Leftovers! Pittsburgh-Style Prime Rib Salad

Post-Christmas we all have a lot of leftovers–my family always ends up with lots of cookies, pies, ham and PRIME RIB. This year was no exception. So I drove back from Pittsburgh with a giant hunk of delicious beef in the trunk of my car. But what to do with it once I got it home?

Well, I have already turned leftover prime rib into fajitas and Korean Tacos, so this time I thought I’d bring it on home and serve up a Pittsburgh delicacy: The Pittsburgh Steak Salad.

You may ask yourself “what the hell makes it a Pittsburgh salad?” Well, the answer is the same if you asked “what the hell makes a sandwich a Pittsburgh sandwich?”

The secret ingredient: FRENCH FRIES.

Yep, If you are ever in the ‘Burgh and order a steak or chicken salad, just assume that it’s gonna be lousy with fried food. And deliciousness.

I didn’t know how much I loved the idea of fries on salad until I realized that they just don’t do it like that everywhere.

Well, here is how to do it and do it right:

For the meat, I sliced some of the prime rib really thin. And I baked some shoestring frozen french fries. The key is to have the salad already assembled and then put the fries, meat and cheese on all at the same time in the hopes that the cheese melts a bit. So I cooked the sliced meat briefly in a frying pan right as the fries were ready to come out of the oven.

For the salad part, get a bag of American-blend salad (with the radishes and the carrots and the red cabbage) and then top it. To be Pittsburgh-Style the only requirements are meat, cheese, and fries; so go nuts and put anything you want on it–I go with what I consider the classic accoutrements: pepperoncini, black olives, cucumber, tomatoes, and hard boiled egg (ok, this time I forgot the hard boiled egg–but normally it is there!).

I guess that you could put whatever dressing you want on the salad, but it just ain’t right if it ain’t Ranch. Us Pittsburghers love love love Ranch.