I’ve by no means been to a Tremendous Bowl celebration the place Cubano sandwiches have been served, and I’m satisfied this wants to alter. Of all of the meaty, melty, juicy, pressed sandwiches on the market, this one is the boss. Roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and pickles; every part about this screams “landing!” Whether or not you’re internet hosting, or going to another person’s celebration, serve a batch of those Cubano sliders, and I promise you’ll be this 12 months’s snack champion.
I treasure a foot-long, crusty-edged, pressed Cubano, however soccer snacks are supposed to be small, shareable, and tempting, irrespective of how lengthy they’ve been sitting on the snack desk. Cubanos are composed of marinated, roasted pork loin, sliced ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles, and loads of yellow mustard, all nestled inside a loaf of Cuban bread (a bread that’s just like an Italian or Portuguese roll, and made with lard). The entire thing is pressed to warmth the pork’s juices, soften the layers of cheese, and crisp the loaf. To make this sometimes behemoth sandwich extra petite, I employed the useful companies of King’s Hawaiian rolls. They’re tender, delicately candy, and are available baked collectively within the good slider dimension.
A day or two earlier than you make the sliders, marinate and roast one pound of pork loin. I browsed a couple of Cuban-style roast pork recipes, and settled on this recipe for my marinade. The citrus and garlic actually got here by means of properly. After roasting, retailer the pork within the fridge, effectively coated, till you’re able to assemble the sliders.
Should you’re unfamiliar with my proclivity towards urgent big sandwiches within the oven, I’m at it once more. Butter a unadorned sheet pan, about an inch bigger than the floor space the pack of buns will cowl. You learn accurately, no foil, no parchment, and really, seize probably the most gnarly, discolored (seasoned, for these within the know) sheet pans you will discover. The extra seasoned the sheet pan, the higher the caramelization on our buns.
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Unpackage the Hawaiian rolls and, leaving them joined for now, slice through all 12 rolls horizontally. Now you have a plank of bottoms, and a plank of tops. Put the bottoms in the center of the buttered sheet pan. Begin layering with a healthy smear of yellow mustard on the cut sides of both planks. Although you can layer however you like, I recommend following the mustard with a layer of Swiss cheese over the bottom buns, followed by a layer of ham slices. Add thinly sliced, roasted pork on top of the ham, and cover with another layer of Swiss. If you have pre-sliced cheese, all the better for you, but I had to shave mine. Place thinly sliced pickle chips over the top layer of Swiss and cover with the already mustard-smeared Hawaiian bun tops. Give it a little press.
Grab a serrated knife and cut through the sliders along their natural divisions, but keep the sandwiches pressed together as if they were still one. You want to slice the fillings now so they’re easy to pull apart later, but allowing them to bake together will keep them neatly stacked, and keep the cheese melting mostly within the sandwich instead of out. Brush a tablespoon of melted butter over the tops of the sliders. (Sadly, I cut the sliders after buttering and ended up with a handful of melted butter.)
Press the bottom side of another well-seasoned sheet pan on top of the sandwiches, and put the whole apparatus into the preheated oven. Set a heavy, oven-safe object on top of the top sheet pan. I used a cast iron skillet. Bake the sandwiches for 15 minutes at 400°F. The sliders will be nicely pressed, toasted on top and bottom, juicy in the center, and show off a high quality cheese-pull.
If you’re bringing these to a friend’s home to watch the game, I suggest assembling them at home, slicing them into individual sliders carefully on a sheet of foil, buttering the tops, and wrapping them up in that same foil to travel. Leave them wrapped, then bake at your destination with a weight on top.
Cubano Sliders
Ingredients:
- 12 pack original King’s Hawaiian rolls
- 6 ounces Swiss cheese, thinly sliced
- 7 ounces sliced ham
- 12 to 16 ounces roasted pork loin
- ½ cup dill pickle chips
- ¼ cup yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Use some of the melted butter to grease the center section of a sheet pan, where the rolls will sit. Cut the pack of rolls in half horizontally, and put the bottom half on top of the buttered sheet pan. Spread mustard onto both cut-sides of the sliced pack of rolls. Layer half of the Swiss cheese on the bottom of the rolls, top with a layer of ham, slices of the roasted pork, the second half of the Swiss cheese, and a layer of pickles. Place the top half of the buns on the pickles and press down gently.
Slice through the sandwiches with a serrated knife along the natural divisions in the buns, but keep the sandwiches pressed next to each other. Brush melted butter over the tops of the sliders. Place a second sheet pan on top of the sliders and put the whole contraption in the preheated oven. Weigh down the top sheet pan with a cast iron skillet, or another heavy, oven-safe object. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm.
