Philly Cheesesteak Recipe
What is a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich?
This is a famous Philadelphia sandwich that combines steak, onions, peppers, and cheese on a crusty hoagie roll. The steak is a flavorful, thinly sliced rib eye (or another tender steak of choice) that gets quickly seared on a grill or a griddle.
The original Philly Cheesesteak was a simple combination of steak and onion on a hoagie. Overtime, cheese came into the picture and other veggie additions like bell peppers, mushrooms, and/or chili peppers.
I’ve been making these Philly steak sandwiches since I was a teen, working at my parent’s restaurant. It was my regular after-school meal (I did not like eating at school), and making it several times a week gave me a change not only to practice, but also to test out a lot of different ingredient variations. It also game me a chance to hone in on some techniques to make these sandwiches that much better!
Ingredient Notes Before Shopping
Hoagie Rolls – I prefer to grab mine from the bakery section of my local grocery store. Bakery fresh hoagies are always crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.
Veggies in a Philly Cheese Steak – A large yellow onion and green bell peppers (or red if you wish). If you’re feeling spicy, you can add some chilly peppers.
Provolone Cheese – Classic provolone is always the safest choice. If you feel a little adventurous, consider using smoked provolone.
Steak – Use a ribeye steak if you have one available with great marbling and no large chunks of fat. If you need to find another steak, go with top round, sirloin, or another good quality steak with nice fat marbling throughout.
Seasoning – salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce.
Secret To Slicing Beef Steak Thinly!
If you’re able, you can always ask the butcher in your local grocery store to shave the steak for you. With that in mind, you can also easily do it at home!
- Simply take the steaks out of the package and place them onto a parchment paper covered cutting board.
- Pop it into the freezer for 30-45 minutes (depending on the freezer and the steaks). You want the steaks to be partially frozen but not completely frozen solid.
- Once partially frozen, take the cutting board out of the freezer and use a sharp knife to cut the steaks across the grain as thinly as possible.
How To Make Philly Cheesesteaks: Step-by-Step
- Now that you have your shaved steaks, let them sit in the bowl with some seasoning while you preheat the griddle (or a large cooking pan) and slice onions and peppers.
- Slice the hoagie rolls about half way through the top.
- Cook the veggies: add some oil to the preheated griddle and sauté the onions and peppers until softened and golden brown. Move them aside.
- Cook the steak: Add a little more oil and sear the steak. Toss it occasionally to cook through. Stir in the onions and peppers. Remember that thinly shaved steak will not take long and you don’t want to overcook it!
- Warm the bread: If there is space on the griddle, warm the hoagie rolls or use another pan.
- Melt cheese and assemble the sandwiches: Separate the steak and veggies mixture into 4 mounds. Top each mound with cheese. Let the cheese melt, then transfer the mound onto the sliced and warmed hoagie roll. Enjoy!
What About Whiz Cheese?
If you didn’t already know it, before there was provolone, a Philly Cheesesteak actually had Cheese Whiz on top! It’s still a little bit of an argument as to who came up with putting Cheese Whiz on top of the steak sandwich, since both Pat Olivieri and his rival, Joe Vento, claim that they came up with the idea. I don’t know about you, but I’m team provolone all the way!
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Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 hoagie rolls about 6 inches in length each
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 large green bell pepper
- 2 tbsp oil for cooking
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- 8 sliced provolone cheese
- 1.25-1.5 lb steak ribeye, top round, or serloin
- 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2-1 tsp coarse or sea salt to taste
- 1/4-1/2 tsp black pepper to taste
Instructions
Prepare the Steaks (about 1 hour before):
- Before starting to cook, you need to par-freeze the steaks to make it easy to slice them thinly. Start this process 30-45 minutes before you're ready to make the sandwiches.
- Take the steaks out of the package and place them onto the parchment paper covered cutting board. Place the cutting board with steaks into the freezer and set the timer. Let them partially freeze for 30-45 minutes.
- When the steaks are partially frozen, use a sharp knife to slice the steaks against the grain, as thinly as you can.
Prepare the ingredients:
- Slice onion and bell peppers thinly as well and slice the hoagie rolls through the top but not all the way through.
- Spread some butter inside each hoagie roll and set aside.
Cooking the steak sandwich:
- You can use a flat top gill, a griddle, or a couple of large cast iron cooking pans.
- In a mixing bowl, combine shaved steak, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well.
- Preheat the griddle or the cooking pans over medium to medium-high heat. Great it with some oil.
- Start sautéing onions and peppers until completely softened and start to get golden brown. You can set them aside to the cooler side or set them aside off the heat completely.
- On the side of the griddle/grill (or in a separate pan) place the hoagie rolls to warm up.
- Add a little more oil if needed and spread steaks into one even layer. Sear the steak, tossing it from time to time until just cooked through.
- Stir in the onions and peppers. Turn off heat.
- Separate the mixture into 4 even mounds and top each mound with two slices of cheese. Let the cheese melt and transfer each cheesy steak mixture into each hoagie roll.
Notes
Nutrition
More Sub Sandwiches To Try
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Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
My first time making Philly cheesesteaks and these were so good and easy to prepare! Thank you:)
I am so glad you liked them, Jenny!
My family Loved these subs!
Thank You!!!!
I am so happy to hear that!
My kids love these subs! Thanks for the recipe!
I love Philly Cheese Steak and this looks so good. I can’t wait to give your recipe a try!
Thanks for the recipe – looks tasty! I too love to make them with chicken
My Honey Bunny is going to just love this recipe for Philly Cheese Steak. It really looks delicious.
I love these! We don’t have too many places around here that make them, so it’s fun to make them at home. I use chicken instead and just as good. YUM!
This looks super!! Thanks for all the tips, I didn’t even think of partially freezing the steaks, I could never get them as thin as a deli
Wonderfully delicious! I’ll try the eye of round–great tip! XX00
Great looking sandwich! I have never made one, and not certain I have eaten one.
Sandwich looks awesome. Last time I made Philly sandwiches, I used a flank steak. Had left over steak and while I was in another room eating my sandwich, my Germán shepherd stood up at the counter, got the steak and ate all of it. LOL. I guess the smells were too much for her to resist!
Hey…What a great sandwich for steak lovers! I love anything steak