Sandwiches
198 recipes found
Torta Ahogada
Torta ahogada, which translates to drowned sandwich, is a staple across Guadalajara, Mexico. Birote salado is the bread typically used for this stuffed, smothered sandwich, partly because its salty sourdough flavor complements the fillings, but mostly because its crunchy exterior stands up well to ladles of hot salsa. If you’re not able to get your hands on birote salado, you can substitute bolillo or a French baguette. The options for fillings are endless, and this version with creamy puréed pinto beans is ideal for a meatless meal. If you happen to have mushrooms, you can sauté them and add them to this torta for an extra-filling dish.
Juicy BLT
The success of a BLT hangs in its balance of salt, acid, lusciousness and crunch. This version is perfect, with a generous swipe of mayonnaise on each slice of toast, followed by a drizzle of olive oil, tomatoes marinated in red wine vinegar and salt, butter lettuce leaves and thick-cut bacon. Squash this closed and eat while the bacon is still warm. BLTs are often associated with summer, but the vinegar here coaxes flavor and brings brightness to hothouse tomatoes, turning it into a sandwich for all seasons.
Reuben Sandwich
Like many classic dishes, the Reuben sandwich has multiple origin stories: Some accounts trace its origins to the since-shuttered Reuben’s delicatessen in New York City, where Arthur Reuben created a special for one of Charlie Chaplin’s leading ladies in 1914, using ham, turkey, Swiss cheese and coleslaw on rye. Another origin story points to a customer, Reuben Kulakofsky, who was said to have ordered a corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich at Blackstone Hotel, in Omaha, where Bernard Schimmel obliged by rounding it out with Thousand Island dressing, Swiss cheese, rye bread and a hot grill. Today’s Reuben sandwiches feature corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and a healthy smear of Russian dressing between toasted, buttered rye. Homemade dressing has a brighter, fresher flavor than the bottled variety, and comes together in just a few turns of a whisk. To achieve the prized crispy crust and gooey cheese, keep the heat low enough to allow the buttered bread to toast while the cheese melts.
Spinach and Sardine Sandwich
Whenever I fly, I like to go armed with lunch, as the food in airports tends to be both appalling and expensive. Lately I’ve hitting the road with sandwiches that combine produce with canned fish, like sardines, herring, trout or smoked salmon — all of them high in omega-3 fatty acids, packed with protein and delicious. In some of this week’s sandwiches, I used small whole-wheat English muffins that were lightly toasted. The muffins won’t fall apart, even with a juicy filling like Greek salad, and I like the size. This is inspired by the classic Mediterranean combination of sardines and spinach. I like to use lightly smoked sardines in olive oil for it.
Smashed Chicken Burgers With Cheddar and Parsley
These fresh, flavorful chicken burgers have a crunchy exterior, a tender interior and a healthy slathering of limey Dijon mayonnaise. They’re paired with salad that’s prepared using leftover burger ingredients, and a little avocado and lettuce. Serve the burgers between lightly toasted buns, as the recipe suggests, or skip the bread and enjoy them without for a lighter dinner.
Croque-Monsieur
While French restaurant and country cooking have been thoroughly examined by American home cooks, somewhere between the two styles lies a branch of cuisine that has been almost entirely missed: France's bar and cafe food. This is the realm of snacks like tartines and rillettes, salads and savory tarts, and one of most delicious of all: the croque-monsieur (literally translated as "crunch sir.") Good croque-monsieurs have a few things in common: a single layer of French ham and Gruyere pressed between two thin slices of bread. Some, like this one, are filled and topped with béchamel, which makes the whole thing creamier and better. The bread is brushed with butter, and the sandwich is cooked on a griddle or toasted under a broiler so that the cheese almost liquefies and the bits of ham and cheese hanging out the side fall limp and caramelize. It should be rich, substantial and salty, so you will reach for a glass of wine or beer between bites.
Brussels Sprouts Amatriciana
Brussels sprouts have a special relationship with pork. Sturdy and lean with just a hint of bitterness, they thrive with a contrasting yet complementary flavor partner, like salty, fatty bacon. Simmered together in an amatriciana-style sauce of tomato, olive oil and red-pepper flakes, the sprouts become tender and smoky in this bright and simple enriched sauce that soaks into freshly toasted thick-cut bread. If you want a more traditional amatriciana, seek out guanciale instead of bacon. (Pancetta works too, though it will be leaner and smokeless.) Reserved crispy pork bits are used as a topping, accenting the luscious sauce.
Meatball Subs
In this classic Italian American sandwich, tender meatballs drenched in tomato sauce are tucked into crisp rolls then buried under a blanket of gooey cheese. It’s a messy sandwich no matter how you build it or bite into it, but wise construction can help: First, hollow out the rolls a bit so the meatballs have a place to sit. Then, use the leftover crumbs to make the meatballs, which will keep them light. Finally, toast the rolls to prevent them from getting too soggy with sauce. Of course, some crispy-gone-soggy bites are welcome, just as the cheese pulls, sauce drips and messy fingers are, too. They’re all part of the experience.
Korean Cod Jeon Sliders (Pan-Fried Cod Sliders)
Jeon is the Korean name for small savory pancakes made with fish or vegetables, which are sliced, egg battered, then pan-fried until golden. The egg batter creates a delicate, tender coating, rather than a super crispy one. Typically served as a side dish with a soy dipping sauce, these cod pancakes are instead tucked into Hawaiian sweet rolls for kid-friendly fish sliders. They’re great for entertaining, as the jeon can be cooked ahead and enjoyed at room temperature — just assemble the sandwiches right before serving.
Tuna Melt
Legend has it that the tuna melt was accidentally invented in the 1960s at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Charleston, S.C., when the cook didn’t notice that a bowl of tuna salad had tipped over onto a grilled cheese. We may never know if this story is true, but there’s no doubt that the tuna melt has become a classic American diner food. This recipe adds chopped cornichons and whole-grain mustard for a satisfying crunch and vinegary element. Extra-sharp Cheddar is a must, and as with grilled cheese, the key to achieving perfectly melted cheese and golden bread is to toast the sandwich over medium-low heat. If you prefer an open-face tuna melt, skip the top piece of bread and place the sandwich on a sheet pan under the broiler until the cheese melts.
Avocado Toast
It may seem silly to give a recipe for avocado toast, but there is an art to it, as with most things that are both simple and perfect. Here, you want to make sure of a few things: that the bread you use is sturdy and has some taste; that there's enough salt and citrus to bring out the avocado's flavor; and that you use a good olive oil to bring it all together. These garnishes, from the Australian café Two Hands in Manhattan, are tasty but unnecessary.
Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Sandwich
Travel sandwiches require good keeping properties. The ingredients have to hold up for hours at room temperature and can’t be too moist, or the bread will become soggy and fall apart. In deference to fellow travelers, I choose fillings that taste great but aren’t pungent. (Garlic aioli has a place in my life, but it’s not within the confines of an airplane.)
Egg Salad Sandwiches With Green Olive, Celery and Parsley
This zesty egg salad has no mayonnaise (but a dab of homemade mayonnaise would be permissible). Use picholine or other tasty green olives (not the bland canned supermarket type) or substitute Italian-style marinated artichoke hearts. You could add a little chopped anchovy and a few capers, too, if so inclined. Served open-face as appetizers, these sandwiches are very pretty, but there’s no reason not to use the filling for a conventional sandwich.
Tuna-Salad Sandwich, Julia Child Style
This was one of Julia Child’s favorite dishes for a working lunch. For decades, Julia was on the road more than she was home and, when she returned to her beloved kitchen, she craved simple foods. For Julia, the important ingredients for this sandwich were the tuna (it had to be packed in oil) and the mayo (she preferred Hellmann’s). Her longtime assistant, Stephanie Hersh, said, “The rest was up for grabs.” Make it with capers, cornichons and chopped onion, a squirt of lemon juice and some herbs, serve it open-face on an English muffin or between slices of white bread, and you’ll have Julia’s midday signature.
Fried Fish Sandwich
This fried fish sandwich doesn’t stray far from the classic fast-food staple: breaded fish, a soft bun, a slice of cheese and tangy tartar sauce. The best part is you can put it together in just about the amount of time it would take to stand in line and order it at the counter. Capers, shallots and fresh dill make this tartar sauce feel a little fancy, but a splash of soy sauce adds the umami that takes it to a very familiar place. Flounder is an affordable choice for the recipe, but if you can’t find it, substitute with sole or any mild flat fish.
Open-Faced Hot Turkey Sandwiches
Sometimes life requires an open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy and mashed potatoes, alongside a glop of cranberry sauce. It is neither a Thanksgiving meal nor a Christmas one, but simply a low-fi American reminder of diners and TV dinners and blankets and comfort itself: soft meat and rich, salty gravy over tight-crumbed bread, with buttery mash and a tang of cranberry. My recipe calls for roasting buttered turkey thighs in the oven while the potatoes were cooking, skin-side down to crisp the skin and allow the fat to render into the pan, creating sticky bits of fond you’ll use to build a base for gravy. Pile the sliced meat onto lightly toasted bread, drench it with gravy and serve alongside the potatoes and peas. Adding canned cranberry sauce, in this application, is no sin.
Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches
This is the pleasure of brunch at home: a cozy sandwich that you eat as soon as you finish stacking it. Nice and hot, it’s pure joy with a cup of coffee. Crunchy brown tops give way to tender, buttery bread in these biscuits, which cradle fluffy scrambled eggs draped with melted cheese. Whether you slip in some bacon, sausage or ham is up to you, but you definitely want to slather jam all over the biscuits. It’s a salty-sweet combination inspired by the chef Jonathan Whitener and the pastry director Thessa Diadem of All Day Baby, a restaurant in Los Angeles, where they make thousands of biscuit sandwiches each week.
Grilled S’mores Sandwiches
This always-makes-you-happy dessert combines two classics: s’mores and pan con chocolate, a Spanish snack of toast with melted chocolate on top. Oozy chocolate and wobbly marshmallows are sandwiched between two slices of crisp, slightly smoky pieces of bread. While you could use any white or whole wheat sandwich bread, cinnamon bread is the ideal way to go. Not only will the toasty cinnamon flavor remind you of graham crackers, but also the sugar will help the bread caramelize on the grill (and a surprising slick of mayonnaise, instead of butter, helps brown the bread without burning). To keep the sandwich from being cloyingly sweet, add a sprinkle of salt on top. (P.S. Make it a Fluffernutter by using peanut butter instead of chocolate.)
Nashville-Style Hot Tofu Sliders
Nashville hot chicken is seasoned with a bold dose of ground cayenne and hot sauce, deep fried then brushed with a final coat of spicy oil. In these vegetarian sliders, hot butter imparts mild tofu with an extra-spicy kick reminiscent of the chicken that inspired them. Tofu has a high water content, but a quick dredge in rice flour and a dip in batter creates a barrier that prevents excess splattering during frying. The carbonation in seltzer keeps the batter light and airy, perfect for delicate tofu. (This is also a great trick for frying vegetables and shrimp.) The result is a golden sandwich filling with a crispy exterior and soft center. For larger sandwiches, stuff standard hamburger buns with two pieces of the fried tofu and finish with the toppings.
Smoked Salmon Sandwiches With Cucumber, Radish and Herbs
For these elegant open-faced smoked salmon sandwiches, use a good quality Pullman loaf or a dense brown bread. Choose the best sweet butter you can find (think French) and don’t stint; the combination of buttered bread, smoked salmon and herbs is ethereal. Thinly sliced cucumber and radish add color, along with the briny pop of salmon caviar.
Feta-Stuffed Grilled Flatbread
Stuffing flatbread with feta and herbs adds great flavor and an herbal, creamy surprise if you don’t know what’s in them. Feel free to use this recipe as a jumping off point for your own stuffings. The honeyed, whole-wheat-flecked dough works especially well with strong flavors like olives, capers, anchovies and other cheeses. Or skip the stuffing and grill up this dough all by itself. The basil oil makes a great dipping sauce with both stuffed and unstuffed flatbreads.
Croque-Madame
This is a variation of Amanda Hesser’s croque-monsieur, a ham and Gruyere sandwich topped with béchamel. Here, we invite you to pop a fried egg on top. Voila! A croque-madame (reportedly named such because the egg resembles a lady's wide-brimmed hat).
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
This recipe takes a good deal of time, but it yields a lot of sandwiches, more than enough for a sloppy, spicy dinner party feast. You’ll roast a dry-rubbed pork shoulder in the oven until it’s pull-apart tender, 3 or 4 hours that you can spend doing other things while your kitchen fills with the aroma of the cooking meat. Then you’ll assemble a quick slaw and simmer a tangy barbecue sauce for about 10 minutes before putting it all out on the table with soft rolls. Serve the combination warm, at any time of the year, for a weekend project well worth an afternoon’s work.
Mushroom and Beef Burgers
These hamburgers — cut through with roasted mushrooms — were inspired by the versions cooked by the chef Scott Samuel of the Culinary Institute of America. They are here made of half beef, half roasted mushrooms, though Mr. Samuel went two parts meat to one part mushrooms. Either way, they are incredibly moist.