Our sandwiches nail it. From the rich and meaty to the satisfyingly vegetarian, these are our favorite meals between two slices of bread.
Balance and brighten rich fillings with a hit of acid
Though you can make a sandwich of rich, fatty meat, bread, and nothing else, you’d be doing a disservice to the meat (and yourself). The best meaty sandwiches utilize some sort of acid—usually vinegar or lemon or lime juice—to cut through the richness and balance any of the more unctuous qualities. In our Chorizo and Chimichurri Sandwiches, we get our acid from chimichurri, Argentina’s signature sauce. Tangy with vinegar and grassy with cilantro (or parsley, or both) chimichurri balances the richness and fattiness of sausage. One note: It’s essential to use fresh Mexican-style chorizo, which is raw and made with ground pork, as opposed to the Spanish dry-cured or smoked variety.
Steak sandwiches benefit from a similar treatment. Our Skirt Steak Banh Mi are topped with the customary mixture of daikon and carrot, quickly pickled in a mixture of bracing white vinegar and funky fish sauce with a hint of sugar; our Mushroom and Steak Bocadillos (Spanish sandwiches made on baguette-like bread) are finished with fresh lemon juice and parsley for a bright lift; and for our pan bagnat—think Niçoise salad in sandwich form—we combine oil-packed tuna and hard-cooked eggs with briny capers, bright lemon juices, and a handful of fresh tarragon.
But meat isn’t the only filling that benefits from the brightening effects of acid; it’s the key to our favorite vegetarian sandwiches. For a true grilled cheese sandwich—as in the cheese itself is grilled or fried—try a Fried Halloumi Sandwich. Halloumi is a firm Cypriot cheese traditionally made from sheep's and goat’s milk cheese, though these days cow’s milk also is used. It’s milky, tangy and briny, with a uniquely high melting point that allows you to throw it in a hot skillet. Once well browned and softened, we drizzle it with tangy-sweet pomegranate molasses, then tuck it into pita with pickled red onion and fresh mint.
Like the meaty banh mi above, our Fried Egg Banh Mi is finished with a smattering of crunchy quick-pickled root vegetables and fresh cilantro, which balance the richness of the egg yolk. And if you’re an eggplant fan, we sauce the meaty vegetable in a lemon-spiked tahini with peppery, smoky harissa—it’s wildly flavorful and balanced.
Never underestimate the power of sugar
Sugar is an underrated sandwich ingredient that does wonderful things when combined with smoke and heat. Some of our favorite sandwiches are sticky sweet, but never cloying. We melt down a mess of smoked mushrooms for our Smoky Pulled Portobello buns, then toss them with a store-bought BBQ sauce doctored with lemon juice (or vinegar). Spoon it on buns and top with a crunchy, tangy slaw for even more contrast.
For our Garlic and Five Spice Pork Sandwiches, we pound quick-cooking thin-cut pork chops to tenderize the meat and increase the surface area available for browning, then give them a quick marinade in bottled teriyaki sauce boosted with garlic and five-spice powder. A quick stint under the broiler provides needed char; pickled jalapeños add heat and tangy acid to keep things from getting too sweet and rich.
Sugar is mixed right into the meat for our Chili-Garlic Pork Burgers, but instead of balancing the sweet with sour, we utilize chili heat, savory garlic, and lots of browning. Use this recipe to break in your grill for the season.
Cheese needs texture
The croque monsieur is unabashedly rich and cheesy—and that should be celebrated, not obscured. Attempting to balance the gooey cheese and salty ham with acid distracts from the point of this sandwich. Instead, we add contrast through texture and browning with three pieces of crunchy, oven-broiled bread, topping each with a schmear of crème fraîche fortified with shredded Gruyère cheese, a couple tablespoons of mustard and small measure of nutmeg. The mixture mimics the sauciness of a roux-thickened béchamel. It browns and bubbles, anchoring the sandwich's deep flavors.
Luxuriously fatty mortadella and provolone are balanced by the sharp bitterness of broccoli rabe in this panino, along with a tangy assist from jarred hoagy spread and textural contrast from pan-grilled rolls. And in this opened-faced tartine, crisp, grassy asparagus acts as a verdant counterpoint to salty ham and nutty Gruyère.
But the easiest way to upgrade any sandwich? Focus on the sauce. We have plenty to choose from, including an umami-packed kimchi aioli, a deeply sweet tomato conserva, gochujang sour cream, harissa mayo (with olives and lemon), and a tonkatsu sauce that’s particularly lovely on our Eggplant Katsu Sandwiches with homemade Japanese Milk Bread.
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