A cheesesteak is a simple thing done fast and hot, and the part most home cooks get wrong happens before the pan is even warm. It is the slicing. Beef shaved paper-thin browns in ninety seconds and stays tender; beef cut a quarter inch thick goes chewy no matter how good your skillet is. Thirty minutes in the freezer is what makes your knife capable of the first instead of the second. If your butcher will shave it for you, let him.
There is no griddle in this one. It all happens in a single cast iron skillet — peppers and onions first and out, beef in two fast batches, then everything back together with butter and the last teaspoon of Divine Bovine.
We have put a red sweet pepper in alongside the green, because the last of them are on the Carolina tables right now and the two colours together are what a cheesesteak ought to look like. The mushrooms are optional and very good.
Set the skillet in the middle of the table with the toasted rolls beside it and let everyone build their own. It feeds four generously, it doubles if you use two pans rather than one crowded one, and it is forty minutes of cooking, after a half hour in the freezer.
Philly Cheesesteak Skillet with Divine Bovine
One-skillet Philly cheesesteak with shaved ribeye, sweet peppers, onions and melted provolone, seasoned with organic Divine Bovine steak rub.
Ingredients
For the beef
- 1 1/2 lb boneless ribeye, firmed in the freezer and sliced paper-thin against the grain
- 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp Divine Bovine organic steak rub, divided
- 2 Tbsp olive or avocado oil, divided
For the skillet
- 1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 1 large green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 red or orange sweet pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
- 8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced (optional)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 slices provolone
To serve
- 4 hoagie rolls, split and lightly toasted
- Kosher or flaky sea salt, to taste
- Crushed red pepper, if your table likes heat
Instructions
- Put the ribeye in the freezer for 30 minutes before you start anything else. Firm beef slices thin; room-temperature beef tears and you end up with chunks. If your butcher will shave it for you on the slicer, let him, and skip this step entirely.
- Slice the firmed beef as thin as you can manage against the grain, then run your knife through the slices a few times so the pieces are bite-size. Pat them dry with paper towels.
- Toss the beef with 1 tablespoon of the Divine Bovine until every piece is coated, and leave it on the board while you cut the vegetables. The rub needs those few minutes against dry meat.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large cast iron or heavy skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the onion, both peppers and the mushrooms and cook 7 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onions are soft and golden at the edges and any mushroom liquid has cooked away. Scrape all of it onto a plate.
- Turn the heat to high and add the second tablespoon of oil. Spread half the beef in a single layer and leave it alone for 60 seconds, then stir and cook 30 seconds more. Move it to the plate with the vegetables and do the same with the rest. Two batches, every time: a crowded pan steams the beef grey instead of browning it.
- Return everything to the skillet over medium heat, the juices on the plate included. Add the butter and the last teaspoon of Divine Bovine and toss for a minute until the butter coats it all.
- Take your spatula and chop down through the pile six or eight times, the way they do on the griddle. This is what makes it a cheesesteak rather than steak and onions.
- Rake the mixture into four rough mounds in the pan. Lay two slices of provolone over each mound, put a lid on the skillet and slide it off the heat for 2 minutes, until the cheese has melted all the way down into the beef.
- Toast the split rolls in the oven or a dry pan while the cheese melts. A toasted roll holds up to the juices; an untoasted one goes soft in about a minute.
- Slide each cheesy mound onto a roll, or set the skillet straight on the table with the rolls beside it and let everyone build their own. Salt at the table, and pass the crushed red pepper.
The freezer is the whole trick
Thin is not a preference here, it is the recipe. Paper-thin beef browns in under ninety seconds, which means it is seared before it has time to toughen. Thick slices need longer, and longer means chewy. Thirty minutes in the freezer firms the ribeye just enough for your knife to do what it could not do otherwise. The alternative is to ask the butcher counter to shave it, which costs nothing and saves you half an hour.
Cook the vegetables first and take them out
If you tip everything into the pan together, the water coming off the onions and mushrooms drops the temperature and the beef boils. Vegetables out, pan hot and dry, beef in two batches, everything back together at the end. It is one extra plate to wash and it is the difference between a cheesesteak and a sad grey stir-fry.
Why the rub goes on before the pan, not after
Divine Bovine on the dry beef means the rub toasts against hot metal and that toasted flavour ends up in the fond, which is where the taste of the whole dish comes from. Seasoning stirred in at the end sits on top of the food. The last teaspoon, tossed with the butter at the finish, picks the flavour back up after the cheese has gone on and softened everything.
What is good right now
Sweet peppers are at the tail end of the Carolina season and this is the week to use them, which is why there is a red or orange one in here alongside the green. Yellow onions came out of the fall harvest and will keep all winter in a dark cupboard. Cremini mushrooms are at their best in the cool months, and NC mountain growers have them at the markets through the fall. The rolls and the provolone are store-bought, and there is no shame in that.
Feeding more, and the day after
This doubles cleanly if you cook it in two pans rather than one big one, because the whole method depends on a hot, uncrowded surface. Leftovers keep three days. Reheat them in a dry skillet over medium rather than a microwave, which turns the beef rubbery, and put fresh cheese on at the end. Cold, piled into an omelette, it is an extremely good breakfast.
What to put beside it
Our Crispy Oven Fries are the obvious answer and they bake while you slice. Crispy Smashed Potatoes work just as well if you would rather not deal with another sheet pan.
One seasoning doing all of it
Divine Bovine is our USDA Certified Organic steak rub — no MSG, no fillers, small batch, made by our family. The seasoning itself is gluten free and kosher; the hoagie rolls are not, so read that label if it matters at your table. Buy the 5 oz resealable pouch over the glass jar: better value, and far easier to pinch from with one hand while the pan is going.
More Divine Bovine
Dutch Oven Pot Roast is the slow Sunday end of the same seasoning, Pepper Flank Steak is the fast weeknight one, and Divine Bovine Christmas Roast is where it goes in December.