Ground Beef Cheesesteak Skillet

First things first, this ground beef cheesesteak skillet is not meant to be a Philly cheesesteak replacement. I’ve never been to Philadelphia to try the real deal, so I don’t want to pretend like I’m an expert. What this recipe is, however, is a shortcut to making homemade cheesesteak with ground beef and a few veggies for sandwiches, loaded fries, and more.

Thanks to extra lean ground beef, this hamburger cheesesteak situation makes for a great macro balanced meal depending on your roll and condiment selection. Every serving has 24 grams of protein with just 280 calories.

There are plenty of tweaks you can make to improve the nutrition facts further, but we’ll get to that! Let’s start by taking a look at the core ingredients.

Ingredients for Ground Beef Cheesesteak

Again, I’m not here to teach you how to make ground beef Philly cheesesteak—just cheesesteak. So we’re going to use whatever veggies we like, okay? Aside from a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, here’s everything you’ll need:

• ground beef
• sliced mushrooms
• onion
• bell pepper
• provolone or white American cheese

Ground Beef

The recipe calls for 96% lean ground beef, but any ground meat would work for this cheesesteak skillet. Ground chicken cheesesteak, anyone?

You want as much browning as possible on the beef, so be sure to give it time in the pan untouched. A hot and dry environment is key for the Maillard reaction (browning of proteins). That’s why I always like to pat ground beef dry with a paper towel before adding it to a hot pan.

As far as a Philly cheesesteak seasoning goes, I think salt and pepper is everything you need. But you’re welcome to get creative.

The Veggies

I like to add volume to recipes as often as possible. While true Philly cheesesteak may come with just onions or maybe onions and peppers, my version calls for both and sliced mushrooms.

This creates larger serving sizes and more servings altogether. You could easily get away with double the veggies in this recipe for an even higher volume dish.

Best Cheese for Cheesesteak

The usual cheese suspects for Philly cheesesteak are provolone, American, or Cheez Whiz. I opted for provolone, but it’s hard to go wrong here.

I’ve seen people use a combination of provolone and American, which I think is brilliant. Like I mentioned in my In-N-Out copycat and loaded cheeseburger fries recipes, it’s hard to beat processed American cheese in the melting department.

One pro for Cheez Whiz in this scenario is that you may be able to find low fat cheese sauce options and even dairy free options. Combining ingredients like reduced fat cream cheese or cottage cheese with real cheddar or cheddar powder can produce great results.

How to Serve Your Cheesesteak Skillet

You can’t go wrong throwing a serving of your ground beef cheesesteak on a toasted hoagie roll with your choice of condiments. (I like a bit of mayo and mustard with pickled peppers or the chipotle mayo from my chicken cheesesteak recipe.)

There’s not a huge macronutrient difference between something like Martin’s hoagie rolls and the “healthy” hoagie roll options. So I recommend just going with the real deal in this case.

If you want to avoid the rolls or sandwiches, there are plenty of other ways to serve. Here’s a handful of ideas:

• cook some chickpea or higher protein pasta and pair with a cheese sauce for cheesesteak mac and cheese
• serve over baked tortilla chips or crinkle cut fries for nachos or loaded fries
• slice up some Hawaiian rolls for ground beef cheesesteak sliders
• stuff inside an air fryer baked potato
• serve over rice, cauliflower rice, mashed potatoes, or a low carb potato substitute
• cheesesteak egg rolls

Tons of options, as you can see! Regardless of how you end up serving your ground beef cheesesteak, I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments, and I always appreciate reviews if you enjoy this recipe. Just click the star rating in the recipe card below to let me know your thoughts.