I'm pretty certain that this is my favorite time of year for sports because college football is about to hit the bowl season but more importantly, college basketball is going too.  Like millions of homes across the country, game day means firing up the grills in our back yard.

Speaking of teams, Nibble Me This is teaming up with Certfied Angus Beef for the next year.  I've always shared my enthusiasm for CAB but now it's official, I'm on their roster :)  What does this mean for the blog?  Not much really.  They are being very cool about the structure.  Instead of giving us specific recipes or topics that we have to create, they just want us to create using Certified Angus Beef and tell our thoughts about it in our own voice.  I've already been doing that so I said sign me up!  It's easy representing a brand that you already use and have grown to love.

So back to game day, boy yesterday was a big one in terms of rivalries. Some teams were playing for a national championship playoff slot and others playing for pride.  We had FSU vs Florida, Auburn vs Alabama, and Ohio State (#2) vs Michigan (#3) - what a great day of football. These mini-subs are perfect for days like that because you can eat them hot, fresh off the cutting board or you can pull the leftovers out for a quick bite late in the games when everything is on the line.

The star of this team is a rotisserie roasted Certfied Angus Beef eye of round, sliced thin, and then topped with caramelized sweet onions and horseradish beer cheese sauce.

Rotisserie Roast Beef Mini-Subs with Horseradish Beer Cheese Sauce

Published 11/27/2016

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pound Certfied Angus Beef eye of round
• 6 mini-sub rolls

For the Beef Rub

• 2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
• 2 teaspoons kosker salt
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper 

For the Horseradish Beer Cheese Sauce

• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup beer 
• 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
• 1 cup mild shredded cheddar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 to 1.5 teaspoons grated horseradish
• salt to taste (about 3/4 teaspoon)

For the Onions

• 2 sweet onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• salt to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat your rotisserie grill to medium high heat, about 400°f.
2. Mix together the dry rub ingredients.  Lightly rub the beef with 1 teaspoon of oil and season all over with the dry rub.  
3. Spear the roast onto the rotisserie rod, secure using the tines, and let roast over indirect heat  with the lid closed until the roast hits 127-130°f for medium rare, a little over 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile make the cheese sauce.  In a medium pot over medium heat, melt the butter and whisk in the flour.  Stir contantly until they combine in a light roux.  Whisk in the beer in small amounts until it is all worked in and well blended.  Add the cheese in small batches, whisking until it melts.  Add the pepper and horseradish, taste for seasoning and adjust with salt as needed.
5. Caramelize the onions.  Melt butter in a pan over medium low heat  Add the onions and stir occasionally until they turn soft and lightly browned.  Don't rush this, you should take at least 30 minutes to slowly build the complex flavors of caramelized onions.  
6. Once the beef is done, remove from heat and let rest on a resting rack.
7. Slice the beef thinly. Top the bun bottoms with the beef, onions, and drizzle with the cheese sauce.

Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 00 hrs. 20 mins.

Cook time: 01 hrs. 15 mins.
Total time: 1 hrs. 35 mins.

Substitution Notes:

• For the beer in the sauce, we used an American style light lager but you can use whatever you like. An amber or stout will give you a darker color and deeper flavor. 
• The Aleppo pepper looks like red pepper flake but it is milder in heat and has a nice smoky flavor.  You can just use red pepper flake or any red ground chile (cayenne, chipotle, ancho). 
• I used store bought prepared horseradish. If using fresh, back off on the amounts some unless you really like the sinus clearing sting.
• If you don't feel like caramelizing the onions, you can always just top your sandwich with french fried onions from the store like my son opted to do.  

My typical rotisserie set up is like this, with coals banked around where the meat will be.  Of course, I light them first using a chimney starter or gas assist if the grill has it, and then move them into position. You can buy a "universal" rotisserie accessory for most grills for about $50.  For kamado grills you will need a specialized rotisserie kit.  

Completely Optional Step:  The eye of round is a pretty lean cut of beef, so I like to give it an injection to boost the flavor and moisture retention. I happened to have some brisket injection on hand so I used that.  But you can just mix 3/4 cup of beef stock, several tablespoons of unsalted butter, and a heavy splash of Worcestershire sauce over medium heat.  Then inject that after it cools slightly.

After seasoning the eye of round with the rub, I tie it to make the shape more uniform.  It's going to be thinner on one end anyway, but that's okay.  A real butcher would tie this with one string but I'm real slow at that so I cheated here.  It works! 

Rotisserie cooking is a type of dry heat cooking method that adds a great color to meats and forms a tasty crust.  If you don't have a rotisserie, you can do this over a regular grill.  Use a raised rack (higher than your regular grill grate) and turn the roast frequently, about every 5-7 minutes until done.

The roast should only rise about 5 degrees after you pull it off. I like to pull mine around 127°f but I was distracted and got it pulled at 131°f instead. 

You can use an electric slicer, especially if you refrigerate the roast before to get it firmer.  But we were eating this right off of the cutting board so I went manual with a 10" slicer knife.

Alexis said this is some of the best sliced roast beef that she's ever had.  Tender on the inside, flavor packed on the golden crust, it blows away anything you can buy in a deli.

The Horseradish Beer Cheese Sauce was pretty amazing too.  This would be good for dipping onion rings, or something like that, too.

The mini-subs are surprisingly big for being "mini".  They won't leave you hungry but you can still handle them with one hand, freeing the other hand up for a cold adult beverage or the remote (just in case your team is losing, ha ha).

Just in time for the holidays, check out the free Roast Perfect App from Certified Angus Beef for help in creating beef roasts like this and others.

It's an easy to use app for your smart phone that has tips, video, recipes, and tools to help you nail that perfect beef roast for the upcoming holiday feasts.  You can get it in Google Play and the iPhone App Store.  

Thanks again to Certified Angus Beef and the Sunday Supper Movement for partnering with Nibble Me This for the coming year!