Lamb Gyro-Style Chopped Cheese Sandwich Recipe

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It seems like every major city has a sandwich to call their own, whether it be Chicago's Italian beef, New Orleans' shrimp po'boy, or Philadelphia's beefy cheesesteak. New York's most famous hoagie is the chopped cheese, a gooey beef-filled masterpiece born out of a bodega in Harlem. Though the two ultimately look alike, chopped cheese is distinctly different from Philly cheese, which is filled with shaved beef, peppers, and provolone (or Cheeze Whiz). Chopped cheese, on the other hand, is built more like a hamburger, layering ground beef with lettuce, tomatoes, and melted cheese.

Many have speculated the true origin of the chopped cheese, some suggesting that it was created from the bodega's lack of hamburger buns while others pointing to the Arabic influence, being that the bodegas were Yemeni owned. And, while a classic chopped cheese does typically follow a specific formula, that doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of room to get creative with it. Inspired by lamb gyros, recipe developer Michelle McGlinn combines seasoned lamb with peppery tirokafteri (a creamy feta sauce) and layers them between hoagie buns filled with lettuce, tomato, and onion. The result is a perfect mix of gooey chopped cheese and spiced lamb gyro, a little taste of the bodega right at home.

For the tirokafteri, which you'll mix into the lamb, you'll need roasted red peppers (which you can roast yourself or buy jarred), garlic, red wine vinegar, salt, olive oil, and feta. You can use crumbled feta or brined, block feta for a creamier sauce. From there, you'll need ground lamb, cumin, oregano, Aleppo pepper, cracked black pepper, and yellow onion for the filling. With the filling and cheese sauce made, you'll just need ingredients for assembly, which include lettuce, tomato, red onion, and big, soft hoagie rolls.

Add feta cheese, red peppers, garlic, vinegar, and salt to a food processor.

Pulse until combined, then, while pulsing, drizzle in the olive oil until smooth.

Remove from the processor and set aside.

Begin cooking the lamb: Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Add the lamb and crumble until browned, about 5 minutes. Drain grease if needed.

Season with the cumin, oregano, Aleppo pepper, salt, and pepper, and mix to combine.

Add the onion slices and garlic and stir to combine, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the feta sauce into the skillet with the lamb and use a chopping motion to combine it with the meat.

To assemble the sandwiches, slice the hoagie rolls in half lengthwise and fill with the lamb and cheese mixture.

Top with lettuce, tomato, and sliced onion, then serve immediately.

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Tirokafteri is a Greek sauce made up of blended feta, red peppers, vinegar, and olive oil. Our version is fairly mild, but the sauce can be made spicier with the addition of red chile peppers in the blend. You can also swap the tirokafteri for a different sauce entirely, such as tzatziki, which is more commonly used in traditional gyros. While tirokafteri is richer and cheesier than tzatziki (making it perfect for chopped cheese), it isn't traditionally used in gyros like tzatziki, a cucumber and yogurt-based sauce.

If you want to swap for tzatziki, add the tangy sauce to the sandwich near the end of assembly rather than chopping it into the meat mixture. The tzatziki is best served cold, plus, its tangy flavor best shines when layered with the toppings rather than mixed into the meat. If you miss the cheesy texture of the chopped cheese, you can add feta (either whipped or crumbled) to the lamb instead.

A chopped cheese sandwich isn't exactly complicated, but making it the way the bodegas do takes some practice. The meat at a deli or bodega is likely to be cooked on a flat top griddle with two large metal spatulas, making it easy to literally chop the meat and cheese together into a gooey, meaty mixture. To do this at home, use your largest skillet and your longest metal spatula and roughly fold the cheese into the crumbled meat until the lamb is broken into very fine pieces. The finer you chop the meat, the better it will fold into the hoagie bun.

The other key to a good chopped cheese is the bun and assembly. The bun should be a soft, wide hoagie (or hero) bun, or any long, wide bread that can be sliced down the middle. A baguette would be too crusty, and a hot dog bun would be too small — the best choice is a large, soft bun-like bread. Once assembled, the most important step to making a bodega-style chopped cheese is wrapping it, which allows the ingredients to steam together into a perfectly moist, flattened texture. Wrap in foil or paper and wait a minute or two before slicing the sandwich in half right through the paper.

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