Vindaloo Cheesesteak on Naan
A spicy delicious cheesesteak inspired by my favorite Indian dish vindaloo, and served on a fluffy naan! This sandwich was the most craveable, amazing thing I have eaten in a while, and after every bite I couldn’t wait for the next one! Probably because the whole thing was soaked and dripping with butter and garlicky goodness, with a nice hint of spice.
The inspiration for this recipe
I have this new pizza oven and I have really been wanting to try making naan in it. Georgina randomly mentioned the idea of having cheesesteaks on naan for dinner one night and I immediately had an excuse to break out the oven and try it! I decided to do not just any cheesesteak, but a spicy one inspired by vindaloo, and serve it on the homemade fresh garlic naan.
Make the naan
The dough has lots of yogurt and butter in it, and I let it rise for about 2 hours before the photos below. After the first rise, add garlic and cilantro and roll it up. Continue to roll it over itself to create layers of garlic and herbs.
Let it rest about 20 minutes, then roll it into a log and cut into rounds. You need to let these rise another 2ish hours.
Roll out the naan
After they have risen, roll each one out as thin as you can and slap it into the oven! I rolled out the naan nice and wide so it would be a great shape for the vindaloo cheesesteaks. Like I mentioned, I used my new pizza oven, but you could also do this in a regular oven on a pizza steel or cast iron.
Cooking the naan in a pizza oven
I let the dough hang off the edge of my peel, so when it landed on the stone it stuck and was able to drag itself off the peel and into the oven. As you can see, it puffed up nicely!
Make the vindaloo cheesesteak mixture
Sliced ribeye in the pan to brown up first. I already cooked the onions ahead of time. That way once the meat is browned, you can put the vindaloo cheesesteaks together quick and get the meat on the warm naan!
Lots of spices, butter, and onions
Add the butter with garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and kashmiri chili. Then some garam masala, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and clove. I like to play with the spices a bit depending on my mood. I also used this spice blend for vindaloo to match with the cheesesteak and naan flavors. If you want a more traditional vindaloo recipe I have linked one below.
Finally some red wine vinegar to deglaze the pan. Then add in the cheese!
Build the vindaloo cheesesteak on naan
Brush the warm naan with butter, then add on the vindaloo cheesesteak filling. So good!
Serving the vindaloo cheesesteak on naan
I could eat these vindaloo chesesteaks on naan every day, they were so good! The meat was perfectly tender and the spice profile went great with everything.
A nice beer on the side was just what I needed!
Twists on this recipe
You could do this with lamb of course, which is more common in vindaloo, but I was aiming for the classic cheesesteak flavor. You could also add potatoes which are common in modern vindaloo, but they were only added because of a grammatical mistake.
I always use this recipe as a guide/ inspiration when making vindaloo. Obviously I needed to adjust things quite a bit for a dry version. I have been looking at these naan recipes lately but I need to adjust more for the pizza oven.
Vindaloo is one of my favorite dishes to make mash-ups with. Check out my vindaloo onion soup, or these vindaloo tater tots!
Vindaloo Cheesesteak on Naan
Equipment
- pizza oven optional
Ingredients
Naan
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1/2 packet instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 8 oz greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup minced cilantro
Cheesesteak
- 4 yellow onions sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons butter
- salt and pepper
- 2 pounds thin sliced or shaved ribeye
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 inches ginger grated
- 2 jalapenos minced seeds optional
- 1 teaspoon kashmiri chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- pinch cinnamon
- pinch turmeric
- pinch clove
- 2 tablespoons red vinegar
- 6 slices provolone cheese
- even more butter
Instructions
Naan
- Mix the naan ingredients, except the garlic and cilantro, in a large bowl. Mix until combined. Pour onto a surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth. Cover and allow to rise for 2 hours.
- Roll out the dough on the counter and add the cilantro and garlic. Roll the dough up around the cilantro and garlic, then roll the long over itself. Repat the process to incorporate the garlic and cilantro into the dough. Cover with a damp paper towel and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
- Roll the dough into a log and cut into 4 to 6 balls depending on how large you want the sandwiches and how much leftover naan you want. I cut mine into 4 and the amount of filling I made filled 3 of them for huge sandwiches and I had one bread leftover.
- Roll each ball into a uniform shape folding the dough in on itself to create a smooth outside layer. Place seam side down. Cover the completed dough balls with a damp paper towel. Allow to rise for 2 hours.
- Preheat the pizza oven to about 750, or your regular oven with a baking steel as high as it will go with convection turned on if possible.
- Roll the dough as thin as you can and put the thin round directly onto the baking steel or onto the cooking surface of the pizza oven. Cook in the pizza oven about 3-5 minutes until browned on top and bubbled up. In an oven, you may want to do about 6 minutes, then flip for a few more minutes. You could also do it on a grill.
- Remove from heat and wrap in a clean kitchen towel. Repeat until all are done and together in the kitchen towel.
Make the cheesesteak.
- Cook the onions first- preheat a large pan and add the butter and onions. Cook on medium heat about 10 minutes to soften. Season with salt and pepper and continue to cook, about 30-45 more minutes, adjusting the heat as needed, to caramelize.
- Add the sliced steak to a hot pan with some oil. Cook to brown on all sides. Turn heat to medium and add in the butter, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and kashmiri chili. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add in the remaining spices and turn heat to low. Add in the vinegar and stir and deglaze the pan.
- Add in the cheese and allow to melt on top of the meat.
- Brush the naan with some melted butter. Stir the meat to let the cheese get mixed in. Serve the meat on top of the naan. Use some foil to help roll it up if desired.