My husband and I truly believe that you can tell a lot about a place by ordering a few basic items.
First item is pizza. If a place that offers pizza can’t get a basic pepperoni pizza right, then none of the other food will taste very good.
The second item is a cheeseburger. If you can’t get a basic cheeseburger to wow my taste buds, the rest of your food wont wow me either.
And lastly, a Philly Cheesesteak. Don’t promote a Philly if you can’t deliver.
Since we love Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches, we have tried to make them a few times at home.
The only problem is that they have never turned out quite right.
So my foodie husband and I started brainstorming how to make the perfect Philly Cheesesteak. The idea sounded good in our heads but waaay to basic.
Every time we make it, we over think it and we over complicate the recipe. So this time we decided to step back and go back to the basics.
A Philly Cheesesteak is made up of 4 different parts. Onions, Green Bell Peppers, Thin sliced Steak & Provolone Cheese.
So that’s what we did.
Now I must confess. The first time we tried this recipe was when we had friends over for dinner. We tend to always try new recipes on people we invite over and can generally get a good sense as to how good it is by how they react. It sounds quite cruel but generally turns out great.
This time however, we thought the sandwiches were lack luster.
First off, I over toasted our buns and they were crunchy. Crunchy buns are not a good thing on a Philly Cheesesteak.
Second…they were bland. UGH. So overall the dinner was not great. However we KNEW we were on the right path.
So the next day my husband took another crack and tweaked ONE thing. MORE GARLIC butter on the buns and to broil the bun and not toast it.
OH MY GOSH…I can’t tell you how amazing this sandwich was. It was literally the best Philly I’ve eaten. The magic trick to taking this sandwich from bland and blah to amazing was a simple trick with the buns.
This is now on our regular dinner menu and a sandwich I no longer want to buy somewhere but make at home. Plus it is SOOO easy!
Philly Cheesesteak
Ingredients
- 3 pounds of sirloin or round steak, trimmed
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 medium yellow onions sliced thin
- 2 green bell peppers sliced thin, seeds discarded
- 1/2 teaspoon season salt
- 6 soft sub rolls or sandwich rolls, cut lengthwise
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons Garlic Paste (found in fresh vegetable section of grocery store)
- 12 slices of provolone cheese
Instructions
Cut steaks into long strips and lay on a lined cookie sheet.
Freeze steak for 1 hour - 2 hours.
Remove steak from freezer and using a food processor, with a thin blade, slice steak meat.
--> if you do not have a food processor, then freeze steak for 30 - 45 minutes then thinly slice steak with sharp knife. 1/8 inch thick is ideal. Freezing steak will help you to cut steak easier.
In a large hot skillet, add vegetable oil, onions & green peppers. Cook until onions are cooked through and translucent. Peppers should be soft.
Add steak meat and season salt. Cook until meat is well done. {Meat should cook quickly as it is so thin.}
While steak meat is cooking, in a small bowl combine butter & garlic paste. Spread this mixture generously over each side of the bun and place on new lined cookie sheet. {Do not lay this on top of raw meat cookie sheet liner!}
Place buns in the oven and turn oven to BROIL. Broil buns for 2 minutes {every oven cooks differently so watch closely!}. Once buns begin to turn a slight golden color remove immediately.
Place steak and onion mixture on top of open bun, and top with two slices of provolone cheese.
Close bun and serve immediately.