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? The lower fat shaved steak from Trader Joe’s I used to make high protein beef noodles would also be a good option.
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.
Ground Beef Cheesesteak
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
- 1 1/2 pound Ground Beef, 96/4
- 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 8 oz sliced Mushrooms
- 1 large, 200g White Onion, diced
- 1 large, 150g Bell Pepper, diced
- 8 slices Provolone or White American Cheese
- Sliced Banana Peppers, optional
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the ground beef. Season with the 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Brown both sides completely for 3-4 minutes each before breaking apart and fully cooking. Transfer the cooked beef to a bowl and set aside.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, followed by the mushrooms, onion, and bell pepper. Season with remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the veggies have softened before adding the beef back to the skillet. Salt and pepper to taste.*
- Turn off the heat and add the cheese to the top of the skillet. Cover to melt with the residual heat.
- Serve on a toasted roll with light mayo and sliced peppers, over fries, in sliders or quesadillas, or whatever else you can come up with.
Okay, gotta comment because this was so simple but delicious. I cooked the beef and veggies in separate pans so I could make one pepper/mushroomless one for my kid—but this is going to be on repeat!
Thanks, Katie!
My wife and I really enjoyed this. Two nights worth of food.
Very good and easy dinner!! Been meaning to make forever!
One of our favorite recipes to date!!!! We make it at-least once a week and leftovers are ever better the next day as the perfect meal prep lunch
The BEST recipe I tried so far I used low carb wraps instead of hoagies and still 100000/10 !!!!!