I have a confession to make: I am so enamoured with the concept of a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, I dream about spending a long weekend in Philadelphia hopping from one sandwich joint to another sampling the city’s famous sandwich.
It’s not unheard of—this guy ate 16 Philly cheesesteaks throughout Philadelphia in 12 hours. OK, so I will never do that. Instead, I’ll invite Craig into the kitchen to make us a Philly cheesesteak that is so good, we don’t need to go to Philly.
Now the Philly cheesesteak is pretty straightforward, but every ingredient matters.
The steak has to be thinly sliced (against the grain) rib eye. All other steak cuts will become grizzly as you grill it. One sliced rib eye should get you enough to fill two sandwiches.
The bun tends to be a hoagie roll, but we’re living in COVID-19 times, and hoagie rolls are hard to find in these parts. So we’re making due with a long Italian roll that’s not too crunchy on the outside and is soft on the inside. Pull out the insides of the bun to hollow it out and make more room for the filling.
There are two cheese options for the Philly cheesesteak: provolone or Cheez Whiz. We’re going wit’ whiz. Scoop about a cup of Cheez Whiz into a saucepan and gently heat it on medium low until it’s loose enough to drizzle on the sandwich.
Dice two white onions and set aside (in this case we had one white onion one red onion in the pantry, so we used them both).
Time to break out the cast iron frying pan. Glisten it with a neutral vegetable oil and bring the temperature up to a high heat—that will help to quickly sear the meat. Now comes the tricky part, and this is why Craig is making this sandwich and not me—he’s a superior stovetop line chef, especially when it comes to meat.
Craig’s using two tools to chop up the steak while it’s sizzling in the pan: a metal scraper that he usually uses for dough and a metal spatula. Picture Edward Scissorhands chopping away at the steak and tossing it around to get it nicely seared: that’s Craig at work on this sandwich.
Once the steak is cooked, Craig moves the cast iron pan partly off of the burner and tucks the steak in that corner, then he tosses the onions into the hot side of the pan for a quick sear.
Once the onions are ready, Craig incorporates them into the steak, slides the whole cast iron pan onto the burner, and places the bun on top of that pile to quickly steam it (less than a minute). If you decide to use provolone instead of Cheez Whiz, place the cheese slices over the meat mixture, let that cheese melt, then steam the bun.
Using a spatula, scrape up the meat mixture and fill the inside of the bun. Then drizzle on some whiz.
It’s a really great sandwich. One of my all-time favourites.
— Trish Hennessy, with Craig Pickthorne’s cooktop superpowers.
A Year in Sandwiches 