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Hailing straight from a street food vender in Philadelphia, you can create this delicious sandwich at home. Caramelized onions & thinly sliced meat are melted together with provolone cheese and placed on a soft toasted bun. Make the fix-ins ahead of time and you've got yourself a quick and tasty grab-and-go meal.
Prep Time: 80 min
Cook time: 5 min
Yield: 6, 6-inch sandwiches
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs inside round steak
1 large spanish onion, sliced into thin semi-circles
1 tsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
olive oil
6-8 soft vienna buns
1/4 cup butter
1 head garlic
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp dried parsley
sliced provolone cheese
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
Directions
Garlic Butter
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
Cut off the top of a head of garlic, exposing the tips of each clove. Place on a square of wax paper and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap in the wax paper and then in tin foil. Place in pre-heated oven for 30min. Turn off the oven and allow the garlic to cool in the oven.
Measure out 1/4 cup of butter into a small bowl or ramekin and macerate the cooled, roasted garlic into the butter with a fork. Add salt and dried parsley and mix until thoroughly combined.
Store at room temperature for a couple days or in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature before trying to spread it on bread.
Sandwiches
Place frozen steaks in the refrigerator the night before you plan to make these. You want the meat to be semi-solid when your slicing super thin.
Heat a medium cast iron skillet over low-medium heat. Add the butter and let it melt. Then add in all your onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften and release their moisture. Sprinkle with sugar and continue to cook over low heat until they turn brown, about 45 min to 1hr.
While your onion is cooking, thinly slice the meat. Add it to a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Once your onions have caramelized, remove from the pan to a bowl and set aside.
Heat the cast iron skillet to medium-high & add a couple tsp pour of olive oil to the pan.
Cook the strips of beef in the pan for 2-3 min or until cooked through, no longer pink and a little browned at the edges. Do not over cook- do this in small batches so you don't overcrowd the pan. Overcrowding the pan causes the cooking temperature to reduce and dries out your meat.
Set aside the cooked meat in a bowl until you are ready to assemble your sandwiches.
Cut the Vienna buns open and spread with garlic butter. Toast under the broiler for a couple minutes or until the butter starts to sizzle and the edges begin to lightly brown.
In a non-stick pan, place a strip of caramelize onions with cooked beef and freshly sliced peppers stacked on top.
Then top with slices of provolone cheese. Turn the pan on to medium-low. Once the onions start to sizzle, add a couple tbsp of water and cover with a lid. The steam will melt the cheese into the works.
Make the length of onion-meat-peppers-cheese in the pan the same length as the bun you're going to be serving it on.
Remove the stack of onion-meat-peppers-cheese to a toasted bun using a large spatula or bread scraper. Serve hot.
Zhuzh it up!
Add your favourite pickle on top of the meat before you melt it all together. The zing adds extra delicious flavours to this rich sandwich. We suggest Pickled Red Onions.
Can't find provolone cheese? Pick another quick melting cheese like Monterrey Jack or American Cheese (think Kraft Singles)
This amazing recipe was adapted from Holly Nilsson's Philly Cheesesteaks
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