Recipe from Benjamin Wicks
Adapted by Sam Sifton
- Total Time
- 3 hours 45 minutes
- Rating
- 4(149)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Benjamin Wicks, proprietor of Mahony’s Po-Boy Shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans, which opened in the summer of 2008, is a raver and ranter with the heart of an old-timer. “Why don’t people care about making great po’ boys?” he asked The Times, rhetorically, a year later. And then he gave us a terrific recipe that will take a little time to pull off, but results in a beef Po' Boy sandwich of uncommon excellence. Think of it as project food for a festive weekend lunch, and your guests will thank you. Add cheese and French fries for added pow. —Sam Sifton
Featured in: Mahony’s Beef Po’ Boys
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Ingredients
Yield:Enough for 10 sandwiches
- 1cup all-purpose flour
- Salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 7pounds beef chuck roll, sliced into 2-inch-thick portions
- ½cup vegetable oil, or as needed
- 6 to 7stalks celery, cut into ¾-inch dice
- 2yellow onions, peeled and cut into ¾-inch dice
- 2green bell peppers, cored and cut into ¾-inch dice
- 2jumbo carrots, peeled and cut into ¾-inch dice
- 1cup peeled garlic cloves, each clove halved lengthwise
- 7cups dry red wine
- 2tablespoons dried rosemary
- 2tablespoons dried thyme
- 1bay leaf
- ⅓cup chopped parsley leaves
- 5loaves French or Italian bread
- Mayonnaise
- shredded lettuce
- sliced tomatoes
- sliced pickles to dress sandwiches
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place flour in a large, wide bowl and season generously with salt and pepper. Add beef, dust well on all sides and shake off excess.
Step
2
Place a large, heavy Dutch oven or roasting pan with a lid over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to cover the bottom and heat until shimmering. Working in batches, add beef and sear well on all sides. Transfer beef to a platter and set aside.
Step
3
Add celery, onions, peppers, carrots and garlic to pan; if necessary, add more oil. Sauté until vegetables are tender and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Add wine and 3 cups water. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Stir well, add beef, and stir again to mix well.
Step
4
Cover, and transfer to oven. Cook until beef is very tender, about three hours. Transfer beef to a deep platter and keep warm. Remove and discard bay leaf. Using a hand-held immersion blender or stand blender, purée vegetables and any remaining bits of meat in pan juices to make sauce. Cut beef into slices. Slice each bread loaf in half lengthwise and crosswise, spread one side with mayonnaise, thickly layer in meat, wet with gravy, and top with lettuce, tomatoes and pickles.
Tip
- Extra beef and sauce can be refrigerated or frozen.
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Cooking Notes
Miriam
What is a beef “chuck roll”? Also, scaling this recipe down would be helpful.
Coco Pazzo
If only Mr. Wicks also provided a recipe for the bread, which is essential to a good Po'Boy.
Anne DePalma
A roast beef po’boy with debris at Mother’s in New Orleans many years ago remains the best sandwich I have ever eaten.
Jean B
I have never seen a rolled chuck roast. ??? Any subs?
jill mack
I make this, but it appears more complicated here than it needs to be. Just buy a chuck roast or similar cut that is already ~2 inches thick. Treat as if you were making a pot roast, because that's actually what you're doing. Use the ingredients listed. (except, I don't use celery 'cause I don't like the under-taste it gives) When it says "cut beef into slices", you will find that the meat falls apart - which is good. Just heap it on the bread. NEVER use cheese if you want to make it authentic.
Nadina Cole-Potter
If there is a Mexican bakery near you, try bollilos (or francesitas as they are often called). Wide, pillowy soft in the middle; crunchy crust. An artifact of French colonization of Mexico. If there is a significant population of those of Mexican heritage near you, some Safeways and Frys service bakeries will carry them.
Pam
Vietnamese bakeries also make a lighter french loaf.
jwfaller
I agree with Coco Pazzo. If you don't have good, really good French bread, don't even try. It should be very light, with a crunchy crust. Make the filling anyway, but don't call it a Po'Boy. Just call it a roast beef sandwich. And don't, put cheese or French fries on a roast beef Po'Boy. It doesn't need an extra pop. Excellent bread, savory beef and you have an excellent sandwich.
Lauren
Mahoneys has had a few management changes. The most recent is an improvement over the past couple of years. I live walking distance and had stopped going. I am patronizing them again.
Graydon Wilson
I love po' boy sandwiches and often try to make them, but am regularly confronted with the bread problem. Po' boy sandwiches in New Orleans are so very common that all the bakeries there make their french bread with the sandwiches in mind, but that's not the case anywhere else. Bakeries in other cities make their loaves too narrow to accommodate the sandwich makings.
Jodyrah
I use Donald Link’s short rib recipe to make this. It uses a can of whole plum tomatoes, garlic, chicken broth, bay leaf, Steen”s syrup, Steens’s cane vinegar, bay leaf. I also add a combination of black, white and red pepper. Once done, the sauce is strained, reduced, then mounted with butter. So good you’ll want to drink it or mop it up with bread.
Augie Antonopolis
Looks delicious, but $70 for the beef is a bit much for THIS "Po' Boy"...
Chris
As a Louisiana expat, I can usually find a closer approximation to Louisiana French bread at Italian bakeries. A crusty loaf of Italian works much better than a thin baguette, especially if you remove a bit of the excess fluffy center in the italian loaf.
Gary
It’s not a beef poboy. It’s a roast beef poboy. It’s important to get these things right. That said, you will never find bread like this outside of the New Orleans metro area. People have tried for decades, and it just can’t be done. So just come on down.
ArtW
Mahoney's WAS the place for PoBoys in NoLa. We went back a year ago; the sprit of the place was gone and so were the great PoBoys that they used to serve.
Pam G
Since it was just two of us, I used 2# chuck roast and scaled down everything else accordingly. I used white wine because I got it by accident instead of red. Added some beef stock in place of the water, and threw in some Cajun seasoning because why not. Came out tender and delicious.
Abigail
I would recommend slicing the meat a little thinner before putting it in the oven. Once cooked, I took the meat out and simmered the broth down about halfway, and added cornstarch/cold water to make it more of a gravy. Very flavorful, but needed some extra steps. Serve that extra gravy over fries!
Diana
I would also investigate Cuban bread - it looks like a French baguette but it is not. It is sturdy, because it is used in making yummy Cubano sandwiches, except unlike a Cubano, you do not use a panini press for a Po' Boy.
Scott
My partner made this as a birthday treat exactly as written. The only twist is we used a fresh chuck roast raised and butchered locally. Absolutely delicious. I hope this becomes an annual tradition.
Chrissy
It’s not hard to scale this down at all. I literally halved every ingredient and it worked beautifully. I added some hot giardiniera to this and it was amazing.For the bread , King Arthur king Arthur has the best crusty white bread recipe. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe
jill mack
I make this, but it appears more complicated here than it needs to be. Just buy a chuck roast or similar cut that is already ~2 inches thick. Treat as if you were making a pot roast, because that's actually what you're doing. Use the ingredients listed. (except, I don't use celery 'cause I don't like the under-taste it gives) When it says "cut beef into slices", you will find that the meat falls apart - which is good. Just heap it on the bread. NEVER use cheese if you want to make it authentic.
Boo Hargis
Jill Mack, you are absolutely correct. I was born in NOLA in 1941 and have never heard of a Roast Beef Po-Boy with any kind of Cheese. Swiss Cheese is kept in the fridge for Ham and Swiss Cheese Po-Boys. Hahaha!
ydbp
I prefer this recipe. Less fussy and I actually use less vegetables which reduces the sweetness and vegetal flavor. It's all about the meat. Also, it's impossible to get Leidenheimer's po boy loaves unless you live in the NOLA area so I use a light ciabatta roll with the nooks and crannies for the gravy. It's also all about the gravy!https://www.nola.com/food/2014/01/in_judys_kitchen_roast_beef_po.html
Miriam
What is a beef “chuck roll”? Also, scaling this recipe down would be helpful.
jorge zapata
Roast Beef is the kind of meat?
Judith SEA
That certainly looks like cheddar or American cheese peeking out from under the lettuce and tomatoes. Yet I see no cheese mentioned in the recipe .... should it have cheese?
michaelc
In the opener he's says add cheese for extra punch.
Gary
It’s not a beef poboy. It’s a roast beef poboy. It’s important to get these things right. That said, you will never find bread like this outside of the New Orleans metro area. People have tried for decades, and it just can’t be done. So just come on down.
Beth
I would love to see a recipe for the bread on here so I can attempt to make it at home. I agree though, bread makes it or breaks it.
frieswiththat
Not so. Caputo's Bake Shop, 329 Court, Brooklyn makes the terrific rolls used at Lowerline on Washington St for their excellent po-boys. Great crust, perfect crumb, ideal crunch.
Catherine Martin
Add provolone cheese and its perfect.
Augie Antonopolis
Looks delicious, but $70 for the beef is a bit much for THIS "Po' Boy"...
Fran Zimmerman
I have never heard of a beef po'boy. What about one with oysters?
Anne DePalma
A roast beef po’boy with debris at Mother’s in New Orleans many years ago remains the best sandwich I have ever eaten.
KDA
A roast beef po'boy with "debris" is common in NOLA.
Geoff G
Chris's Po Boy in Lafayette is life-changing. I was with a native or I would've gone for shrimp or oysters. Glad I didn't.
EK
The picture shows it served with orange cheese... maybe cheddar?
Jean B
I have never seen a rolled chuck roast. ??? Any subs?
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