The Philly Cheesesteak…one of the manliest sandwiches in the world. Its got loads of grilled steak, mushrooms, onions, and provolone cheese all slammed between two good pieces of bread. Our version even comes with some au jus for dipping.

Before even designing this meal, I went to the store thinking I was just going to buy a nice rib eye steak to throw on the grill. However, when I got to the store, some great looking flat iron steaks were for sale and I picked up a couple. I don’t know if you guys have ever grilled a flat iron steak before, but let me tell you they are delicious. Don’t judge them by the stuff they sell at TGI Fridays or some chain like that. Grill your own and you’ll know. A flat iron steak is similar to a sirloin, but has more fat in it and is more tender and flavorful in my opinion. You can often find them in the meat section on sale for less than what you would pay for a sirloin.

OK, so when I saw the flat iron steak it made me think of a good steak sandwich and thats what we have here. I wanted to start out with some simple ingredients and make them a manly creation. For this meal the main ingredients you’ll need are:

1 Flat Iron Steak

1 Onion

1 Package of sliced mushrooms

1 bottle of red wine

Sliced Provolone cheese

French bread you bake yourself

Most everything else you probably have in your kitchen…if you don’t, take note! You need to keep some manly ingredient staples on hand at all times!

Start out by washing the steak and dry it off with a paper towel. Next, take some olive oil and your favorite steak rub, either store bought or homemade and put a light coat of oil on both sides of the meat and give it a good rub down with the spices.

Set your steak aside for now in the fridge and get out your onion and start dicing it up. Since you bought sliced mushrooms already, thats one less thing you have to do. In a sauce pan pour approximately 1 cup of beef stock and 1 cup of red wine in the pan along with a couple of cloves of minced garlic (remember always keep this on hand, you can buy it already minced in the store). When your beef stock and wine start to simmer, throw in the onions and mushrooms…just use as much as you want to cook (add the mushrooms a little bit after the onions because they don’t take as long).

What we are doing here is cooking the onions and mushrooms and reducing the beef stock, wine, and garlic down to a nice au jus that you can pour over your slamwich when you are finished. You may have noticed on the ingredient list that I mentioned French Bread that you bake yourself. OK…let me make this clear…MEN DO NOT BAKE. However, something that is perfectly acceptable is to buy pre-made bread at your grocery store’s bakery section and thrown it in your oven. Never let someone tell you that it is manly to make your own dough. These pre-made loafs of french bread that are at your bakery are probably better than you could make yourself anyways, and they are as easy as preheating the oven and throwing the loaf in there for however long it tells you to on the directions on the package. So, follow the directions on the package and get that baking in the oven while you are cooking everything else.

Now, fire up that grill and get it nice and hot for a good sear. Throw your steak on and cook it approximately 5 minutes on the first side and 4 minutes on the second side for a medium rare. This all depends on how thick your steak is and how hot your grill is, but its a good approximation for most people. When you pull your steak off let it rest for about 10 minutes covered with aluminum foil so all the juices stay in the meat.

When your onions turn a translucent color and your mushrooms are nice and cooked, but still firm, take them out of the liquid and set them aside. Also, taste the au jus at this point and just see if it needs any additional seasoning. The object of reducing a liquid sauce is to let some of the water evaporate so the sauce becomes more concentrated, thicker, hearty and flavorful.

Now you can start plating this bad boy. By now your bread should be finished, so take it out and cut yourself off a nice manly chunk and slice it down the middle. Your steak should be rested now, so take your carving knife and slice your steak in thin slices and put it on the french bread. Next, layer it with your mushrooms and onions and pour some of the au jus on top. Lastly, put some thick slices of provolone on top of that. If your cheese doesn’t melt immediately on the warm steak you can put it in the oven or toaster oven to melt your cheese. If you have some salad greens or lettuce on hand you can even add some of that if you want. At this point you are finished and can enjoy your manly Philly Cheesesteak SLAMWICH!