For a brief time, some friends and I ran a little cheesesteak place while we were in school. While not much came from it other than a lot of good times. One thing I have never regretted was the recipes. They differ from your traditional Philly cheesesteaks, but now that I’ve had them this way, I find it difficult to go back to EZ cheese and thin-cut steak.
Necessary Sugar Land Outdoor Kitchen Accessories
As with almost everything else, this recipe is best cooked on the grill. But in order to get that flame cooked flavor, there are a couple of things your grill will need to make this possible. First up, The griddle plate. A griddle plate to place over your grill is essential to keep the pieces of meat and vegetable slices from dropping through the grate on the grill. When looking for a griddle plate, be sure to pick one with a sizable grease trap. Without a sufficient grease trap, oils can drip down on the burners, causing grease fires, or can drip on surrounding concrete permanently damaging and staining it.
Another Sugar Land outdoor kitchen accessory to go along with the griddle plate would be a griddle plate cleaning kit. Keeping the plate clean can be quite a hassle without the proper tools. And without it, it’s easy to wind up with unwanted bits of charred grease in your sandwich.
Last but certainly not least would be grilling lids. Philly cheesesteaks simply wouldn’t be cheesesteaks without some quality provolone melted in with the meat and vegetables. The quickest and easiest way to get perfectly melted cheese is to coat the meat with cheese, once it is fully cooked, and cover it with a grilling lid for just a minute or two. This melts the cheese perfectly. You’ll feel like a cheese pull artist pulling that meat off the grill.
The All American Philly
As I mentioned before. This Cheesesteak is not your traditional cheesesteak. This is a much more sweet, spicy, and downright Sugarland BBQ take on an already American Classic. It works best with freshly baked hoagie rolls, whether from your local bakery or if you’re interested in making them yourself. Be sure to go with a moist hoagie. Furthermore, as you may well know, where you source your meat plays a huge role in the quality of the end product as well. Traditionally Philly cheesesteaks are made from thin-cut ribeye, but depending on your budget and the kind of crowd you’re expecting this can be a bit over budget. Using Sirloin can help bring down the price for larger crowds. To save big while making cheesesteaks Top or Bottom Round works quite well. You will need to have them trim the fat and you will certainly need to take much more effort to remove the gristle as you go. But it can be worth the effort if you are working on a very tight budget.
Firing Up Your Sugar Land Grill
Obviously, the temperature settings are going to vary greatly from grill to grill based on their age, and BTUs, but for starters, it is always a good idea to take the heat up to the 3rd or 4th setting. Be sure to cover your grill with your griddle plate, and oil it well with canola oil to keep the vegetables and Steak from sticking to it. The vegetables take the longest to cook, and as such, should be started first.
The Vegetables
As a general rule, one medium-sized onion provides about enough onion for 12 sandwiches. Where one bell pepper is only barely enough for 6. Cut the bell pepper and onion into small squares and toss them on the griddle. A small tip that really helps set off the flavor of even a plain sandwich is to add just a few shakes of salt and pepper to the vegetables. Doing this enhances their grilled flavor, helping them to add to the flavor of the sandwich, instead of simply watering it down with nutrients. If you are like me and you like crisp vegetables in your sandwich you may only need to let them cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Just enough to begin caramelizing the onions. But if you are more like my wife and I like the vegetables to be well done, losing their fresh crispness entirely, the vegetables will need to be cooked for much longer. Possibly even up to 25 minutes. Feel free to mix the vegetables together on your outdoor grill in Sugar Land.
The Meat
After having selected the perfect cut of meat, and had it thin cut by the local grocer or butcher throw it and the bacon on the grill and let it cook. Season the meat evenly with all of the needed seasonings, but be sure not to add any seasonings to the bacon. It doesn’t need any. The bacon is finished when it starts bubbling on both sides and is fairly crisp. The beef, however, will take a minute longer. Do your best not to overcook the meat, but make sure that you cannot see any pink before you pull it off the grill. To test the temperature pile it all up in the center of the grill and insert a meat thermometer into the pile. If the thermometer reads 145-155 degrees Fahrenheit you’re golden.
The Cheese
Last but not least. Just before pulling the beef off of the grill cover it with several slices of provolone and cover it with a grilling lid to retain moisture, and melt the cheese incredibly quickly. Keep an eye on it, because your cheese will be melted thoroughly in 30-45 seconds.
Finishing Touches
All that’s left to do now is crumble the bacon. And build some beautiful sandwiches. Throw all the finished ingredients in a bun, top with the special American sauce, and enjoy!
The Recipe
Seasonings for 3lbs of meat
- 3 Tablespoons Salt
- 2 Tablespoons Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Red Chile Powder
Bacon Phillie Sauce
- ¼ cup Mayo
- ¼ cup BBQ sauce
- 2 TBSP Brown Sugar
- 1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper (For less spice, half this)
The All-American Ingredients (Per Sandwich)
- 1 Roll
- 2 slices of Provolone Cheese
- 4 oz Meat
- 1 oz Green Bell peppers
- 1 oz onion
- 2 strips of Bacon
- Bacon Phillie sauce
Cook meat and evenly coat with seasonings
Grill vegetables until they are soft with a slight crunch (if looking for a little extra flavor, salt, and pepper vegetables while grilling)
Cut bacon strips in small squares, and fry until browned and crisp in butter and Bacon Grease
When the meat is fully cooked, mix in vegetables and coat in provolone to melt the cheese
Place meat and veggies on a bun, cover in Bacon Bits and coat in The Bacon Phillie Sauce.
And, finally, Enjoy!
