Delight the Whole Team With These Cubano Sliders
I’ve never been to a Super Bowl party serving Cuban sandwiches and I’m convinced this needs to change. Of all the meat, melting, juicy, pressed sandwiches, this is the most important. Grilled pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and pickles; everything about it screams “touchdown!” Whether you’re hosting or going to someone else’s party , serve up a batch of these Cuban slices and I promise you’ll be the snack champion this year.
I cherish a foot-long pressed cubeno with crispy edges, but football snacks should be small, tasty and tempting, no matter how long they sit on the snack table. Cubano consists of marinated, fried pork tenderloin, sliced ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and lots of yellow mustard, all placed in a loaf of Cuban bread (a bread similar to an Italian or Portuguese bun and cooked with lard). . All this is pressed to heat the pork juice, melt the layers of cheese and make the loaf crispy. To make this typically gigantic sandwich more miniature, I used King’s Hawaiian rolls. They are soft, delicately sweet, and baked together in the perfect slider size.
A day or two before you make sliders, marinate and roast one pound of pork loin. I looked at several recipes for Cuban Fried Pork and settled on this recipe for my marinade . Citrus fruits and garlic are very good. After searing, store the pork in the refrigerator, well covered, until you are ready to assemble the sliders.
If you’re not familiar with my penchant for making giant oven sandwiches , I’m back at it. Butter an uncoated baking sheet, about an inch more than the surface area that the pack of buns will cover. You read that right, no foil, no parchment, and in general, grab the most gnarled, discolored (seasoned, for those in the know) baking sheets you can find. The more seasoned the baking sheet, the better our bun will caramelize.
Unpack the Hawaiian rolls and, leaving them connected, cut all 12 rolls horizontally. You now have a bottom plank and a top plank. Place the bottoms in the center of an oiled baking sheet. Start applying a layer of yellow mustard to the cuts of both boards. While you can layer however you like, after the mustard, I recommend placing a layer of Swiss cheese on top of the bottom buns, followed by a layer of ham slices. Add thinly sliced roast pork on top of the ham and top with another layer of Swiss cheese. If you have pre-cut cheese, all the better for you, but I had to shave mine. Place the thinly sliced pickle chips on top of the top layer of the Swiss pie and top the tops of the Hawaiian buns that have already been smeared with mustard. Give him a little push.
Take a serrated knife and cut the sliders along their natural borders, but keep the sandwiches pressed together as if they were one piece. You want to cut the filling now so it’s easy to take apart later, but if you bake them together they will stack neatly and the cheese will melt mostly on the inside of the sandwich, not the outside. Brush the tops of the sliders with a tablespoon of melted butter. (Unfortunately, I cut open the sliders after buttering them and ended up with a handful of melted butter.)
Press the bottom of another well-seasoned baking sheet on top of the sandwiches and place everything in the preheated oven. Place a heavy, oven-safe item on top of the top baking sheet. I used a cast iron skillet. Bake sandwiches for 15 minutes at 400°F. The sliders will be well pressed, browned on top and bottom, juicy in the center, and showcase a high quality cheese filling.
If you’re bringing them to a friend’s house to watch a game, I suggest picking them up at home, carefully cutting them into individual sliders on a sheet of foil, oiling the tops, and wrapping them in the same foil to travel with. Leave them wrapped and then bake at your destination with a load on top.
cuban sliders
Ingredients:
- 12 packs of original King’s Hawaiian rolls
- 6 ounces Swiss cheese, thinly sliced
- 7 ounces chopped ham
- Grilled pork tenderloin 12 to 16 oz
- ½ cup pickled cucumber chips
- ¼ cup yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Use a little melted butter to grease the center of the baking sheet where the buns will sit. Cut a pack of buns in half horizontally and place the bottom half on a greased baking sheet. Spread mustard on both sides of the sliced buns. Spread half the swiss cheese on the bottom of the buns, top with a layer of ham, roast pork slices, the other half of the swiss cheese and a layer of pickles. Place the top half of the buns on top of the cucumbers and press down lightly.
Cut the sandwiches with a serrated knife along the natural lines of the buns, but keep the sandwiches pressed together. Brush the tops of the sliders with melted butter. Place the second baking sheet on top of the sliders and place the entire fixture in the preheated oven. Weight the top pan with a cast-iron skillet or other heavy item suitable for oven use. Bake 15 minutes. Serve warm.