Real Philly cheesesteak is shaved beef, sweated onions, and melted cheese in a soft hoagie roll.
Why you should cook this
Real Philly cheesesteak is shaved beef, sweated onions, and melted cheese in a soft hoagie roll. That’s it. The rest is regional argument: provolone or American? With or without onions? Cheese Whiz, blasphemously? You decide.
The trick is shaved beef, freeze the steak for 30 minutes, then slice it as thin as paper. A blunt knife will make a chewy cheesesteak.
What to drink with it
A cold lager, a Boulevardier, or a bourbon highball. Pickled cherry peppers and a cold pickle on the side.
Notes from the kitchen
Freeze the steak first. Thirty minutes in the freezer makes thin slicing possible. Knife sharp. Use a flat-top or large heavy pan. Cheesesteak is a wet-fast-hot dish; a non-stick pan won’t get hot enough. Provolone is traditional. American cheese melts cleaner. Cheese Whiz divides families. Choose your battle.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Place steak in the freezer for 30 minutes. Slice as thin as you possibly can — almost see-through.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter in a large heavy pan over medium-high. Add onions and capsicum. Cook 8-10 minutes until soft and lightly caramelised. Tip onto a plate.
- Crank heat to high. Add remaining oil. Add the shaved beef. Toss with two spatulas, breaking up clumps. Salt and pepper generously. Cook 90 seconds — just until no longer pink.
- Return onions to the pan. Toss with the beef. Reduce heat to low.
- Lay cheese slices over the beef. Cover briefly with a lid or foil so cheese melts.
- Split hoagie rolls down the middle, butter the inside, toast briefly under the grill.
- Pile beef-and-cheese mixture into each roll. Serve immediately.
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Chewy beef
You sliced too thick or used the wrong cut. Freeze for thirty minutes, slice paper-thin against the grain. Rib eye or scotch fillet, never round.
Wet sandwich
You crowded the pan and the beef stewed instead of seared. Cook in two batches, hot fast.
Variations worth knowing
Provolone vs American vs Whiz
Provolone is traditional. American melts cleaner. Cheese Whiz divides families. Pick your battle.
With onions and peppers
Add a sliced green capsicum with the onions. Some Philadelphians say it’s wrong; everyone outside Philadelphia says it’s right.
Mushroom cheesesteak
Sliced field mushrooms in place of beef. Cook fast and hot. Surprisingly excellent.
Leftovers and make ahead
Make once, eat once. Reheated cheesesteak is sad. Use leftover beef in fried rice or eggs the next morning.