Grill-Grate Cheesesteaks
Steak, onions, peppers, and a pot of melted cheese sauce, all on the grate over coals.
- calories
- 880
- weight
- 13 oz
- cal / oz
- 68
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 75 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 115 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Skirt steak | 1 1/2 lb | |
|---|---|---|
| Worcestershire sauce | 1/4 cup | marinade, done in the cooler |
| Butter | 5 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 2 cloves, minced | mince at home |
| Milk | 2 tbsp | shelf-stable box or 1 tbsp powder plus water |
| Velveeta | 6 oz | cubed at home, no fridge needed until opened |
| Hoagie buns | 4 | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Yellow onion | 1 large | sliced 1/4 inch |
| Bell pepper | 1 large | sliced 1/4 inch |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- At home or in the cooler, put the steak and Worcestershire in a zip bag. One to four hours, no longer, or the surface goes mushy.
- Light a chimney of charcoal. When the top coals are grey at the edges, about ten minutes, dump them in, set the grate, and let it preheat five to seven minutes with the vent half open.
- While it heats, set a small pot on the grate with 1 tbsp butter and the garlic. Once it foams, stir in the milk and the cubed Velveeta. Keep it at the cool edge of the grate and stir now and then until smooth.
- Toss the onion and pepper with the oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook them in a skillet or foil pan on the grate, stirring, until they slump and char at the edges, about ten minutes. Pull them off.
- Pat the steak dry and lay it over direct heat. Three to four minutes a side for medium rare. Move it to a board and let it sit five minutes.
- Slice thin against the grain. Butter the cut buns and face them down on the grate for a minute.
- Pile steak and vegetables in the buns and pour the cheese over. Serve while the sauce still runs.
This is a car-camping recipe and it stays one. The steak needs a cooler and the cheese needs a second pot, which rules out anything you carry on your back. What makes it work over coals is that everything is cut at home: the onion and pepper are sliced and seasoned, the garlic is minced, the cheese is cubed. Grill heat only goes one direction, and you do not have time to prep while it does.
Velveeta is the right call here for once. It has emulsifiers in it, so it melts into a sauce with two tablespoons of milk instead of breaking into oil and curds the way real cheddar does over an uneven fire. Shelf-stable boxed milk or a spoon of powder works the same; nothing in the sauce needs to be cold. Keep the pot at the edge of the grate, not over the coals, or it scorches on the bottom before the top melts.
Packing
Steak goes in the cooler in its marinade bag, doubled. Cube the Velveeta and mince the garlic at home so nothing needs a cutting board at the fire. Slice the onion and pepper at home too and bag them together with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder already tossed in.
Variations
- No cooler and no charcoal? A foil pouch of cheddar and a packet of steak-cut jerky rehydrated in the onion pan gets you close, badly.
- Swap the Velveeta for a jar of shelf-stable cheese sauce and skip the pot entirely.
- Provolone sliced at home melts on the meat if you would rather not run a second burner.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/chargrilled-cheesesteaks