Philly Roast Pork Sandwich

Ask any Philadelphian where their favorite cheesesteak spot is and they're sure to have an answer at the ready. But most Philadelphians, including me, will be quick to follow up with, “But that’s not the best Philly sandwich—if you want the best, get a roast pork.” It’s easy to see why it’s a local favorite: A perfect roast pork sandwich is bursting at the seams with thin slices of succulent pork shoulder, melt-in your mouth garlicky broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone cheese, all finished with a ladle of savory jus that drips into the pillowy-yet-crusty bread (preferably a Sarcone’s roll, but I’ll get into that later). And don’t forget the optional condiments like long hot peppers or roasted red peppers you can throw on top. In my humble South Philly opinion, this juicy, flavorful mess of a sandwich is better than a cheesesteak. 

The roast pork sandwich has roots in the cuisine of the Abruzzo region of Italy, whose people immigrated en masse to Philadelphia back in the early 20th century, settling primarily in South Philly. Domenico Bucci set up the first roast pork shop in Philly back in 1930. The shop is now called John’s Roast Pork, and it’s still one of the most popular sandwich shops in the area. There are many other great versions served in Philly. You can’t go wrong with the ones served up at Campo’s,, or Tony Luke’s, but my hands-down favorite is Tommy DiNic’s roast pork sandwich. I’ve been enjoying roast pork sandwiches at their counter at the Reading Terminal Market since I was a kid. Everytime I go back home to visit family in Philly, I make a point of braving the market’s bustling crowds and stopping at DiNic’s to savor one. Heck, a DiNic’s roast pork was how my now husband and I chose to celebrate our engagement. After proposing to each other in front of the Logan Circle fountain, we walked down the Parkway and split a DiNic’s roast pork. You can keep your “marry me chicken,”—Philly roast pork sandwich is my love language.

Not surprisingly, it takes some time and care to make a sandwich that’s worthy of major life milestones. The pork needs to be tender but firm enough to stay intact when thinly sliced, the jus rich and well seasoned, the broccoli rabe silky with a bold garlicky kick, and the bread soft but sturdy enough to support the jus and the fillings. My take on Philly’s iconic sandwich checks all these boxes, but I’ll be upfront that there are no real shortcuts to achieving this. A couple days of prep are needed, but it’s well worth it. Here’s how to make a great home version of my favorite Philly sandwich.

How to Get the Pork and the Jus Just Right

The pork and the accompanying jus are the main event. Here’s how to get both perfect for this sandwich.

Start with Pork Butt

Pork shoulder is the primal cut of choice at all legit Philly shops that serve roast pork sandwiches. Loin is too lean and chewy, while pork belly too fatty and soft (not to mention expensive). Pork shoulder is the perfect middle ground and has all the attributes you need for a great sandwich filling: It’s rich, flavorful, and tender, perfect for piling high on a sandwich. At DiNic’s and other shops that are cranking out roast pork sandwiches at high volume, huge pork shoulders upwards of 15 pounds each are seasoned and braised until just tender but still sliceable. 

A big primal shoulder cut makes sense in a restaurant where hundreds of customers are fed a day. But for a home version of this sandwich, I recommend choosing a pork butt, which comes in smaller sizes that make it more practical for feeding a smaller number of people. You can read in detail about the differences between the pork shoulder’s two main primal cuts, pork butt and picnic shoulder, but here I’ll quickly point out that pork butt (aka Boston butt) is a more well marbled fatty cut of meat than picnic shoulder. The relative tenderness is due to where the cut is located on the pig: The pork butt is the upper portion of the shoulder, where the muscle is less heavily used so the meat is more tender, while the lower portion of the shoulder (the picnic shoulder) is a bit tougher in texture because it’s a more active muscle. 

It wouldn’t matter if you used the more sinewy and tougher picnic shoulder roast if the pork for these sandwiches was cooked until it was pull-apart tender and then shredded. But here the pork is cooked until just tender yet still firm and sliceable. There's nowhere for this texture difference to hide with this sandwich preparation. That’s why I make a point to use pork butt.

Start with a boneless roast so there’s no need to debone or butterfly the pork—once cooked, it can simply be cooled and sliced. Also try to find or ask your butcher for a roast with an even cylindrical or rectangular shape. This will ensure more even cooking from end to end, and the slices will be more uniform in size.

Season It Well

A hallmark of a roast pork sandwich is the the signature herb and garlic seasoning blend that’s rubbed on the pork before roasting. This blend includes fresh rosemary, thyme, plenty of black pepper, garlic, and a touch of red pepper flakes. Iterations might have different ratios of the herbs and garlic used, but the heavy hitters remain the same. Here I stick with the classic combination, which I rub all over the roast with salt.

Like any large cut of meat, generously salting the roast and letting the salt penetrate the meat is key to building great flavor. Not only does this technique, which is known as dry-brining, build more flavor by salting the meat throughout, but over time salt dissolves proteins, which allows the meat to retain more of its moisture during cooking. The end result? A juicier roast. (While the herbs are added at the same time as salt, they do not penetrate the meat much during the dry-brining time—it’s simply more convenient to add them at the same time so you don’t have to rub down the raw meat twice.)

I’ve seen a video of DiNic’s owner, Tommy Nicolosi butterflying large pork shoulder primals to properly season and flavor before rolling them back up and tying. With roasts as large as what he's using, he knows that seasoning just the exterior isn’t going to be enough—too many slices cut from that once cooked will taste of little but pork. But, with the smaller three-pound roast in this recipe, I found it unnecessary to butterfly the roast to season it. Rubbing just the exterior of the pork generously with the salt and herb mixture properly seasons the meat.With a smaller three pound roast, there is basically a bit of "surface" in every slice, so the flavor will carry through the meat without needing to butterfly it. But don’t skip trussing the roast—ying it up at one-inch increments helps the roast retain an even shape for more even cooking.

Hit the Doneness Sweet Spot

As mentioned earlier, the ideal pork for these sandwiches should be tender and juicy but still firm enough to slice and retain a bit of texture. At the same time, we need to cook the pork enough to transform its natural collagen into meltingly tender gelatin while also rendering enough of its fat for proper juiciness, which means a higher internal temperature than, say, a perfectly "medium" roast pork loin. To achieve that ideal texture, the is higher than what might be called "well done" but lower than what's required for something like barbecue—right around 180℉ (80℃) is optimal.

Don't worry about the pork drying out at this temperature; in a cut like the pork shoulder, the fat and collagen can more than handle this higher heat without being harmed. At this temperature, the pork’s fat is melting, but still sliceable when cooled properly.

Braise, Don’t Roast

Yes, this is called a roast pork sandwich, so the fact that the pork is braised might cause pause, but most sandwich shops in Philly actually braise their pork shoulders in deep hotel pans filled a third of the way up with a braising liquid—so we aren’t straying too far from the original cooking method. With roasting you run the risk of the pork drying out and you also lose the opportunity to build a flavorful jus in the roasting pan while the pork roasts. That’s why braising the meat until it’s just tender is the best way to cook pork that remains moist while building a flavorful jus at the same time.

At home, the best way at home to braise the pork is in a Dutch oven. Keeping the lid on while braising traps the steam and creates an intensely humid cooking environment, which helps keep the meat moist. Cooking the pork in a modest amount of stock gives the tough pork butt’s connective tissue the chance to break down into gelatin, a protein that will seep into and thicken the braising liquid to give it a rich mouth-coating texture—ideal for pouring over the sandwiches.

Use Good Stock to Build the Jus

The braising liquid not only cooks the pork, but it becomes the flavorful jus for the sandwich. The juices from the pork mingle with the braising liquid during cooking to create an ultra savory jus. 

The most important way to build flavor into the jus is to start with a good quality stock. Pork stock is the best option. You can make your own pork bone stock, but this takes hours and adds a lot of work to an already labor-intensive recipe. I recommend checking at your local butcher to see if they carry pork stock. Many upscale food markets also offer prepared pork stock or a concentrated pork base. If unavailable, homemade chicken stock or store-bought low sodium chicken broth work well in this recipe. (If using store-bought broth, I always recommend low-sodium. You can always add salt to taste, but you can’t take it away.) Along with great stock, this jus gets depth of flavor from onions, which are briefly sautéed before the roast is added to the pot.

Rest the Pork Before Slicing It Thin

At DiNic’s, the pork is thinly sliced into melt-in-your-mouth piles on a deli slicer. At home, without a deli slicer, it’s more challenging to get the pork paper thin, but this shouldn’t deter you. You can still get uniformly thin slices of pork at home with just a few tips. 

The first is cooking the pork just right. As mentioned above, cooking the pork to 180℉ produces the juiciest pork possible while keeping it firm enough to slice cleanly. If you overcook the pork, it will start to shred, which makes it very challenging to slice. 

Another thing that helps is slicing the pork while it’s very cold. The colder it is, the firmer it will be, which makes slicing easier. I initially tried to briefly freeze the roast to get it firm, but this caused the exterior to be much more solid than the interior, and the difference in textures made it hard to apply even pressure to the knife and get uniform slices. 

If you have the forethought and the time, the best course of action is to cook the pork a day ahead and refrigerate it a full day before slicing it so that it will be as firm as possible before you attempt to carve off thin slices (note that if you are roasting the pork ahead of time, you’ll also need to refrigerate the jus separately as well).

My last tip for getting the thinnest pork slices possible at home is to use a very sharp slicing or carving knife with a long thin blade. (Do not be tempted to try to slice the pork with a mandoline: Meat requires the slicing motion of a sharp blade and it will not slice properly when pushed against a mandoline's blade the way crisp vegetables do, and frankly is dangerous to even try.) Make sure to apply even pressure and use long strokes. Don’t slice down; instead slice back and forth and the uniform slices will fall off the blade one right after the other. And of course, take your time, enjoying the rhythm of each slice. 

To get paper-thin slices at home you’ll need to meet all the above requirements and have strong knife skills. But even if your slices don’t match those coming off a deli slicer at a sandwich shop, they will still be impressively thin and tender enough to easily chew through.

The Broccoli Rabe

Broccoli rabe is the unsung hero of a great Philly roast pork sandwich. Sure the pork and its accompanying savory jus might hog the limelight, but the bitter greens are what gives this sandwich its character. The tamed brassica bitterness cuts through the fat and richness and, frankly, puts a needed vegetable in your mouth. It’s silky and melts away with every bite while giving an earthy bitter flavor to counter the rich pork. 

In culinary school and at every restaurant I’ve ever worked in, I was taught to always serve green vegetables tender/crisp and to treat them so they’d retain their bright green color. I’d blanch and shock leafy green vegetables so they’d have a bit of snap and remain vibrant. This is the exact opposite of how broccoli rabe should be in a roast pork sandwich. Here, it’s ok if the rabe is a little drab—even a little mushy (NB: Daniel agrees, as you'll see in his sautéed broccoli rabe recipe). A little army green never hurt anyone and the flavor and texture achieved will pay off in dividends in the final sandwich. So go ahead and cook the broccoli rabe with garlic and red pepper flakes until tender and lightly browned, then keep cooking it even further until indisputably overcooked; adding jus from the pork to the rabe while it's cooking helps with this, lightly braising the greens as the jus reduces for maximum tenderness. 

Long hots—long, moderately spicy pickled Italian peppers—are traditionally an optional topping for a roast pork sandwich, but I’ve chosen to chop them and incorporate them fully into the rabe. This gives the sandwich a more cohesive flavor with a bit of pepper in each bite.

On top of that, cutting both the peppers and the rabe into bite-size pieces makes eating the assembled sandwich easier. If you can’t find long hots, which are often labeled as such on the jar, any spicy pickled pepper will work fine here. (Of course, if you’re not into pickled peppers, feel free to leave them out.) The final mixture should be soft, a little saucy, intensely garlicky, slightly sharp, and a bit spicy.

Good Bread Makes the Sandwich

A Sarcone’s sesame seeded long roll is the bread of choice at DiNic’s and many Philly-based sandwich shops that make roast pork sandwiches. It's the perfect vessel for the drippy pork and broccoli rabe filling—the interior crumb is soft and tender so you can easily bite through it, while the exterior crust is firm and sturdy enough to hold a large amount of wet fillings without falling apart. If you live outside of Philadelphia like I do, a Sarcone’s seeded long roll isn’t an option, but if you have an Italian bakery close by, check out their selection and look for eight-inch rolls that fit this criteria. A hoagie or sub roll are an OK substitute, but try to avoid squishy supermarket versions. You need a roll that will keep its structure rather than turning to mush once filled and doused in jus.

The Cheese

Sharp provolone cheese is the only cheese allowed for a roast pork sandwich. I’m usually all for substitutions and a “go with what you like best” attitude with sandwich recipes, but not here. Thin slices of good sharp provolone, often labeled as “provolone picante” at Italian markets, are best. The cheese is blanketed over the cut side of the rolls and briefly melted into the bread. The melted cheese will serve as an additional barrier for the filling to prevent the bread from immediately turning sopping wet from juicy pork, saucy rabe, and added jus.

Bringing It All Together: Assembling the Sandwiches

While it takes days to prepare all of the sandwich’s components, it takes just a few minutes to assemble the sandwich itself. The key is to have all of your components at the ready. The roast pork, the jus, and even the rabe can be made ahead and refrigerated and gently rewarmed on the stovetop. The sliced pork is held warm in the jus while the rabe mixture is cooked. Once the rabe is cooked, it will stay warm off heat while you melt the cheese on the rolls. After the cheese is melted on the rolls, you’ll pile them with pork, then rabe, then a ladle of jus.

Once the sandwich is assembled and the jus is ladled on, there’s no time to waste before biting into it. Savor its drippy porky and, if you didn't know it already, get acquainted with the firsthand knowledge that this is Philly’s finest sandwich.