Homemade Roast Beef Deli Recipe (2024)

Sandwiches are the unsung heroes of the kitchen. They can be as simple as spreading peanut butter and jelly, or melting a piece of cheese between two slices of bread. They can be piled high with healthy ingredients like avocados, cucumbers, and peppers, or battered and deep fried. In our family, we eat some kind of sandwich almost everyday. My latest favorite has been a roast beef sandwich.

Since we do a cowpool, a term I’ve just learned which describes our splitting a local grass fed cow amongst friends and family, it makes sense to make our own roast beef for sandwiches. Think about it, I could buy deli style roast beef in the store for $8-10 a pound. But isn’t it so much better to make my own lunchmeat from tender, organic, flavorful beef that only cost us about $4 a pound? If you’re still not sure, the answer is yes, yes, YES!

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure how to make roast beef for sandwiches at first. So I tried making a basic roast that I would normally slice thick and slather with horseradish. Once it was cooked and cooled, I simply sliced it as thinly as possible.

The meat was beautifully pink in the center with a dark crust of seasoning on the razor thin edges. I’d found my answer in just one attempt, I just needed to make a roast beef, well, roast!

This is a perfect recipe for Hunger Action Week, because I quickly learned in my first year of the challenge that lunchmeat is VERY expensive. Even if you don’t share in a cow like we do, you can still save lots of money by cooking and slicing a roast that you buy from the grocery store. A 3 lb roast will fit in a food stamp budget (usually $10 or less) AND provide lunches for a week!

This is a very basic recipe using ingredients that most people already have in their pantry. For the spices, you can get them from the bulk spice section and pay just pennies for exactly the amount you need.

For the cut of beef, I have used everything from prime rib, to top loin, sirloin tip or top round. The main thing is to remember that leaner roasts will get dried out if cooked too long, so err on the side of caution and check your meat’s temperature regularly. I prefer my roast medium rare to keep it nice and tender. Use the following list to determine how to get yours to the degree of doneness you prefer:

Rare 120° – 125°
Medium-rare 130° – 135°
Medium 140° – 145°
Medium-well 150° – 155°
Well done 160° and above

You may notice in the photos that we have a beautiful meat slicer. That’s a new addition to our kitchen, but for years before getting it I simply sliced our own sandwich meat thinly with a knife, so don’t feel like you need one to make your own lunchmeat.

Okay, here’s my easiest roast beef recipe. But I want to know, whether a roast for dinner or for sandwiches, how do you make roast beef?