The month of October has swept in on a cold gust of wind, and what better way to keep warm than a hearty sandwich? Over at Yum Sugar, Iron Chef Cat Cora shares her barbecue brisket sandwich recipe, representing her Mississippi cooking background.

The sandwich which is on the menu at Cora’s CCQ restaurant in California, is also accompanied by a recipe for her signature Mississippi Mud sauce. Check out the full post for beautiful photos of the sandwich being constructed, and impress your friends with your newly acquired Iron Chef skills tonight!

Cat Cora’s Ultimate Barbecue Brisket Sandwich [Yum Sugar]

Submitted by Unbreaded reader Tim Fagan. Have a sandwich you love? Submit it to us and we’ll post it on the site.

It puts a smile on my face when I see newcomers order sandwiches at Famous 4th Street Delicatessen. You know, the people naive to how incredibly large the portions are. The best was an older couple who each ordered their own sandwich; I thought the woman was going to fall out of her seat when she saw the mound of whitefish placed in front of her. And, that was just the “regular” sized sandwich. On the back of the menu, are the holy “Ungashtupt” (Yiddish for over done, or stuffed) sandwiches, each named for a location in New York where the family has owned a deli. Tim Fagan recently ordered one such sandwich, and sent us his story.

Hit the jump to read all about it.

So I live about a block away from the Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen at 4th and Bainbridge and decided to pick up a game-day sandwich for the official start of football season yesterday. I usually just get a regular sized hot brisket sandwich, which might just be the best sandwich I’ve ever had (brisket, cheese, coleslaw, Russian dressing, amazing rye bread). But yesterday I opted for the “Far Rockaway” – brisket, turkey, swiss, lettuce, tomato, onion, Russian dressing, and I had them add cole slaw on top. What arrived was a sandwich so huge they didn’t even have a box big enough to fit it (it was fortified with two layers of plastic wrap). They basically placed a brisket sandwich on top of a turkey sandwich and gave it a name. Pure genius.

Needless to say at 6 inches high I had to eat it a quarter at a time and nearly passed out from simply inhaling the brisket.

Famous 4th Street Delicatessen
700 S. 4th Street – Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Google Map)

Kadima means “let’s move” or “keep going” in Hebrew, which Chef Michael Solomonov believes captures the essence of sandwiches: quick; in and out; continue on with your day.  Maybe that’s why 95% of lunch customers order a sandwich at Zahav.  Or perhaps it is the incomparable value of eating a James Beard acclaimed chef’s food for just $10.

Israeli cuisine is decidedly more robust than falafel and hummus.  In fact, Israeli food is a combination of dozens of world influences brought to the region by individuals and communities that have come to settle in the Holy Land.  Romanian and Balkan food coexists with Yemeni and Moroccan cuisine; as immigrants flood into Israel, they bring their native cultures and flavors with them and Israel has developed a diverse and multicultural national cuisine.

Laffa bread, which is similar to lavash or pita, is baked to order in a 700-degree wood burning oven that gives it a unique character and flavor: aerated, puffy, dense but not delicate.  The wood oven, which is seldom used anymore even in Israel, imparts a soft but crisp texture to the bread.  The dough is not totally uniform – thumbprints are a must in order to get that bubbled, crackled texture that is darkened in spots but still pliable, so that it bends and stretches as it rips apart.

The sandwich menu includes the Gibraltar (swordfish), the Turk (ground beef), the Galil (eggplant), the Sabra (chicken), and Monsieur Merguez (lamb).  Though the featured ingredients change, each sandwich is fired over screaming hot coals and served with Zahav’s speckled green tahina full of herbs (parsley, dill, chives, mint), sesame paste, garlic, cumin, lemon juice and salt.  The creamy spread has a deeply nutty and vibrantly herbaceous flavor, full of healthy natural oil.  Sandwiches are served with well-done Israeli pickles.

The Sabra consists of grilled chicken skewers, or shishlik, that are marinated in an onion marinade that tenderizes the meat and caramelizes over the hot coals.  The sliced onions are seasoned with sumac that gives a mildly sour flavor that plays off the sweetness and smokiness of the grilled chicken.

Zahav’s juicy North African Merguez lamb kebab is made with garlic and a spicy harissa, and is served with matbucha (a cooked pepper and tomato salsa) and the creamy herbed tahina.  The richness of the meat is balanced by the depth of the two sauces and the dense but light laffa that crackles with each bite.

Chef Solomonov revealed a few details about his next project, Percy Street Barbecue, scheduled to open this October.  The Texas BBQ restaurant will be very casual with a Southern bluesy feel.  Percy Street has two wood smokers being delivered from Texas so the meats will get that unmistakable smokiness that comes from slow cooking over oak and mesquite for 24 hours.  Percy Street will specialize in dry BBQ, notably brisket, and also pork shoulder and pork belly (which we hope turns into a sandwich.)  Homemade sausages, spare ribs, and chef Erin O’Shea’s corn bread got our mouths watering, and the promise of Yards Root Beer on draught nearly buckled our knees.

And when he’s not working on barbecue or eating a simple hummus and laffa sandwich at Zahav, Chef Solomonov enjoys the Vietnamese sandwiches from Viet Huong, particularly the char broiled pork banh mi.

Gallery

Zahav
237 St. James Place, Philadelphia PA 19106 (Google Map)

In the shadows of Philadelphia’s municipal buildings, just a few steps away from Love Park, Bubby’s Brisket occupies one of the smallest retail spaces in the city on 15th Street near Arch.  This takeout-only place has no room for seating, barely enough space to stand in line, but the diminutive sandwich shop produces enormous flavors with their selection of hot dogs, cheesesteaks and signature brisket sandwiches.

The braised brisket is slow cooked in Bubby’s secret gravy, imparting a rich, hearty, powerful flavor and fall-apart texture to the meat.  Quarter-inch thick slices of brisket are piled on a fresh and chewy Liscio’s hoagie roll and slathered with the gravy to keep the meat juicy and bursting with flavor.  With each bite, shards of succulent meat disintegrate into your mouth, compelling you to take another (and another, and another) pull on the delectable sandwich.

Bubby’s Brisket
103 North 15th Street, Philadelphia PA 19102 (Google Map)

Having discovered that the Old City crowd prefers a late night binge of tacos, ribs and burritos over seafood, Philadelphia Fish & Company took just one week to transform from a 26-year-old neighborhood fixture into a Southern influenced BBQ restaurant. Reborn as Q, it’s a place where the friendly staff and comfortable, bluesy atmosphere reflects the traditional family food served hot off the smoker and full of heart.

Pit master Tom Stewart learned his craft from his grandfather in eastern North Carolina, where real BBQ is a smoked pork butt (shoulder) in a vinegar-based sauce.  And as you travel west to Tennessee and into Missouri, the sauce tends to get sweeter, thicker, and richer with a stronger influence of tomato.  Q offers a selection of three Dixie sauces: Vinegar, a thin sauce made from “spices and love with just a hint of tomato” (though true NC purists may cringe at the thought); Q Sauce, a tomato-based balance of sweet, spice and vinegar; and Sweet, a thick Kansas City-style sauce that lives up to its name.  Perhaps most remarkable is that each of the sauces works well with the others, giving you the ability to customize the flavor to your own preference.

Chicken, pork and beef are each rubbed with their own closely guarded secret spice blends and smoked up to 13 hours at a shot with chunks of fragrant hickory.  Flame-kissed on the grill to finish and pulled by hand (or sliced thin, in the case of the brisket) the meats take on a depth of flavor that can only come with slow cooking.

The pulled pork sandwich is the top selling item on the menu.  A mound of the smokey, tangy meat is topped with cool, refreshing cole slaw, served in non-traditional shreds of cabbage, as opposed to the finely chopped bits you’d find in the Outer Banks. We were impressed by the texture and consistency of the meat, tender and pulled in thicker pieces than we’re accustomed to. The North Carolina vinegar adds just the right amount of sweet and sour playing off the meat nicely.

The brisket sandwich is spicy and smoky, tender to the bite and full of big flavor, though slightly drier than we’d prefer after hours on the smoker.  But the sauces (a mix of Q and Vinegar) saved the day, adding a juicy burst and extra spiciness that perfectly complimented the meat.  Served on a firm but fresh roll, the sandwich held together well and managed the generous serving of meat.

Though it is not a sandwich, we recommend trying one of their 60 tequilas in a flute glass, which mitigates the pungent sharpness and offers a silky, mellow, classy way to do body shots off a drunk chick.

Gallery

Q BBQ & Tequila
207 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 (Google Map)

Phoebe’s Bar-B-Q is a hole-in-the-wall takeout joint on South Street in Fitler Square, full of big flavors and an unabashedly gruff staff befitting the tagline “Ribs With Attitude”.  Known primarily for their ribs and rotisserie chicken, they also offer most of the menu items in sandwich form.  The brisket sandwich is a definite winner, but the pulled pork disappoints and the rib “sandwiches” are total failures.  Not the ribs themselves are bad — in fact, they are quite delicious — but the audacity to call a platter of hulking bone-in ribs on sauce-soaked white bread “sandwiches” is misleading at best and deceitful at worst.

Nonetheless, the brisket is a real treat.  A smokey, saucy stack of tender, flavorful meat on a dense New York Bakery kaiser roll, the sandwich holds together in the hand, and flakes apart in the mouth.  The roll becomes increasingly more saturated with sauce with each bite but avoids becoming too soft or mushy, maintaining a moist and chewy consistency till the end.

The pulled pork sandwich misses on three levels: the meat is less-than-juicy (not quite dry, but not quite succulent); it is served in large pieces, not shreds; and it is surprisingly mild in flavor, falling well short of expectations.

Sandwiches are served with an adorable (but too small) side of crunchy cole slaw and your choice of Phoebe’s famous hot or mild sauce.  And though there is no rotisserie chicken sandwich on the menu, we frequently build our own chicken sandwich with the bits we pull from the platter.

Phoebe’s Bar-B-Q
2214 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146 (Google Map)

When we first heard about El Camino Real opening in the former location of Deuce in Northern Liberties, we were excited for the south of the border inspired Texas barbecue and Mexican menu. Philadelphia is severely lacking in the smoked meat department and here at the Unbreaded offices we sure love us some barbecue brisket. Owned and operated by Owen Kamihira of the wonderful Bar Ferdinand just across the way, El Camino Real is perfectly decorated and noisy just like a higher end watering hole. The menu is divided into two subheadings – Mexico and Texas with sandwiches only offered on the latter (although isn’t a burrito a sandwich?).

The Wagyu Brisket and Beef Short Rib sandwiches are both slow cooked in the smoker over applewood and served on large slabs of Texas toast with a choice of regular or spicy house barbecue sauce on the side. The brisket was thickly sliced and succulent, but lacked that smoky character and slow cooked flavor. The short rib came sliced slightly differently, in thicker yet small patches and seemed a bit more robust in flavor, but the meat was surprisingly overcooked and tough to the bite. Both sandwiches suffered from collapse due to the overly soft bread, which quickly turned into an even bigger disaster after soaking up the immense amounts of sauce we used to add flavor to the bland meat. The sandwiches did arrive literally minutes after our order was placed and it’s questionable whether or not the meat was sliced to order, or sitting in a warming tray. The fries were crispy and tasted fresh but were far too over seasoned for our taste.

It would be unfair to rate El Camino Real as a whole based on the sandwiches, simply because there are so many other offerings on the menu. Unfortunately for us, the sandwiches did not impress nor did they satisfy our hunger for Texas barbecue. Next time, we’d go for the burrito.

Get your sandwich on:

El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19123 (Google Map)

Weekend Recipe posts are intended to give you a delicious sandwich you can try on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Braising a brisket is about succulent, juicy, flakes of tender beef that melt in your mouth and fill your gullet with a deep, hearty, robust, meaty flavor. Served on a fresh Italian bread with gravy, horseradish and shredded gruyere cheese.

Directions for a 2lb cut of brisket:

1. In a dry bowl, combine all ingredients for spice rub and stir till completely incorporated.
2. Trim away any large sections of fat on the meat. Rub an even coating of spice rub on both sides and pat down into the meat. Pour a light drizzle of olive oil on both sides and pat down.
3. Preheat oven to 325.
4. Over medium-high heat, pour canola oil in a sauté pan, enough to coat the bottom. When it comes to a light smoke, sear brisket for approx. 3 minutes on each side.
5. Pour in enough braising liquid to cover ¾ of meat, cover, and put in oven. Turn meat every 45 minutes for 3 hours.
6. After 3 hours, remove meat and use cooked braising liquid as gravy.

Jeff’s beef rub

- 1 tsp hungarian paprika
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp New Mexico chile
- ½ tsp ancho chile powder
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground mustard
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp granulated onion
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1/8 tsp chipotle chile
- 1-2 tbsp kosher salt to taste

Jeff’s braising liquid

In a dry sauce pot, lightly toast seeds (stirring frequently) over medium heat until fragrant. Add onion, garlic and olive oil and sauté till golden. When onion and garlic begin to brown, stir in tomato paste to incorporate all ingredients. Stir frequently for 2-3 minutes while tomato paste browns and begins to stick to the bottom. Continuously scrape bottom for another 1-2 minutes, longer if paste is not sticking. Pour in broth, Worcester, soy and hot sauces and use wooden spoon to scrape up all bits on the bottom. Add 2 dried ancho chiles, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove chiles, onion, garlic and seeds with a slotted spoon or strainer.

- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 small onion, large chops
- 2 cloves garlic, large chops
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp Worcester sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Frank’s hot sauce
- 2 dried whole ancho chiles
- 3-4 cups beef broth

Have a recipe you’d like to share with us? Click here to read more about submitting to Unbreaded!