Sandwiches & Burgers

The winner truly makes a tastier burger on the grill or in a skillet!

The technique is inspired by In-N-Out.

Everyone knows that anything with pockets is better — dresses, skirts, cardigans, AND sandwiches.

Because some days, you just gotta have grilled cheese.

My sons are smart. They figured out how to make grilled cheese sandwiches on their own, but they were discerning enough to notice the sandwiches made by their parents were far superior. And they wanted to learn our secrets. We’ve had years of practice, and we agree that if there’s one thing we can teach our children, it’s how to make an excellent hot sandwich, any time of day, from breakfast to late-night snack time. Let’s start with breakfast.

You just need 10 seconds and a knife!

Alton Brown said that if the world was about to end, he would calmly walk into the kitchen and make this cheeseburger.

Follow these guidelines for juicy, never-dry burgers.

It’s true that you can actually get a good meal, maybe even a great one, with wine pairings to boot, on an airplane — that is, if you’re flying first class. For main cabin passengers, it’s another story altogether. Airlines have whittled down their complimentary onboard options to a selection of itty-bitty packets of peanuts and pretzels — and that’s if you’re lucky.

Normally, I stick with plain old ham and cheese sandwichesAll deli meats are cured in the sense that they are cooked and can be eaten cold. But meats that have been cured using classic methods of drying, brining, and salting will win in any taste test. Their flavors are deep and concentrated, while their textures are silky and tender.

It also doubles as the best-ever burger topping. Can you guess what it is?

If I could ask the Pioneer Woman one question, I would probably ask her where she got her hand-painted orange KitchenAid. And if I got a second question, I would definitely ask her about sliders. Sliders just seem like they’d be her thing. Ree Drummond’s whole oeuvre is cowboys and classic Americana, so a very good burger has to be in her wheelhouse, and sliders are just regular burgers, but tinier and more adorable.

Thanks in large part to the no-knead bread revolutionThe no-knead bread is so wet and sticky that it can be difficult to shape into anything except a round loaf. Here’s what to do to make it workable:After the dough has risen and you’re ready to shape the loaf, sprinkle the counter liberally with a handful of flour and turn the dough out on top.

Q: I won’t go into the reasons it seemed to be a good idea to buy 16 Boca Burgers (original vegan style) recently, but I did.And now I’d like to know, does anyone have advice on how to make them taste better? Thanks!Sent by AnnEditor: Readers, any good ideas for Ann and her Boca Burgers?Next question?

I used to have a little countertop grill, the jawed sort with removable plates (always thought of them as dentures) for waffles, sandwiches, and grilling. But it took up too much space, and I used it precisely never, finally purging it during a move. I still love hot sandwiches, though, and I’ve found that a panini press is fairly unnecessary. Here are 5 ways to get the sandwich without the gadget. Pan on the stove, with a lid for a press.

Bread has a bad reputation these days, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook one of its most irresistible forms: toast! Whole wheat or brioche, sourdough or seeded, a slice of toasted bread is a base for all kinds of toppings that make a light yet satisfying meal any time of the day.

Q: A big bowl of soup is a perfectly complete meal for me, but my boyfriend needs more with his soup. I’d like to begin serving him grilled sandwiches with his soup, but all the interesting recipes I’ve found include cheese as the star of the sandwich. And he doesn’t like cheese. Are there any other ways to make grilled sandwiches awesome without cheese?

Close your eyes. Imagine the best meal you’ve ever eaten. Maybe you were in Paris, lingering in a cafe just one block from the chic flat your friend lent you for the week. Perhaps you were in New York or San Francisco, where the chef boasted a Michelin star or three, and each course was perfectly paired with a new glass of wine.

I’m always looking for ways to get more produce into my diet. Whether it’s keeping a crudité platter in the fridge, adding cooked carrots to a sweet afternoon snack, or swapping spiraled zucchini for noodles, I’ll use any trick I can to fill my days with lots of vegetables. Here’s my favorite new way to swap out starch for greens in my lunchtime routine — turn a classic sandwich into a salad!

A piece of pita bread is a little world unto itself — so round, so hollow, so open to whatever you desire for lunch. And so portable and convenient, too! But after a few too many of my old standby, kale salad-stuffed pockets, I decided I needed a little fresh inspiration for the daily marvel of the pita sandwich.

The grilled cheese sandwich is a classic. Perfectly melted and oozy cheese, sandwiched between two golden, crisp, buttery slices of bread — it’s simple, comforting, and utterly timeless. It’s one of the first things we learn to cook, and one we carry with us through the years. But as basic as this sandwich is, there are a few hang-ups that could stand between you and the grilled cheese of your dreams. Don’t let it happen to you.

Tuna salad is a tried-and-true lunchtime classic. Whether you pile it into a sandwich, eat it with crackers, or mix it into your salad greens, it makes for a fast and satisfying meal. But as good as it is, I think we can agree that it’s high time things got a little more interesting. Meet five new versions of tuna salad that give the classic a major overhaul.

Although the first day of summer is not until June 20, I always feel like Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the new season. And that kind of transition deserves a fun, celebratory treat — like these colorful ice cream sandwiches, for instance. Did I mention the ice cream has cake batter in it? Oh yes, we’re going all out here. The most ingenious part of this whole recipe is the method the author uses to portion out the ice cream.

When a backyard barbecue ensues and traditional burgers and hot dogs are the stars of the show, vegetarians are often subjected to veggie burgers. It’s not that there is anything particularly wrong with this modern creation — veggie burgers just need some dressing up. Here’s how we do it with considerable success. Regardless of the veggie burgers you choose, what they tend to lack most is flavor and texture.

Anyone can make a sandwich — after all, for many of us, a PB&J was our first experience in the kitchen — but it’s those extra little tips and tricks, like these five here, that make all the difference in building a really great sandwich. Bread is the backbone of your sandwich, so this isn’t the place to skimp on quality. Go for a loaf that you’d be just as thrilled to eat solo as you would stacked with other ingredients.

I would be highly surprised to find someone who doesn’t like a breakfast sandwich of some kind. They are typically very easy to make and they don’t take a lot of time to put together. They keep you full until lunch and they’re a good choice for a breakfast on the go. But that’s also why it’s very easy to get stuck in a breakfast sandwich rut.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. Even when I’m crunched for time in the morning, I always make breakfast. Since sandwiches are so easy to put together, they’ve become my go-to for both lazy weekends and quick meals to eat on the way to work. I do love eggs, but sometimes there’s just no need for them; breakfast sandwiches can be just as delicious and satisfying without them. Here are seven eggless ideas to add to your weekly routine.

When you think of a breakfast sandwich, I’m guessing the classic bacon, egg, and cheese (or something very similar) comes to mind. Yes, that’s a delicious option, but it’s not the only one. Breakfast sandwiches are also a smart place to pack with vegetables, so start your day off right with these ideas to squeeze more wholesome veggies into your morning meal. An easy, low-carb breakfast is in reach.

Take a moment and think of your favorite breakfast sandwich. If it’s made with bread, what kind? What are the fillings? Does it have meat, eggs, or cheese in it? Some of you might be thinking of the classic egg and cheese, while some might picture a vegan medley of vegetables without any egg and cheese at all. No matter what you dream of eating in the morning, here are three tips to make any breakfast sandwich better.

There is no better way to start the day than with a breakfast sandwich. Seriously, no one at the office is going to be jealous of your cereal bars and yogurt. However, everyone will be looking at you like a lottery winner if you walk in with that magical combo of egg, cheese, sausage or bacon, and a bun, bagel, or English muffin. Extra credit if your sandwich is homemade. But even if you’ve assembled the elements just so, you still need to get your creation from here to there.

With the growing popularity of grain-free diets like the keto diet, the Paleo diet and the Bulletproof diet, bread is becoming more and more of an enemy to people’s everyday menus. I can’t exactly relate (I bought three loaves of bread at Trader Joe’s last week), but sometimes I understand the impetus to reduce the amount of sugar or carbohydrates in your diet which some breads contain a lot of.

We think sandwiches are easily one of the best foods out there. We love how creative you can get with ingredients that go between two pieces of bread. The same goes for open-faced sandwiches, of course, which are what you’ll find on our smorgasbord. It’s funny how a sandwich just tastes better when you pile toppings as high as they’ll go and throw out that top slice. (Though you are free to use a top slice too — we won’t tell.

Remember the last time you had a really good grilled cheese? I do! It was still warm from the heat of the skillet, with golden-brown, butter-kissed toast that left my fingertips just a little greasy, and a pool of gooey melted cheese that seeped through the slices with each bite. True to its name, the cheese is what truly makes this iconic sandwich. Take a look in any cheese case and there are no shortage of choices when it comes to choosing this sandwich’s namesake ingredient.

There are really very few things that are better than a well-made sandwich. It might not have taken a genius to come up with the idea of putting their meal between two pieces of bread, but whoever it was, I thank you. We all thank you. There’s something so incredibly satisfying about biting into that glorious stack of layers and getting an even amount of bread, spread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, seasoning, and meat. The only problem with sandwiches is that they are frequently poorly made.

A well-made breakfast sandwich can change the direction of your day. Woke up tired and grumpy? You need a hearty breakfast sandwich. A little too much fun over the weekend? Try a veggie-loaded breakfast sandwich. If you think that a breakfast sandwich can only be constructed from bacon, egg, and cheese, then you have forgotten that the only limit to your breakfast sandwich enjoyment is your imagination. Here are 10 leftovers better the next day as a life-altering breakfast sandwich.

Make-ahead breakfast sandwiches are the ultimate morning miracle — the gift that keeps on giving. The magic behind these sandwiches is big-batch cooking. With upfront planning and prep, they reward you with a hot, satisfying breakfast for days to come. Staple ingredients like condiments and spreads have the power to boost the flavor of breakfast sandwiches in a big way.

Breakfast sandwiches can be stacked between a split roll or biscuit, stuffed into a pita, rolled into a burrito, even folded into a tidy closed quesadilla pocket, but as I recently learned, there’s one sandwich we’ve been neglecting for far too long: the breakfast boat. The breakfast boat is an egg-filled breakfast sandwich baked directly into a hollowed-out demi-baguette.

Prepping and freezing your own breakfast sandwiches is a morning game-changer, but knowing how to do it right is equally important. There are a few simple rules to follow to achieve freezer-friendly breakfast-sandwich success. Follow them and your rushed weekday mornings are bound to be better. When prepping breakfast sandwiches for the freezer, it’s important to wrap up each one individually.

Peanut butter and jelly is a comforting classic that hardly needs improving. Instead, these one-ingredient twists turn a lunch-box staple into something fun and unexpected. Are you read to liven up lunchtime? These are the single-ingredient upgrades that go beyond the simple swaps of jam and nut butter, or the extra drizzle of honey. These are the unexpected ingredients that add a crunch factor to your lunch and sneak in a pop of flavor.

In theory, making burgers is a simple process: buy your meat, shape it into a patty, season it, and toss it on the grill or stovetop to cook. But there are a few important dos and don’ts that can make the difference between a burger that’s just okay, and one that’s really great. The hallmark of a good burger is one that is nice and juicy when you bite into it, and you just can’t get that juiciness if you use really lean ground beef.

Q: I am currently working a corporate job and going to nursing school full time. Twice a week I go directly from work to school. It’s a long commute, so I have to eat dinner in my car before my long night of classes. I am getting really tired of eating sandwiches. I’m looking for dinner ideas for food I can eat in my car on the way to class! Sent by Megan Editor: The first thing that came to my mind was roasted sweet potato wraps.

When forming hamburger patties, I was always told that you had to make a shallow indentation or dimple in the middle of each patty — this would keep the center from bulging up as it cooked so that the patty would stay flat and even. I never questioned that technique until I came across even more methods on how to do this, so I just had to test them out myself! The basic theory is that as meat cooks, the proteins contract so that the whole patty shrinks and puffs up in the middle.

According to cookbook author Andrea Nguyen, Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches are crazy delicious. So much so that crazy delicious is part of the title of her latest book, The Banh Mi Handbook! We totally agree with her, so we caught up with Andrea and she walked us through tips for each element of the sandwich so that we can build our own delicious creations at home. (Hint: it’s really not that hard!

I love a good burger any time of year, but there’s something about summer that makes them even better. Lately I’ve been changing things up with lean, flavor-packed turkey burgers. Creating a good turkey burger can be tricky because ground turkey, while leaner than the beef in traditional burgers, needs a little extra loving care. Here are four tips for a juicy, satisfying turkey burger.

This summer I’m determined to step up my burger game. It’s time to branch out from my standard piece of Swiss (or sometimes cheddar), slice of tomato, onion and pickles. Not that those aren’t great toppings. They are, they’re classics. They’re just lacking in the creativity department. Here are seven toppings that get a little more creative, a little more fancy — like a burger you’d find gracing the menu at a swanky (but still legit) burger joint.

Everyone’s packed a sandwich before, so is there really a best way to do it? Depending on the sandwich, there probably is if you want to keep it from getting soggy or falling apart as it travels. While it’s certainly not rocket science, here are a couple of guiding principles that will avert possible sandwich disasters. Before we even get to packing sandwiches, we’ve got to talk about the sandwich choice itself.

The grilled cheese is the little black dress of sandwiches with good reason: it’s classic and never goes out of style. There’s just something about the simple-yet-unbeatable combination of buttered, toasted bread with gooey cheese in the middle. But what if you could up your grilled cheese game by making them even cheesier? A sprinkling of a hard, aged cheese like Parmesan or Pecorino Romano onto the buttered bread before you toast it adds an amazing dimension to the final sandwich.

It wasn’t until about a year ago that I became an avid sandwich eater. Before the fateful day when I consumed The Perfect Sandwich, I never understood the appeal – why not just consume the ingredients in salad form? Why did everything turn out so soggy? But lo’, sandwiches have so much more to offer when done right. You see, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients (especially bread), and awesome spreads and lots of textures.

I’ve long perfected my method for the perfect grilled cheese, but when I first started cooking, it always seemed to elude me. Either my sandwich was toasted on the outside with unmelted cheese inside, or the cheese was gooey but the outside burnt. That was until I figured out the old line cook trick: put a lid on it! If you’ve ever watched a line cook make a grilled cheese on a flat top, you’ve seen this method.

With all of the work and time put into preparing holiday meals, family feasts and friendly gatherings, sometimes you just need a break — something simple to prepare, something that satisfies your most basic cravings, something that makes use of all that fresh baked bread that has found its way to your kitchen table. As far as American cravings go, there’s just something about a simple hamburger.

Admit it: Part of the charm of buying your lunch is eating a fancy sandwich. Sure, you know you could make it at home, but when it comes down to it, time is short and it just seems easier to fork over a small handful of cash at that adorable gourmet deli near work. Homemade mayo is a whole other story (a very delicious story!), but even a store bought jar combined with the right ingredients can do wonders to spice up that sorry excuse for a turkey sandwich thrown together in the morning.

Why does food (and especially a sandwich!) always taste better when someone else makes it? My mother makes a simple but delicious sandwich every day for lunch. Always the same, she slices good hearth bread, slathers it with Hellman’s Best Mayo on both slices, adds a few squares of Swiss cheese and piles on several leaves of crunchy lettuce or occasionally baby spinach. On goes the top, and with a slice down the middle, there it is — the perfect sandwich.

Jamie Oliver is always full of surprises, but this one really takes the cake. Or the cheese, as it were. How do you make a crispy, warm, and bubbly cheese sandwich with nothing but a two-slot toaster? Jamie shows us how.This tip actually comes from an early episode of Jamie’s Kitchen, the British documentary where Jamie trains a group of unemployed, under-educated youths to run one of his restaurants.

The approach of spring has us dreaming of warm-weather grilling and our favorite cookout staple, hamburgers. Zagat’s Chef Secrets series recently shared a one-finger trick from Bobby Flay for making the best burgers.First he recommends handling the meat as little as possible when forming the patties, which should be uniformly sized and about ¾-inch thick. Then comes the trick: after shaping the burgers, he uses his thumb to push a depression into the center.

Remember those Toastabags we showed you a few weeks ago? These reusable bags let you make quick, no-mess grilled cheese sandwiches in the toaster. Well, reader Jess wondered if she could find an even easier, cheaper alternative. Here’s what she came up with!Jess wrote: I enjoyed your post about Toastabags. I was reluctant to run out and buy them without knowing if I’d really use them. Then it occurred to me that I could use parchment paper the same way as a Toastabag.

The other day we took this sandwich to work, only to bite into a very soggy piece of bread come lunchtime. We made a few crucial mistakes—ones we remedied the next day. Here are our tips… We don’t make sandwiches for lunch that often, so when we put mayonnaise on one slice of bread, topped it with juicy tomatoes and the rest of the vegetables, then smushed our sandwich into a container and let it sit for four hours, we weren’t really thinking of the consequences.

We’ve always been real sticklers for the manner in which we build our burgers. We change up the ingredients going into the patty quite often, but today we’re talking about the physical order in which the ingredients are layered. By stacking your burger in a certain manner, you can actually help tame the rogue condiments and escaping vegetables (we’re looking at you tomato) and enhance the flavor of your burger!

Here’s an interesting question from Bethany, who has also given us a very good idea for a chicken lunch dish! She asks: Yesterday for lunch I made some great chicken wraps with melted cheese and tortillas. The tortillas were super crunchy, which is how I like them. I made several extra to eat as leftovers. Last night when I went to eat one for dinner, it was completely soft. It didn’t have the same wow! factor as the first ones I’d made.