was to add beef broth to the pickle brine and use both mild banana pepper rings and spicier peperoncini.
And in the end, I opted to make mine into a hot “hoagie” with Muenster cheese and lots of
crunchy pickled peppers. This is one “ugly delicious” sandwich! If you like an Italian beef sandwich, you will love this one made heartier with chunks of tender chuck. I don’t dip the bread because I don’t like my sandwiches too soggy, but if you like to dip yours, serve extra jus on the side. It is a perfect fall option when you’ve had your fill of chili and chicken wings.
Start to finish: 90 minutes Place butter evenly over the bottom of the pot. Add the chuck roast. Sprinkle the top with the package of ranch seasoning. Scatter the pickled peppers over the roast. Add the brine and the beef broth.
Cover and cook on high pressure for 50 minutes. Let the pot release naturally which will be about another 20 minutes.
Uncover and let rest for 15 minutes. Spoon the fat off the top or, alternatively, let come to room temperature, cover the top of the pot with foil and refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove the fat disc from the top and reheat in your multi-cooker.
Break the roast into chunks. When ready to serve, place the cheese on either side of the bun. Add chunks of steaming hot meat to the bun. Top with uncooked pepper rings. Place a drizzle of the beef jus on the meat and serve extra on the side if desired. (If you prefer gooey cheese, you can melt it open-faced on the bun in a toaster oven or regular oven and then add the hot beef and peppers.)
Per serving: 687 calories (30 per cent from fat); 23 grams fat (11 g saturated); 160 milligrams cholesterol; 1,780 mg sodium; 39 g carbohydrate; 3 g fibre; 3 g sugar; 56 g protein.