Philly Cube Steak

Yum
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Philadelphia you must of course have one of their signature Philly Cheese steaks. The link will take you to a page where you can read about the history of the cheese steak and the top 10 places to go.

The cheese steak was of course my inspiration for this dish. My husband chuckled when I mentioned my idea but was impressed with the outcome. Philly Cube Steak was so easy to do. There's just one trick you have to know for this dish. In order for you to get a great sear and not have the cube steak become shoe leather you must have your pan screaming and I mean screaming hot. I'll cover that in the instructions.


What a delightful departure this dish was from our usual Quick and Easy: Beef Cube Steak Dinner.
I used what cheese I had available which was shredded mozzarella but use any cheese you like.

• 4 beef chuck cube steaks
• 1 - 2 large onions in half moon slices
• cheese - provolone, mozzarella - your choice
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

1. In a large frying pan or skillet with a lid and over medium heat, melt two tablespoons of butter. Add in the onion slices and stir to coat in the butter. Caramelize the onions over medium low heat. This takes about 20 minutes or so. Remove the onions to a waiting bowl.
2. In a large frying pan or skillet with a lid and over high heat, melt 2 tbsp. butter and the olive oil together. When the butter is just starting to brown and the pan is screaming hot, add in the cube steaks and try not to crowd them in the pan.
3. Fry the cube steaks quickly on one side - about a minute and flip over. As soon as you flip over the cube steaks add a pile of onions on top of each one and add as much cheese as you like on top and turn the heat down to low. Immediately cover and cook until the cheese melts, about 1 -2 minutes more. You don't want to over cook the cube steaks.
4. If the cheese is not melting, I suggest you keep it covered but turn the heat off. The residual heat and being covered should help.

The fact that I got a super bargain on cube steaks helped. The package had 8 steaks and with a $3.00 off store coupon, the steaks cost $7.38. Cheese was on sale for $2.00 for the package and the onions for 99¢ per pound make this a relatively inexpensive dish. In order to feed your family well you really have to take time in the grocery store to check out what's available. I am all about planning and meal planning ahead, but this time I did not have a clue until I got in the store. The first thing I did was check out the proteins to see what I could afford. So whenever you hit the store without a plan, try doing that first and see if it helps you out.
A final note: my husband is a mashed potatoes kind of guy so we have mashed potatoes with this. However you really could put this between a roll of some sort or even bread. Give it a go and I think you'll love it.