Making homemade roast beef is a great alternative to buying deli roast beef for sandwiches. You control the ingredients and save money making your own deli meat. Learn how to make deli meat roast beef the easy way!
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If you love to pack a roast beef sandwich for outings or serve a Snacky Dinner every once in a while, you’ve seen how expensive sliced meat has gotten! Yowza!
At over $16/pound, deli style sliced roast beef can be a pretty pricey item in the cart. Good thing you can make your own deli meat roast beef for sandwiches at home for less!
The tender roast beef recipes makes for great sandwiches, salads, and wraps and looks beautiful on a charcuterie board. Making this has been one of my favorite accomplishments of the year so far since we get to enjoy deli style roast beef to our heart’s content.
Why Make Your Own Deli Meat Roast Beef
It’s cheaper. Deli roast beef easily costs $16 to 20 at the grocery store, but you can make it for less than $6, depending on how you shop for beef.
It’s delicious. Making your own roast beef means you can season it exactly how you like it. You can control the ingredients to suit your preferences.
It’s easy. The process to making deli roast beef at home is almost hands-free. You really don’t need to do much but wait! This is a no-brainer thing to make yourself to save money.
Ingredients for Deli Meat Roast Beef
You don’t need much in the way of ingredients to make homemade deli roast beef. Just two ingredients!
eye round roast – Look for roasts with round in the name, such as top round, eye of round, and bottom round. The one I buy at Costco is called an “eye round” roast. Unlike chuck roast which is best cooked in a crockpot or Dutch Oven, a round roast cooks in dry heat in the oven, perfect for roast beef deli style.
spice mix – Use whatever your favorite seasoning blend you like. Basic Spice Blend, Cajun Spice Mix, Seasoned Salt, and Jamie’s Spice Mix all work well. So does plain old salt and pepper. Just be sure to season generously. Homemade roast beef isn’t as salty as commercial deli roast beef.
Step by Step Instructions
Making your own deli roast beef is super simple. It’s mostly hands-free to make!
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Remove the roast from the packaging and place it on a cutting board set inside a rimmed baking pan. In this way, any drips will be captured in the pan and not drift all over your counter.
- With a sharp knife, cut off the exterior bits of fat. Depending on how the butcher trimmed it before market, you may have a lot or a little to trim off.
- Place the roast atop a roasting rack in a baking pan. You want the roast to be elevated so the dry heat of the oven can reach all sides of the meat.
- Spread seasoning salt (or salt and black pepper) generously around all sides of the roasts.
- Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes at high heat. Then reduce the cooking temperature to 325 and continue cooking until the meat reaches an internal cooking temperature of 130 degrees for medium rare or higher. (*see note below)
- The cooking time is going to depend on how large your roast is, so estimate 12 to 15 minutes per pound, checking at the lower timeline for smaller roasts.
- Once the roast reaches your desired temperature, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for at least 20 minutes. Carryover cooking will increase the temperature an additional 5 to 15 degrees.
- You can serve the roast now, but if you’re making deli style roast beef, wrap it and refrigerate it until very cold. You’ll get cleaner slices if you slice cold meat.
I have a food slicer for slicing bread, cheese, and meats. (Mine has been discontinued, but this one is similar.) You can also slice the roast by hand with a sharp knife or with an electric knife.
Store the meat in a covered dish in the fridge for up to 4 days or wrap tightly in freezer-safe wrappings and freeze for up to 6 weeks.
Serve this homemade deli style roast beef in sandwiches and salads. It’s a great shortcut to making French Dip Sandwiches.
Note: There is debate about ideal internal temp v safe internal temp. The USDA recommends that you cook beef roasts to an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (medium well) while many chefs claim you will lose flavor. Use your own judgment.
Ways to Use Sliced Roast Beef
Deli Meat Roast Beef Recipe
Equipment
- cutting board
- chef's knife
- roasting rack
- heavy duty sheet pan
Ingredients
- eye of round roast
- seasoning mix or salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Remove the roast from the packaging and place it on a cutting board set inside a rimmed baking pan. In this way, any drips will be captured in the pan and not drift all over your counter.eye of round roast
- With a sharp knife, cut off the exterior bits of fat. Depending on how the butcher trimmed it before market, you may have a lot or a little to trim off.
- Place the roast atop a roasting rack in a baking pan. You want the roast to be elevated so the dry heat of the oven can reach all sides of the meat.
- Spread seasoning salt (or salt and black pepper) generously around all sides of the roasts.seasoning mix
- Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes at high heat. Then reduce the cooking temperature to 325 and continue cooking until the meat reaches an internal cooking temperature of 130 degrees for medium rare or higher. (*see note below)
- The cooking time is going to depend on how large your roast is, so estimate 12 to 15 minutes per pound, checking at the lower timeline for smaller roasts.
- Once the roast reaches your desired temperature, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for at least 20 minutes. Carryover cooking will increase the temperature an additional 5 to 15 degrees.
- You can serve the roast now, but if you’re making deli style roast beef, wrap it and refrigerate it until very cold. You’ll get cleaner slices if you slice cold meat.
- Slice the chilled meat. Store the meat in a covered dish in the fridge for up to 4 days or wrap tightly in freezer-safe wrappings and freeze for up to 6 weeks.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Thank you this post. I was eagerly awaiting it as yes, deli meat is crazy expensive-especially roast beef. My mother used to cook eye of round roasts so I’m a bit familiar with that cut. I can’t wait to try this. Thank you in advance!
Jessica Fisher
Hope you love it as much as we do!