Recipes

Grilled Philly Cheesesteak

The combination of seared, caramelized chopped steak and gooey cheese sauce has made the Philly cheesesteak legendary. While it is traditionally cooked on a flat-top grill, I think it is even better when cooked on a Kalamazoo custom “fish” grill grate. The flat surface of this laser-cut stainless steel grill grate has thin, arching cuts throughout. The meat and veggies are exposed to the open flame below for that recognizable flavor that can only come from the grill, but you can easily cook on it as you would a flat top griddle.

So, how does Kalamazoo interpret this legendary recipe? First, and most importantly, we used chopped ribeye steak for the beef. To amp up the flavor, we substitute strips of poblano for the more traditional green peppers. These are lightly grilled along with red onion, then the whole thing is topped with homemade provolone sauce (thank you, Kenji Lopes Alt, for the cheese sauce inspiration).

By Russ Faulk, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet

Serves 6

Ingredients

Directions

¾ cup good quality mayo
2 cloves garlic
3 pounds boneless ribeye steaks, sliced ¼ inch thick by your butcher
Extra virgin olive oil
Fine grey sea salt
3 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and cut into thin strips
1 red onion, trimmed and sliced into thin strips
2 two-foot long loaves of soft French bread, cut to 8-inch lengths and sliced in half
8 ounces provolone cheese, grated
12 ounces evaporated milk
1 tablespoon corn starch

Crush the garlic then add to the mayonnaise and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Prepare the grill for direct grilling over high heat with a Kalamazoo “fish” pattern custom grill surface (learn about custom Kalamazoo grill surfaces in this video). We cooked these sandwiches on the Kalamazoo Hybrid Fire Grill with all of the main gas burners on HIGH.

Enlist the help of a friend or family member to make the provolone cheese sauce while you do the grilling. Combine the cheese, evaporated milk, and corn starch in a medium saucepan. Place over low heat while stirring constantly. Continue to heat and stir until the mixture is fully melted and becomes smooth. Keep warm until serving.

Cut the beef ribeye into thin strips. Coat lightly with olive oil and season generously with salt. Do the same with the poblano and onion slices.

Spread a generous coating of garlic mayonnaise inside the bread. Grill the bread on the warming rack with the cut sides down for 1 to 2 minutes until the mayonnaise is melted and the bread is lightly browned. Reserve.

Grill the beef ribeye and vegetables on the “fish” pattern surface, turning occasionally, but not too often. You want to leave the beef without moving it long enough to build up a flavorful, dark crust in places. Total cooking time will be about 5 minutes for the meat and the veggies. If you have just one “fish” surface, grill the vegetables first, and then set them aside while you grill the steak. If you have two surfaces, you can grill the steak and veggies at the same time.

Place the grilled steak and veggies on the bottom slices of grilled French bread. Pour on the provolone sauce, finish off with the bread tops and dig in!