Earlier in the week, I shared a recipe for this Classic White Sandwich Bread and with it I promised that I’d share my all-time favorite sandwich recipe using said bread. It was the one and only reason for sharing that post to begin with, and I’m happy to finally share this Fried Bologna Sandwich. Now, I grew up eating fried bologna all the time. It was actually one of my favorite things to eat. I’d beg my mom to make it for me with black beans (mixed with white rice) and scrambled eggs, which sounds crazy but it was so good. That was a very time ago though and I haven’t eaten bologna since then. It wasn’t until recently on one of my monthly trips to New Orleans, where I visited a restaurant called Turkey and the Wolf, which was named Bon Appétit’s best new restaurant in 2017, and I rekindled my love affair with bologna. One of their most popular dishes is this exact same fried bologna sandwich and after I ate it, I instantly became addicted, so much so that I needed to recreate it at home. That’s where this post comes in. The best part about the restaurant, aside from the delicious food, is the fact that they serve everything on all of these vintage plastic plates from my childhood. It’s like stepping back in time, but with really good food. With that being said, I must note that this isn’t an every day sandwich. No, this is more like a you’re feeling sad and need a pick-me-up kind of sandwich. A you deserve it so you should have it kind of sandwich.
Let’s start by toasting the bread. I’m using the Classic White Sandwich Bread recipe from earlier in the week! Cut it into 1.5-inch thick slices and spread both sides with softened butter. Brown each side, in batches, on a hot griddle or wire rack. Transfer to a wire rack, to prevent the bread from getting soggy, and continue browning the rest.
**Note: If you don’t make the bread from scratch, you can grab a loaf a bread from the bakery and slice it thick, or you can just buy thick slices of sandwich bread, such as Texas toast if you can find it!**
Place three slices on the same hot griddle (why dirty another pot or pan?) and cook until browned on both sides, about 2 to 4 minutes in total. Again, you’ll have to work in batches depending on the size of your griddle. If you have one of those two burner griddles, you’ll be able to cook more at once!
**Tip: To prevent the bologna from curling up and not browning evenly on the pan, use a sharp pairing knife to score the center of each slice of bologna with an “x.” This allows steam to escape without puffing up!**
Pile the browned bologna slices in the center of the pan and top with two slices of cheese. Cover with a large lid and cook until the cheese has melted. Transfer to a baking sheet. Keep warm in a preheated 300°F oven. Continue frying the rest until you get four piles of cheesy bologna.
To assemble the sandwiches, spread four slices of toasted bread with good quality store-bought mayonnaise (you can make your own of course but that’s only if you’re feeling very ambitious) and then spread the other four slices of toasted bread with spicy brown mustard.
Top the mayo slices with lettuce, a stack of cheesy bologna and a pile of chips. Sandwich together with the mustard bread and skewer with a long toothpick to hold it all in place.
**Tip: I’m using jalapeño kettle chips but you can use whatever flavor you like. Barbecue chips would be great as well! The important thing is to use kettle chips because they’re much crunchier than regular chips and hold up really well to the sandwich.**
This recipe is very easy to scale down, if you only want to make a sandwich for one, but it’s also easy enough to scale up, if you are having more than four people over for lunch or dinner! Of course, the best part is that there isn’t that much cooking involved.
Because we can’t really feasibly make homemade bologna just for this—I mean, you could if you were feeling ambitious, but why would you go through all that trouble?—just use good quality store-bought bologna from the deli counter.
I wanted this sandwich to be very hearty and so I asked the deli counter worker to slice slice the bologna on the thick side. It’s somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick and it really does make all the difference in the world. Trust me.
You can use whatever cheese you’d like, but really I highly recommend it with American cheese. I know that sounds like madness but there’s just something about bologna with American cheese that really brings me back to my childhood. If you’re already eating a heart sandwich with fried bologna and a heaping amount of chips, you might as well go all the way and just go for the American cheese, and that’s that on that. Give this sandwich a try and let me know what you think!
- 8 thick slices white bread
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 12 thick slices bologna
- 8 slices American cheese
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 4 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
- 1½ cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 2 cups jalapeño or barbecue kettle chips
- Set a griddle or large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Spread each slice of bread, on both sides, with softened butter. Working with two pieces at a time, brown on each side for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer to a wire rack and continue browning the rest.
- Using a sharp pairing knife, score the center of each slice of bologna with an "x." Place three slices on the same hot griddle and cook until browned on both sides, about 2 to 4 minutes. Pile the browned bologna slices in the center of the pan and top with two slices of cheese. Cover with a large lid and cook until the cheese has melted. Transfer to a baking sheet. Keep warm in a preheated 300°F oven. Continue frying the rest until you get four piles of cheesy bologna.
- To assemble each sandwich, spread four slices of toasted bread with mayo and the other four with mustard. Top the mayo slices with lettuce, a stack of cheesy bologna and a pile of chips. Sandwich together with the mustard bread and skewer with a long toothpick. Slice in half and serve! Enjoy!
Ummm, this sando reminds me so much of my childhood! There wasn’t a lot of “roasted turkey slices” or Prosciutto back then for us. It was good old Bologna. We fried it up and then slapped it on our grill cheese sandwich. Yours of course is more gourmet but thanks for the reminder of more simpler times. I don’t think I’ve had a bologna sandwich since I was 13… ready to give it a go!
we enjoy fried bologna sandwiches too. Being we’re from Michigan we had Koegel’s and Yale brands that were the best. We’d order thick slices of beef bologna for frying
My grandfather used to make us fried bologna “hats” by frying bologna slices without the little X. We’d eat them all hot and greasy with our fingers….no bread or toppings required.