Chicken Philly vs Steak Philly

Every Philly on our menu comes with a choice of chicken or steak. Same roll, same cheese options, same nine builds — the only thing that changes is the meat. It is the single most common decision people make at the counter, and it changes the sandwich more than any topping does.

The short version: steak is richer and more forgiving; chicken is lighter and takes sauce better. Neither is the “real” one, whatever anyone tells you.

What each one actually is

The steak Philly is freshly sliced ribeye, chopped on the flat top as it cooks. Ribeye has fat running through it, and that fat renders on the griddle and coats everything else in the sandwich. That is where the richness comes from, and it is why a steak Philly tastes like more than the sum of its parts.

The chicken version is griddled chicken, cooked and chopped the same way in the same spot. It has far less fat to render, so it stays drier and cleaner tasting, and it picks up whatever else is in the build rather than dominating it.

Side by side

That last row is a preference rather than a rule, but the logic holds: the richer the meat, the more the cheese needs to cut through it rather than add to it.

Which builds work better with chicken

All nine work with either. Some are clearly better one way:

• Pizza Steak — marinara and mozzarella. Works better with chicken, which does not fight the tomato
• Smokehouse — bacon, BBQ sauce, onion rings. Chicken takes the sauce better; steak makes it very rich indeed
• Tiger Steak — jalapenos and blackened beer sauce. Steak, and it is not close
• Mushroom — steak. Mushrooms and rendered beef fat belong together
• The Garden — jalapenos, peppers and mushrooms. Either, and this is the one where chicken changes it most

The plain Cheese Steak Philly is the one worth ordering with steak at least once, because with nothing else in it you can actually taste what the ribeye is doing. The full explainer on the sandwich goes through all nine builds and what is in them, and Britannica has a short entry on where the original came from.

Is a chicken Philly still a cheesesteak?

Strictly, no — a cheesesteak is defined by the steak, and Philadelphia would be quick to tell you so. In practice, chicken cheesesteaks have been on menus for decades, they are made the same way on the same griddle, and arguing about the name has never made anyone’s lunch better.

What is worth knowing is that a chicken Philly is not a diet version. It is the same roll, the same cheese and the same portion. It is lighter than the steak because chicken is leaner, not because anything has been left out.

There is a third option

The Veggie Philly is the same sandwich with no meat at all — jalapenos, green peppers, banana peppers and mushrooms, with cheese, on the same roll. It is worth knowing that it is a build in its own right rather than a steak Philly with the beef left out, which is what “veggie” usually means on a menu like this.

It also tells you something useful about the other two. Strip the meat out and what is left is peppers, mushrooms and melted cheese in a good roll — which is a decent sandwich on its own. That is the base both the chicken and the steak are building on.

Onions, on or off

Every Philly comes with or without onion, and this is a bigger decision than it sounds. Griddled onions go soft and sweet and spread their flavour through the whole sandwich, in the same way the ribeye fat does.

Which means the two interact. On a steak Philly, onions are one more rich, sweet element in something already rich — good, but it stops being a sandwich about beef. On a chicken Philly, onions do more work, because there is less competing with them. If you are ordering chicken and want the sandwich to have more going on, onions are the cheapest way to get there.

How to choose

• Want the sandwich to taste of meat — steak
• Want to taste the peppers, sauce or cheese — chicken
• Ordering a 12-inch and not sure you can finish it — chicken
• Only ever having one — steak, plain, so you know what the fuss is about
• Feeding a group — order both and cut them in half

That last one is the genuinely useful answer. Two 12-inch Phillys, one of each, cut in half, gives four people a choice instead of a compromise — and it costs less than four 7-inch sandwiches would. It is also the only way to settle the argument at the table, which is usually what the argument is really about.

The short version

Steak is ribeye, richer, and leads the sandwich. Chicken is lighter and lets everything else through. Both come in a 7-inch and a 12-inch, on the same Amoroso roll, with the same seven cheeses to choose from. It is all on the Philly menu — and if you are pairing it with something, wings are the usual answer.

Nine builds, either way

Chicken or steak on any of them, with or without onion, in a 7-inch and a 12-inch.

Philly Cheesesteaks

Nine builds, seven cheeses.

Wings

The usual thing to order alongside.

Explore the Menu Order Online

Frequently asked questions