I love a good sandwich whether it’s cold or hot, but there’s something about a hot sandwich that makes it just a little better. My personal favorite is melted cheese, though toasted bread and sauteed veggies are up there. Good thing this Korean Steak Sandwich with Jalapenos and Garlic Mayo recipe has all that and more. More as in strips of marinated steak and chili garlic mayo. Yum! Let’s find out if it’s as good as it sounds.
This Korean Steak Sandwich with Jalapenos and Garlic Mayo is roll-your-eyes-in-your-head amazing! Marinated rib eye steak and a kick of chilli heat!
The Ingredients
This recipe promises to be filling and very caloric. So much so that half of each Korean Steak Sandwich with Jalapenos and Garlic Mayo is one serving. I decided to half the meat because it’s just the two of us. Plus ribeye steaks are pricey. Boneless ribeyes were priced around $25, but I was able to find one bone-in for $17 (deboning it only took a few seconds).
The recipe also calls for a sweet apple, but it doesn’t specify what kind. I did a quick search and settled on a Fuji apple since it was very high on the apple sweetness scale. My usual grocery store also had the rest of the produce, the cheese, and a loaf of fresh bread at the bakery. I opted for unsliced so I could slice it extra thick.
Everything else was waiting in my pantry and refrigerator. oh, and I had some Kewpie Mayonnaise, so I went with that. It’s Japanese mayonnaise made with egg yolks and it’s not as tangy as regular mayo.
The only thing I forgot was the sweet chili sauce. I assumed I had some on hand despite my pre-shopping check. I clearly didn’t check very well because the jar I thought was sweet chili sauce was garlic chili sauce. There is a link to a sweet chili sauce recipe in the ingredients list, but I didn’t have the ingredients on hand.
Instead, I used this recipe for Easy Sweet Chili Sauce since I had all its ingredients. It was great, but it needs to cool thoroughly to thicken up.
The Process
There is a lot to this Korean Steak Sandwich with Jalapenos and Garlic Mayo, and it all starts off with freezing the steak for 30 minutes. That firms it up so it’s much easier to slice it thinly. Once that was done, I mixed up the marinade. Tip: Instead of stirring, add the marinade ingredients to a sealed container, shake well to blend, then add the meat and stir to thoroughly coat.
The meat needed 30 minutes to marinate, so I had plenty of time to prep the remaining ingredients. I had everything sliced, measured, and ready to go by the time the steak was done. I also misread the recipe and mixed the chili sauce with the mayo and garlic. It actually worked out nicely since it blended all the flavors into one sauce.
I also preheated a large cast iron pan, so I was able to start cooking the steak immediately. I kept a large spoon and a heat-proof bowl next to the stove since the recipe said a lot of liquid would be released and need to be drained. It turned out that the liquid cooked away and I didn’t need either. I added a touch more oil and sauteed the peppers in the same pan.
Assembly and Toasting
My sliced bread was waiting for me to brush on the melted butter and top it will all that tasty goodness I had been prepping and cooking, and I happily did just that. It turns out that one steak was plenty of meat. I used all of it along with all the peppers and cheddar cheese. The sandwiches were pretty stuffed at this point, so I went a little lighter on the remaining onions and jalapeno slices.
I don’t have a sandwich press, so I did some research while planning this recipe. I used method #2 from 5 Ways to Make a Hot, Crispy Sandwich Without a Panini Press. By preheating a second cast iron skillet while I cooked the peppers, I had an improvised sandwich press for free.
It wasn’t perfect, but my sandwiches were nice and toasted. The bottom bread did look burned, but it tasted great. The top pieces were not as well done, and both were nice and buttery. All that was left was to add the chili-garlic mayo, slice, and enjoy.
Timing
- 1 hour 5 minutes to prep
- 30 minutes to freeze the steak
- 5 minutes to prep steak and marinade
- 30 minutes to marinate and finish prep work
- 17 minutes to cook
- 1 hour 22 minutes total
The recipe listed 1 hour 15 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and 1 hour 20 minutes total. My prep and cook times worked out differently, but my total time was extremely close.
