Delicious and succulent, these Portuguese prego rolls are made with juicy steak grilled in a flavorsome marinade served on a fresh bread roll.
If you’ve never had a Prego roll before, get ready. Because this is the good shizz. It’s like the best steak sandwich you can imagine, but like x100. The steak is marinated in an aromatic blend of peri-peri sauce, tomato, olive oil, garlic and herbs and then grilled quickly on a scorching-hot pan/grill before being served on a squishy, fresh bread roll. The fresh chilli butter is a delicious add-on that adds just the right amount of heat to this delectable sandwich.
Ingredients
The full recipe and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Steak. I used sirloin but you can use rump or rib-eye.
- Peri-Peri sauce. I make my own but you can use store-bought too.
- Tomato puree.
- Lemon juice.
- Garlic.
- Bay leaf.
- Olive oil.
- Sugar.
- Salt.
- Butter.
- Fresh chillies. Any chillies you can find will be delicious.
- Bread rolls.
- Tomato and onion, for serving.
How to make the best prego rolls
- Prepare the steak: Slice sirloin or rump steak in half horizontally to create two thin steaks, alternatively ask your butcher to cut thin steaks for you. Thin them out even more with a meat mallet until they are around 1cm/third of an inch thick.
- Make the marinade: Combine all the marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the marinade over the steaks and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes but up to 24 hours, covered in the fridge.
- Cook the prego steaks: Heat a large griddle pan, skillet or outside grill until scorching hot then quickly cook the steaks (approximately 1-2 minutes per side) until caramelized on both sides. Remove and allow to rest.
- Make the chilli butter: Finely chop fresh chillies and mix with room temperature butter.
- Assemble and serve: To serve, spread the butter on fresh bread rolls (I used garlic rolls but traditionally Portuguese rolls are used) and top with the cooked steak, sliced tomato and onion.
What to serve with prego rolls
- Easy oven baked fries
- Creamy curried macaroni salad
- Easy creamy potato salad
- Spicy garlic baked potato wedges
Steak recipes
- Grilled sirloin steak with caper herb sauce
- Steak salad with tomatoes and goat’s cheese
- Grilled steak with blistered tomatoes
- Steak sandwich with goat’s cheese butter

Easy Portuguese prego rolls
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 3 tbsp Peri-Peri sauce
- ½ cup tomato puree
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 1-2 tsp salt
For the prego rolls
- 4 sirloin steaks sliced in half, to result in 8 thin steaks
- 4 bread rolls
- sliced tomato
- sliced onion
For the chilli butter
- 1-2 fresh chillies finely chopped
- ½ cup butter room temperature
Instructions
- Combine all the marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Flatten the steak with a meat mallet until each steak is around 1cm/third of an inch thick.
- Pour the marinade over the steak and allow to marinade for at least 30 minute and up to 24 hours, covered in the fridge.
- To cook the steak, heat a large griddle pan, skillet or outside grill until scorching hot then cook the steaks quickly on both sides until caramelized and cooked to your preference. Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
- For the chilli butter, combine the chopped chillies and butter and mix well.
- To serve, half the bread rolls and spread on the chilli butter. Top with the cooked steak and add sliced tomatoes and onion.
Nutrition
Hi there, you said you make your own peri-peri sauce, do you have a recipe I could use for that please?!
Thanx x
You can find it here: https://simply-delicious-food.com/home-made-peri-peri-sauce/
What kind of chili’s do you use for the butter?
Any fresh chillies will work. Jalapeno, bird’s eye, etc. You can even use hot sauce or chilli relish if you want.
Fantastic recipe. 5 stars!
Wow! Thanks Christine. 🙂
Scrumptious! I used rib eye because that’s all I could find but it turned out delicious. Great weekend food.
Delicious. So glad you liked it.
So juicy and delicious and that marinade is absolutely perfect.
Yay! So happy you liked it Camilla. 🙂
Made these prego rolls for lunch and OH MY GOD! Had never heard of them before and I can’t believe what I’ve been missing out on. As a lover of spicy food, this is a dream!
So happy I could introduce you to one of my personal favs. 🙂