[Recipe] Chicago beef soup dumplings

Nov 16, 2024

Chicago is famous for its Italian beef sandwiches. I was invited to participate in a family cooking competition in Chicago whose theme this year was dumplings. I had the somewhat blasphemous idea of turning the classic sandwich into a soup dumpling -- and they were delicious!

This is a little out of place on this mostly technical blog, but I came up with a fun recipe and needed a place to put it. So here you have it! 👨‍🍳🥟

Background on Chicago beef

The sandwiches are made from thinly sliced roast beef on a plain Italian roll, with au jus or gravy poured over (or the whole sandwich can be dipped into the juice), with hot giardiniera peppers on top.

The key part of this sandwich is how the roll soaks up the gravy. When you order one in a Chicago beef shop, you have some options for how wet you want it: "dipped", "dunked", or "wet". For a non-Chicagoan, this basically means wet, very wet, or completely soaked. (You can also get just the bread dunked in the gravy as a side, which is known as a soggy.)

Chicago Beef Soup Dumplings

The importance of the gravy to the Chicago beef sandwich is precisely why it makes for such a good soup dumpling. Instead of soaking up the gravy with bread, we're creating a delicious container to hold it.

The "secret" of how you make dumplings with soup inside them is that the soup is very gelatinous and chilled so that it is nearly solid when it goes into the wrapper. When the dumplings are steamed, the soup melts to create the wonderful experience of piping hot soup inside the nice doughy exterior.

Ingredients

Equipment

• Bamboo steamers
• Parchment paper to line the steamers
• Rolling pin (ideally a small one)
• Knife, cutting board, sauce pot, and a pot for steaming
• (Optional) Small cookie scoop

For the filling

• 1 lb prepared Chicago beef (if you don't live in Chicago but do live in the U.S., you can order all of these ingredients from Portillos)
• 32 fl oz gravy
• 0.5 lb unsalted butter
• 8 oz hot giardiniera peppers or relish (for a medium spice level)
• 0.5 oz powdered gelatin
• Optional: Swiss cheese

For the wrappers

• 4 cup (520g) 00 flour or all-purpose flour
• 24 tablespoons (360g) warm water

For the dipping sauce

• Chinese black vinegar
• Giardiniera peppers or relish to taste

Directions

1. Prepare the "aspic" (solidified gravy)

This should be done the day before or at least 2 hours before you want to start making dumplings.

1. Heat the gravy in a pot until it is hot but not quite boiling
2. Pour the gelatin in and stir until it is dissolved
3. Cook for 2-3 minutes more on low heat
4. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool
5. Pour the gravy into low, wide containers such that the gravy is no more than 0.5" thick
6. Put the gravy into the fridge until it is solidified (at least 2 hours, but you can also put it in the freezer for a bit to speed up the process)

2. Prepare the dough

I am a n00b when it comes to making soup dumplings, so I followed this recipe: Soup Dumplings (Xiaolongbao – 小笼包):

Step 2: The Dough

This step is easy! You’ll need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (130g)
• 6 tablespoons warm water (90 ml)

In a mixing bowl, add the flour and warm water 1 tablespoon at a time. Work and knead the dough for 15-20 minutes. The dough should be very soft and smooth. Cover with a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.

3. Prepare the filling

1. Finely chop the beef and giardiniera
2. Soften the butter in the microwave (until it is soft but not fully liquid)
3. Remove the solidified gravy from the fridge
4. Use a fork to chop the gravy into bits
5. If you're adding cheese, chop the Swiss cheese into small chunks or slices
6. Gently mix all of the filling ingredients together
7. Put this mixture back into the fridge until you are ready to assemble the dumplings

4. Assembling the dumplings

I would recommend reading and watching all of these before getting started with this part:

• Soup Dumplings (Xiaolongbao – 小笼包) (jump down to Step 4)
• (Video) How to make Xiao Long Bao | Soup Dumplings | 小笼包 (watch the last 3 min)
• Easy Authentic Soup Dumplings (Xiaolongbao) (this guy has a slightly different technique)

The first couple batches were a little rough, but I felt like I got the hang of it by the 3rd time making them.

If you have a small cookie scoop, I found that to be easier than a spoon for portioning out the filling for the dumplings.

5. Steam the dumplings

1. Put 0.5" of water into the pot and bring it to a boil
2. Either use a silicon steamer liner or line the steamer with the parchment paper and poke holes in it to let the steam through
3. Put the dumplings on the parchment paper in the steamer
4. Cover and put the steamer into or on top of the pot
5. Steam for 8 minutes on high heat
6. Keep an eye on the water level to make sure it doesn't all boil off (then you burn your steamer)
7. Remove from the heat and carefully peel the dumplings off of the parchment paper

Enjoy! Remember to poke a small hole in the side and blow on it to let them cool so you don't scald yourself with hot soup.

And there you have it! A non-traditional mashup of two very different traditional foods.

#recipe