Chicken Cheese Steak Sandwiches

This is a slow cooker style recipe, so it will take a bit of time to make the chicken, and you can prepare that ahead of time.

Add the chicken pieces into your slow cooker, and toss in the smashed garlic and water. Season with a bit of salt and pepper, to taste. Cook for about 6 hours on low setting, or until no longer pink in the middle. Remove the skin and discard, then shred the chicken meat. Add the chicken back into the slow cooker and keep it warm until you are ready to prepare the sandwiches.

While the chicken is cooking, get your pepper and onions cooking. I like to serve my mixture with a bit of a crunch, and not let the onions and peppers get too soft. You feel it out, and go with what you like.

Add the onions, peppers, salt, pepper, butter and minced garlic into a nonstick skillet, and cook on medium heat until you reach your desired texture. Set to the side when done.

About 20 minutes before you want to serve the sandwiches, make the sauce.

Melt the butter on medium heat in a saucepan. Once the butter begins to bubble, but not brown, sprinkle in the flour. Then stir with a wooden spoon for about 4 minutes, and continue stirring along the way. Once the flour is cooked through, slowly add in the milk and continue to stir to smooth out the ingredients. No clumps please. Stir in salt and pepper.

Once the sauce begins to thicken, slowly add pieces of the white cheddar cheese, and continue stirring. I know, stirring all the time, right? Please.

Continue stirring in the cheese, slowly, and not overcrowding the pan. I think you get a better cheese sauce if you slowly add it, rather than being impatient and tossing all of the cheese in at once.

Once all of the cheese is melted, and the sauce is smooth, get excited. It’s time to build.

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Get a sheet of aluminum foil, large enough to wrap your sandwich, and lay it down on your work surface.

Take your sliced bread and load it with the shredded chicken. Take a big pile of the pepper and onion mixture and fold it into the sandwich. Ladle or spoon in the cheese mixture. Clamp the two sides of the bun together, then roll it up in the aluminum foil. Repeat with remaining sandwiches.

Place the foiled chicken cheese steak sandwiches on a pan and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Then remove them from the oven, unfold and plate.

Talk about a cheese steak! The chicken is ultra tender, and then you get some killer homemade bread along with a cheese sauce you made, with the texture of the crunchy pepper and onions! Need I say more? Forget Philly, you go this.