Chicago Johnny's Pizza, Italian Beef, & Italian Sausage Joint

What started as a condiment company from my home kitchen is culminating in an unique, rustic pizza joint in the Chicagoland area! Chicago Johnny's was started as a giardiniera company out of my home when I was an unemployed college graduate. I needed some income to pay my student loan bills so I took to what I knew & loved, the kitchen; I grabbed my chef's knife & a cutting board & made my first batch of Chicago Johnny's Giardiniera. I'm taking the next step in my culinary career & opening up Chicago Johnny's first restaurant: Chicago Johnny's Pizza, Italian Beef, & Italian Sausage; A Neighborhood Joint.

  From the days of childhood I loved spending time in the kitchen. I learned to make Sunday gravy from my grandma Annette & after she passed I continued exploring rustic, earthy cooking. As all chefs do, I developed my own style; unique, earthy, & rustic in style & flavor profile. Being mostly self taught, I created a style of cooking that is based in basic technique & use of seasoning, I like the natural flavors to speak out for themselves.

I'm opening up the first Chicago Johnny's Pizza, Italian Beef, & Italian Sausage Joint in the Chicagoland area. I need a place where I can serve the public with my passions in the culinary field. A neighborhood place where families & friends can gather & enjoy company, quality food, & an amazing time together. A place where I can offer my Chicago Johnny's Dark Hot Sauce, Chicago Johnny's Hot & Sweet Pepper Giardiniera, Chicago Johnny's Seasoned Salts & Seasoning Mixes, where I can serve incredible rustic pizzas, homemade Italian sausage, & Chicago Johnny's Italian Beef. My dream is to offer my creations to the public. You can help out.

In return for helping me I am certainly grateful, but I am also offering some treats for your support! You can be among the first to dine in Chicago Johnny's Pizza, Italian Beef, & Italian Sausage, you can bring in family & friends for a private event at Chicago Johnny's, or if you're not in the Chicagoland area you can even get your hands on Chicago Johnny's Dark Hot Sauce, giardiniera, or seasoned salts!

I appreciate everyone taking the time to look at a piece of my dreams & passions. Feel free to share, publicize, & ask any questions.

With Love,

Josh Downey
Chicago Johnny's

www.ChicagoJohnnys.com

Chicago Johnny's Interview with Lindsey Pavao of The Voice

As part of my Chicago Johnny's Artist Corner I had a chance to ask some questions to the beautiful & talented & creative, Lindsey Pavao. I began the Chicago Johnny's Artist Corner as a therapeutic outlet for me to help explore what it means to be an artist. Find the full interview at www.ChicagoJohnnys.com! 

Some of the questions & responses from the interview:

When I work in the kitchen I find euphoria in throwing on the oldies station, sun beating through the back window, Autumn air blowing through the house, & fall spices baking in the oven. When you work in the studio, what kind of atmosphere do you set up to enhance your skills & abilities? 

 Sounds demure, but I like it to be dim lit and warm, almost sleepy. The quieter the better. If you’re gonna fill a room with noise, you want it to start empty. Either that or outdoors, somewhere beautiful. I used to walk down to the Sacramento river when I lived with it almost in my backyard. You could see crawdads crawling in the banks and there was no one but the water to hear the songs. Its the best!

I’ve had to make concessions to my end products while working in the culinary field, it isn’t easy but it is often necessary. When you are creating in a studio what are some concessions that you have to give in to? Do you feel that in the end these concessions are worth it?

That is an interesting question. Id say that everything in life begs for compromise. The things that I will compromise on will never change who I am or how I represent myself. Only I can change those. People grow, our tastes (literally) change. But those are my steps to take. I am always open to others’ input, but at the end of the day I am the one who has to live my life, no one else.

but you are right! Concessions are necessary when you are working with others. You have to meet somewhere, right? If someone wants to produce songs for me, for example but not others, fine, I’ll produce the others on my own. I am not an all or nothing person. I believe that decisions are each unique and I try to see others’ decisions from their perspective as well.. 

When I was learning photography the only cassette in the dark room was the Violent Femmes “Studio Album” with “Blister In The Sun” & “Kiss Off” & “Add It Up”…. This was the first time I’d ever heard the Violent Femmes, alone in a dark room, isolated in the corner of a community college, at about 9 P.M. on a fall evening. I was awestruck by them & they entirely influenced my early photography (though I didn’t know about it until later). They had an ‘unfinished’, ‘unpolished’, ‘raw’ sound: the photography I worked with at the time was industrial, raw, abstract, & unpolished as well. I felt that I took what I was hearing & visually translated the music through my photography.

Did you ever have a familiar moment where you were working on a project & subconsciously you felt you were inspired by an art form outside of music?

Wow thats awesome! The only thing I can think of is a painting my mother made. She’s an amazing artist, so proficient. The only thing is that she is so busy, she’s totally the cornerstone of our giant family.  She had this painting she was working on, of me actually. Its giant, at least 4 feet tall. But the face wasn’t painted and many details were missing. She got so busy with life and new projects that she never had time to finish it. I sat there the next day, looking at it, and wrote a song about it.  I felt at the moment in a strange way it reflected me, and my mother who was too busy to focus on her paintings at the time. I won’t bore you with the whole song, but the lyric that I remember from that song (sounds darker than it is) is

 “ I am staring at an oil-list,
   of paintings my mother will never finish.
   and circuits start to tear as I stare at a vacant hole
   where my heart was meant to be”

Sort of the same idea as your Violent Femmes experience in a strange way?

I leave you with a beautiful rendition of Coldplay's "Yellow" by Lindsey Pavao!

 www.ChicagoJohnnys.com

Make The New Orleans Classic Beignets At Home

Beignets (ben-yays) are no longer just a Jackson Square treat out of New Orleans. Make your own delicious, pillowy, fried dough treat covered in powdered sugar in the comfort of your own home!

 

Everyone that visits New Orleans comes back to the Chicago area & raves about these delicious, pillow, fluffy fried dough treats that they indulged in while visiting Jackson Square.  I've made my take on these French treats for those that have visited New Orleans & I've been told that the NOLA treats have nothing on my Beignets!

As far as making dough from scratch this recipe is on the tougher end, however, any kitchen novice should be able to tackle these treats on their own!

What you will need:

3/4 cup warm water
1 packet dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 tea cane sugar
1/4 cup cane sugar
Pinch of sea salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk (see Chicago Johnny’s recipe)
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbl butter (softened)
Powdered sugar for topping

Olive oil for frying

Instructions:

Mix together water, yeast, & 1 tea of cane sugar. Let proof for 5 minutes. Your mix should get foamy & smell like freshly baking bread.

Add to your mix all remaining ingredients save butter & flour. Mix ingredients together well. Add 1/2 of your flour & begin to knead. Once dough has come together add your butter (softened) & knead again. Finally, add the rest of your flour & knead again.

If you used a mixer with a dough hook, take out your dough & knead by hand for 2 minutes. If you were already kneading by hand you can skip this step. Cover & refrigerate your dough for 4 hours up to overnight.

Take out your dough, roll it to about 1/4” thickness & cut into 2” x 4” squares. Let your squares rise to about 1/2" thickness by sitting out at room temperature. 

Fry your dough in 360 degree olive oil (you are essentially frying at 350 degrees but because your dough is cold it will bring down your oil temperature each time you fry, so bring your oil up to 360 degrees between frying each Beignet).

Flip your Beignet when the bottom side is browned & crusty. Once both sides are fried golden & crusty, spoon out with a slotted spoon onto a wire rack & coat the top side with powdered sugar.
 
Enjoy warm or room temperature. Makes 15-19 2” x 4” Beignets.

Follow along with our YouTube video:

 

Follow Chicago Johnny's on Twitter & Instagram @ChicagoJohnnys & on Facebook!

www.ChicagoJohnnys.com

Chicago Johnny's Italian Beef Sandwich Recipe (Chicago Style Beef)

 

Download a printable copy of Chicago Johnny's Italian Beef Recipe:

http://www.chicagojohnnys.com/italian-beef.html

It seems like every geographical region has their own claim: the cheese steak in Philadelphia, the Bratwurst in Wisconsin, grinder in New England, po' boy in Louisiana, & in Chicago it's no different. Here we celebrate our street food sandwich with an Italian Beef sandwich.

Though a great deal of us love our Chicago Italian Beef sandwiches, we have many ways we eat them; dipped, dry, wet, with sweet peppers, with hot giardiniera, with mozzarella, with provolone, toasted, et cetera.The fact of the matter is that the right way to eat an Italian beef sandwich is simple: you eat an Italian beef sandwich the way that you love it most! Don't let stereotypes or criticisms stop you from enjoying your Italian beef sandwich your own way!

So when I started Chicago Johnny's as a giardiniera company (the hot or sweet pepper mix topping many Italian beef sandwiches) I was immediately inundated with requests to share my Italian beef recipe. Just in case you were wondering I love my Italian beef sandwiches with provolone, sweet peppers (fried green bell peppers with garlic), hot giardiniera (of course I use Chicago Johnny's! www.ChicagoJohnnys.com) & I dip my sandwich.

To get started making your Chicago Johnny's Italian Beef sandwich you will need:

3-5 Lb beef roast
1 peeled bulb garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbl Italian seasoning
1 Tbl oregano
1 tea black pepper
2 tea sweet paprika
2 tea crushed red pepper
1 Tbl onion powder
1 tea granulated garlic
1 tea sea salt
16 Oz. beef stock
Provolone or mozzarella cheese
High gluten French bread
Chicago Johnny’s Giardiniera

The process in making your Chicago Johnny's Italian Beef:

Puree the following together in a food processor: garlic, olive oil, Italian seasoning, oregano, black pepper, sweet paprika, crushed red pepper, onion powder, granulated garlic, sea salt.

Sear your roast in a hot pan, stovetop. Use a spatula to rub your pureed spices onto your roast. Put your rubbed roast & any juices from searing into a deep glass or metal dish & add 16 oz. of beef stock; place into a preheated 225 degree oven for 90-120
minutes, depending on the size of your roast.

Put your roast & gravy into two separate dishes & refrigerate them overnight. 

Slice your roast as thin as you can without shaving it. Put your gravy into a pot & bring to a simmer; put your thinly sliced beef into the simmering gravy until cooked through; this process will only take moments.

Compile your sandwich with any/or all of the following: provolone, mozzarella, Italian beef, Chicago Johnny’s Giardiniera, sweet peppers*.

Using tongs, grab your whole sandwich & “dip” it into your
simmering gravy for a flavorful Italian beef.

*To make sweet peppers, slice 2-3 green bell peppers & sauté
in olive oil, 7-10 cloves garlic, 1 tea black pepper, 2 tea
sea salt; cook until peppers just start to soften.

Your sandwich should end up looking like this!

Some tips when making your Chicago Johnny's Italian Beef!

Italian beef roasts are meant to utilize tough, cheap cuts of beef. There is no need to get the most expensive or 'nicest' cuts to make this dish! You are slow roasting this dish to help make a tender sandwich, don't overspend. You can get whatever is on sale, Top Round, Bottom Round, Eye of Round, even Boston Round works with a good enough slicer.

Your roast should still be slightly pink in the center when you are done roasting it. You will finish the cooking process in the gravy so don't dry out your roast in the oven overcooking it.

Refrigerating your roast after cooking it will help you to slice it thinner. You want a very THIN sliced roast for your sandwiches.

This is a long process. Don't rush it. 

And most of all, have fun with it!

Much Love & Appreciation,

Josh Downey
Chicago Johnny's
www.ChicagoJohnnys.com

You can follow along with my cooking video here: