I had recently whipped up a batch of mom’s pimento cheese for another sandwich project and it made me remember a burger I had more than 10 years ago. This burger is now called the Shadoe Burger but at the time, it was an off menu item at a friend’s brewery/restaurant in Durham, North Carolina. I decided to recreate some of the flavors of that burger in this skirt steak-focused sandwich.
What is this sandwich?
This is a sandwich that’s based on the components of a Shadoe Burger from Bull City Burger and Brewery. When I first tried this burger, back in 2012 or so, I don’t think it was officially on the restaurant menu yet. There was a bartender who introduced himself as Shadoe and he suggested I try the build-your-own burger option with three additions.
The three build-your-own-burger options that Shadoe claimed were the best when paired together were pimento cheese, a vinegary slaw, and chimichurri. At the time of the suggestion, I thought these three components were interesting choices and I initially felt that they might have some conflicting flavors but I gave it a shot. Turns out, this Shadoe person was right and this was a well-put-together burger concept.
Sometime after that, the Shadoe burger was officially added to the menu at Bull City Burger and Brewery. And then it later got a name upgrade to Dr. Shadoe Burger because that original bartender who suggested this burger to me went on to become a Periodontist.
Bull City Burger and Brewery?
Bull City Burger and Brewery is a small brewpub right in the middle of downtown Durham, North Carolina. My friend, homebrewing partner, and ex-coworker, Seth Gross, owns the place and they’ve been making burgers and brewing beers since March of 2011. Not only do they make their own beer, but they bake their own buns for the burgers and they make pretty much everything that the restaurant serves except for the ketchup and soft drinks.
Durham is a town I rarely visit these days so I don’t get to go back to Bull City Burger and Brewery very often, but I definitely will be having another Dr Shadoe burger on my next visit.
What is this burger sandwich?
We’re not making a Shadoe burger. We’re making a sandwich that’s inspired by the Shadoe burger. I’m using some recipes I’ve shared before and I’m not attempting to copycat the flavors of a burger that I haven’t had in years. Instead, I’m making a sandwich that takes the essence of this burger and applies it to skirt steak instead of ground beef.
This is a skirt steak sandwich with my mom’s pimento cheese, my wife’s chimichurri recipe, and a simple cabbage and green onion slaw tossed with seasoned white wine vinegar and olive oil. All of this is stuffed inside of my own homemade soft and crispy focaccia.
Note: there’s a ton of focaccia/baking content in this sandwich blog post, feel free to scroll or jump to the meat of the matter if you want.
Focaccia
I love focaccia. It’s probably one of the easiest ways to make bread and the return on your investment is high. If you’ve never baked and you show the slightest interest in giving it a shot, I want you to keep reading and use my tips and tools to attempt your own pan of focaccia.
Over the past 3 weeks, I have made a whole heck-of-a-lot of focaccia because I got the great idea to develop a new online tool that would help folks make focaccia no matter what size pan they have. The idea for this tool came to me when I was thinking about my 4 x 8-inch loaf pan focaccia recipe I shared in my Thanksgiving Detroit Pizza post last week. I wrote that you could just double everything to make the same bread in an 8 x 8-inch pan, which is a pretty common brownie pan that I’m guessing a lot of people had.
My next thought was, what if you have a 9 x 9-inch pan or a 9 x 13-inch pan? What if the pan was circular? How difficult would it be to scale the recipe to exactly that size? I then decided to build a web tool to do those calculations for you.
As you will see I made a whole bunch of focaccia while testing this tool. Luckily focaccia is a pretty awesome thing to have a lot of.
Focaccia calculator
In the development process for this focaccia pan calculator, I dug up some math that I hadn’t used in years in order to make everything work. Sorry to all my math teachers for not paying better attention.
This focaccia calculator figures out the area of the bottom of the pan (length x width = area) and then it scales that up or down depending on the size of the pan that has been entered into the tool. The focaccia pan calculator will also do the same thing with a round or circular pan (do you remember pi * radius squared or πr2 from high school?). After I got the basic version of this tool up and running, I started test baking and doing a whole bunch of user interface modifications.
My focaccia recipe is a no-knead bread recipe. You just need (not knead) to stir the ingredients together until no dry flour is visible which typically takes between 1 to 2 minutes. I do highly suggest that you use a kitchen scale though. This is the digital kitchen scale I bought for myself and have enjoyed it so much that I bought one for my mom’s house too.
In my tests, this tool works well for me. Sure, you could do the calculations on your own to get to this point if you really wanted to. But for me, the simplicity of this focaccia calculator is that now you don’t have to remember how to solve for the area of your pan and then do a bunch of silly division and multiplication to build the ingredient list. This tool will do it for you.
Give this tool a try, it’s linked down below but you can find the focaccia pan calculator right here.
The recipe I use in the focaccia pan calculator is a soft and crispy focaccia. It’s not one of those super fluffy focaccias with huge bubbles, this one has a bit of structure because I want the final bread to be able to be sliced and used for sandwiches. There’s structure to my focaccia that you earn from a little bit of proofing time and some very simple stretches and folds.
I tested these recipes in pretty much any pan I could get my hands on. I used anything from 9 x 13-inch to 4 x 8-inch pans. The focaccia recipe does seem to work better in larger pans because the dough has a bit more space to expand. 9 x 13-inch performed best and rose the highest in my experience, but even the 4 x 8 pan produces a nice piece of bread for a sandwich or two.
I think I will probably try a half-sheet pan focaccia when I visit my parents over the Holidays. I’ll update you on how that goes.
Salt on the focaccia?
Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of a bit of crunchy, flaky salt on top of a piece of fresh focaccia, but I have stopped sprinkling it on top of the bread that I bake for myself. Yes, it’s good. But the salt on top will start to melt into the top of the focaccia within just a few hours. Focaccia works just like pretzels in that the salt will not last 24 hours so if you want to add salt and you think you won’t be eating that focaccia within 24 hours you can always add it at the time of eating.
If you’re cooking for a large group and you think most of the focaccia will be consumed in one fell swoop, then you should salt the top. People expect it but if you want to store the focaccia to serve tomorrow, skip the salt on top.
Reheating focaccia
Day-old focaccia is good. It’s not as good as fresh focaccia but with a bit of toasting in an oven or toaster oven will bring a lot of the crispiness back to the bread that it loses as it rests. I find that cutting off a sandwich-sized piece of focaccia and not slicing it until you crisp it up in the oven is best. Place the whole hunk in a toaster oven and set it to toast on a fairly light level or if you are using a regular oven, 350 F / 175 C for about 7 to 10 minutes will do the trick.
Once the focaccia has been toasted a little, then you can slice it and start to get to work on sandwiching. If you toast after slicing, sometimes the focaccia will curl up a little bit around the edges. This will still make a good sandwich, but I like it better when I toast the whole sandwich-sized piece, unsliced.
Get to calculating some focaccia
Here’s my focaccia calculator tool, which I built and have been using to make focaccia recipes to fit every pan I’ve tried so far. Or at least every square/rectangular or circle pan that I could find. If you’ve got a weird triangle-shaped or rhombus-shaped pan, hit me up and maybe I can help.
Focaccia pan calculator
This tool will build an ingredient list to help you create a focaccia to fit the size of the pan that you want to use. Enter the shape and size of your pan and the Focaccia Calculator will do the rest.
Skirt steak
Instead of a ground beef patty like the Dr Shadoe burger has, I chose to try a different type of beef. I bought some skirt steak from the meat counter of my grocery store.
Skirt steak is a good cut of beef to turn into sandwiches. It’s fairly inexpensive compared to other cuts of beef and if you slice it against the grain, it will end up lending a tender bite in a sandwich. In this sandwich, I thought about marinating the skirt steak but I decided there were enough things going on with the sandwich components that I could skip that step.
I just added a little olive oil to the exterior of the meat, sprinkled both sides with salt and black pepper, and then added it to a grill pan to quickly cook the steak for my lunch.
I cooked the steak to around 120 F (49 C) and gave it a chance to rest before I sliced. This translated to about 4 or 5 minutes per side on my grill pan. Once cooked, give the steak 5 minutes or so to rest, and then look for lines or striations in the exterior of the meat. With a sharp knife, slice perpendicular to the “grain” in order to cut through the tough muscle fibers which will mean that the sliced meat will be easy to rip through with your canines.
Mom’s pimento cheese
I love pimento cheese. I’ve shared this recipe quite a few times in the past. At one point I stopped making it for a year or so because I would sneak it into sandwiches for this blog and I was worried all my sandwiches would end up having pimento cheese spread inside.
But this Shadoe sandwich requires pimento cheese, so I made a fresh batch in my food processor. You can make pimento cheese without a food processor but if you already own one you should put it to use here. First, most food processors come with cheese shredding capabilities which will significantly shorten the amount of effort that this recipe requires.
Shred the cheese, swap out the shredding blade, and return the regular processing blade. While you’re swapping out the blades you can mix in the sugar and mayonnaise and then get the cheese back in to process into the right consistency.
The best tip that I have learned from making pimento cheese so many times is to stir in the pimentos themselves at the very last minute or during the last few pulses of the food processor.
That tip is a purely visual tip, it affects the final pimento cheese spread flavor or texture very little, but it’s something you’ll notice with your eyes while you’re snacking on it so I think it’s important.
Mom's pimento cheese
Pimento cheese is an awesome addition to a sausage biscuit sandwich. Growing up, I enjoyed a lot of pimento cheese sandwiches, with just the spread and sliced bread. This recipe also works great as a snack with crackers or pretzels.
Get RecipeMy wife’s chimichurri
My wife doesn’t eat a whole lot of red meat, but when we do cook a steak, she likes chimichurri or some other sauce to accompany it. Chimichurri brings fresh herby flavor and a bit of acidity from vinegar into play when you spoon it over savory steak. It brightens up a steak and adds a bunch of excitement to the experience.
All this also happens in this sandwich. The super creamy pimento cheese benefits from the tartness of the chimichurri as well. Bull City Burger and Brewery’s chimichurri says it has lemon juice in it and my recipe just uses red wine vinegar for the tart addition so we’re not making a copycat version here, just remember that.
I also make my chimichurri in the food processor so don’t put it back in the cabinet after you’ve cleaned it from the pimento cheese. Chimichurri is super quick to make though and it lasts for quite a while in the fridge.
Chimichurri solidification
The main problem with storing the chimichurri in the refrigerator is that the fatty acids in olive oil will solidify and become cloudy when they get cold. This will cause your chimichurri to turn from an oily liquid into more of a jello-like consistency. This solidification process doesn’t harm the olive oil or chimichurri though, it just means that the chimichurri will need some time outside of the fridge to warm up before coming back to the texture that it will have when freshly made.
If I know I’m going to use chimichurri on a steak or sandwich later, I will simply pull it out of the fridge sometime earlier to warm up and de-solidify. If you forget, you can stir the chimichurri a little bit to help the thawing process. You can also add a small amount of chimichurri to a bowl with half a teaspoon of fresh olive oil and stir to help it come back to room temperature.
Chimichurri
Great on steak or any meat that is roasted or grilled. Robin says the mint makes this chimichurri feel fresh and spicy, punching up all the flavors.
Get RecipeVinegrette slaw
You could probably go fancy and elaborate with this slaw. I did not. I just shredded up some cabbage with a sharp knife, added some thinly sliced scallion—for color—and then tossed it all in a dash of white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. That’s it. That’s a very basic vinegary slaw.
I do not remember the slaw at Bull City Burger and Brewery but I am sure that their recipe is a bit more complicated than this. Hopefully, one day soon I will get a chance to try it again, but for now, I just used my very simple vinegary slaw to bring some extra tartness to the whole sandwich and it worked well.
Shadoe skirt steak sandwich build process
I tried to use the photos of the Shadoe burger online to help with the layering process with this sandwich. I sliced the focaccia and then built the whole thing as shown below.
Shadoe skirt steak sandwich photos and recipe
I made this sandwich quite a few times over the past week. I went through 2 pounds of skirt steak and enjoyed every minute. The flavors of the three main components of a Dr Shadoe burger work much better than I expected and they do the same thing in this sandwich.
Here are a few photos of the completed sandwich and I have a full recipe just below all the photos. Let me know if you give this sandwich a shot. I’ve recently deleted my Twitter account but I have replaced it with Bluesky and am attempting to share more sandwich and bread content over there. I still have my Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok accounts as well. Hit me up.
Shadoe skirt steak sandwich
This sandwich is inspired by the Dr Shadoe burger from Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham, North Carolina. The bold flavors of pimento cheese, chimichurri, and vinegary slaw meld together to form a great skirt steak sandwich experience.
Ingredients:
Pimento cheese- 1 pound cheddar cheese (mixture of sharp cheddar and medium cheddar)
- 4 ounces chopped pimentos
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3⁄4 cup Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 cup cilantro leaves
- 1 cup flat leafed Italian parsley
- 1⁄2 cup fresh mint leaves
- 1 shallot, roughly diced
- 4 or 5 cloves garlic chopped
- 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3⁄4 cup olive oil
- 1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1⁄4 cup cabbage, shredded
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced (just the green parts)
- white wine vinegar
- olive oil
- salt and ground black pepper
- 6 to 8 ounces skirt steak
- focaccia, sliced (link to recipe)
- pimento cheese (from above)
- chimichurri (from above)
Directions:
Pimento cheese: grate cheddar in a food processor or on a hand grater.
Add cheese to a large bowl with sugar, Miracle Whip, or mayonnaise and stir to combine.
Add everything back to the food processor with the blade attachment instead of the grating attachment.
Pulse the processor until you get your desired consistency.
Add half of the pimentos and some of the liquid from the jar. This will loosen the cheese mixture in the food processor a little and should allow it to become a bit smoother.
When the cheese mixture looks like it would be spreadable, taste it and add any salt and pepper that it might need.
Add the remaining pimentos and all the liquid from the jar and pulse one or two more times. This will allow your pimento cheese to have visible pimentos in it. If you add the pimento all at the beginning, you will blitz it until it's all too small to see.
Package up the pimento cheese and store the cheese spread in the fridge for a week or so.
Chimichurri: add the herbs, diced shallot, and chopped garlic to a food processor or blender and pulse until chopped and incorporated.
Pour in 3/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar into the food processor and pulse until you have a blended sauce with a soupy consistency.
Taste your chimichurri at this point and add salt and pepper until it tastes the way you'd like.
If you think it's too chunky, you can add up to another quarter cup of olive oil or vinegar and pulse again to change the thickness of the sauce.
Store in the fridge for about 2 to 3 weeks. If you're pulling it straight out of the fridge to use, it might be extra thick. Allowing the chimichurri to come closer to room temperature will bring it back to a more oily texture.
Vinegary slaw: add shredded cabbage, sliced green onion, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper to a small bowl. Mix to combine and set aside until sandwich assembly time.
Skirt steak: preheat a grill, grill pan, or skillet for 5 minutes. While the pan is preheating, add about a teaspoon of olive oil to the outside of the skirt steak. Sprinkle all sides with a little salt and ground black pepper.
When the grill/skillet is hot, add the skirt steak and cook on the first side for 5 minutes, flip and cook for an additional 4 minutes. This should have the steak at about an internal temperature of medium. If you need it more well done, flip and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove the skirt steak to a cutting board to rest for 5 minutes.
After five minutes have elapsed, slice the skirt steak into thin slices perpendicular to the grain of the meat.
Sandwich assembly: slice the focaccia, top with a generous spread of pimento cheese, then stack on the steak slices and top that with some vinegary slaw.
Add a few spoonfuls of chimichurri on top of the slaw and cover everything with the top piece of focaccia. Slice diagonally and serve.
Check back next week
Next week I will be digging into a sandwich with some cornflakes and colorful Krispy things in it. It’s gonna be a wild one. Hit that like and subscribe button and come along for the ride.
