Ham and Cheese Football Sandwiches. Highly addictive and so easy to make! Slightly crispy and so flavorful on the outside, and warm, gooey and cheesy on the inside. You need to try these!
It’s September you guys! One of my favorite months! The weather is starting to cool off, I’m slowly transitioning out of my summer clothes and getting my sweaters ready!
And, it’s football season!
We’re in Wisconsin and people here are serious about football. Like, serious. and maybe even more serious about college football. Anyway, we’re getting ready y’all.
With football season and the first official day of fall right around the corner, I feel like I received this fabulous cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen at just the right time.
Fall. Sweaters. Cooler weather. Comfort food. My favorite kind of food!
Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket, page 251, Mulligan Stew, page 257, Hollywood Chili, page 263, Pimento Cheeseburgers, pages 78- 79 (featured above), oh yes, these will most definitely be happening in my kitchen soon, and Peanut Butter Pie, page 161.
I am in cookbook heaven.
“The editors of Cook’s Country magazine spent a good part of the last decade crisscrossing the country looking for local gems in restaurants, BBQ joints, diners, seafood shacks, food festivals and with home cooks; along the way they became acquainted with the places and people as well as the food. The result of all of those miles spent on the road is this book, Cook’s Country Eats Local, a collection of 150 foolproof recipes that have flown under the national radar for far too long.”
How many local joints do you know of that have fabulous recipes that only the locals know about?Well, this cookbook helps to uncover some of the best of them!
The test kitchen has taken the guesswork out of recreating these restaurant favorites and regional specialties, “reviving and streamlining these unsung classics for the modern home kitchen and coming up with clever substitutions when regional ingredients are called for.”
The recipes are divided into four distinct regions:
New England and the Mid-Atlantic 38 recipes, including New England Bar Pizza, Chicken Riggies, Joe Booker Stew, Pittsburgh Wedding Soup, and Bee Sting Cake! Bee Sting Cake? I’m just gonna say this: yeasted cake, creamy filling and a crunchy honey-almond crown. I can’t wait to try this.
Appalachia and the South 46 recipes, including Pimento Cheeseburgers (oh yeah!), Maryland Crab Fluff, Cracklin’ Cornbread, and Jefferson Davis Pie (a brown sugar chess pie, named for President Jefferson Davis)!
The Midwest and Great Plains 31 recipes, including Iron Range Porketta, Green Bay Booyah, Wisconsin Cheddar Beer Soup; featured below, which I am making next! and Barberton Fried Chicken, and St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake!
Texas and the West 29 recipes, including Indoor Barbecue Beef Short Rib, Hollywood Chili, Jo Jo Potatoes, and Tick Tock Orange Sticky Rolls. You definitely want this recipe, you guys!
This cookbook has 150 recipes you should be making no matter where you live!
When I saw the Football Sandwiches on page 82, I knew I had to make these. And even though I have made a version of these before, I had to try ATK’s version.
ATK uses soft, white dinner rolls, spreads on yellow mustard, and stuffs them with smoky Black Forest Ham and Swiss cheese. Football Sandwiches are typically then brushed with a sauce that uses a whopping 12 tablespoons of butter as the base. ATK cut the fat down to 4 tablespoons and pumped up the flavor with finely chopped onions, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and plenty of poppy seeds. Letting the sandwiches sit for 10 minutes before baking allows the rolls to absorb the sauce. After about 30 minutes in the oven (20 covered and 10 uncovered), the sandwiches are slightly crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and loaded with oozing, melted cheese. Perfection.
And come on. . just look at them.
Football Sandwiches. Could they be more perfect?
Paul ate 5. And even the girls liked them. After they scraped off all the poppy seeds.
Please tell me other kids do this too? Why??!!!!
Make these the next time you’re watching the game and have friends over. Everyone will ask for the recipe. No joke.
And because you need more fabulous recipes from this cookbook, I’m giving away a copy! So, enter using the widget below and good luck! One person wins!
Now, go make these sandwiches!
Football Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 12 square soft white dinner rolls
- 6 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 12 thin slices deli Black Forest ham 8 ounces
- 12 thin slices deli Swiss cheese 8 ounces
- pepper
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice rolls in half horizontally. Spread 4 tablespoons mustard evenly on cut sides of roll tops and bottoms. Arrange roll bottoms, cut side up and side by side, in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Fold ham slices in thirds, then once in half; place 1 slice on each roll bottom. Fold Swiss cheese like the ham, then place over ham. Season with pepper and cover with roll tops.
- Combine butter, onions and poppy seeds in bowl. Microwave until butter is melted and onion is softened, about 1 minute. Whisk Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and remaining 2 tablespoons mustard into butter mixture until combined. Generously brush tops and edges of sandwiches with all of butter mixture. Spoon any remaining solids over sandwiches.
- Cover dish with aluminum foil and let sit for 10 minutes to allow sandwiches to absorb sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. Then, uncover and continue baking until cheese is melted around the edges and the tops are slightly firm, 7 to 9 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe from Cook’s Country Eats Local, pages, 82-83. I rec’d permission from America’s Test Kitchen to publish this recipe here.
The Giveaway!!
Open to residents within the United States only.
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I was sent a copy of the cookbook to review from America’s Test Kitchen. All opinions expressed here are 100% my own.
