Cook bacon: Preheat oven to 425°F. Place bacon onto a foil-lined baking sheet, transfer to oven and cook until crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towel-lined plate and pat with additional paper towel to remove excess fat. When cool to the touch, chop and reserve to the side with the chopped parsley.
Toast bread: With rack in the middle position, turn oven setting to broil. Place slices of bread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and toast. Remove from oven and lightly butter each slice.
Prepare Mornay sauce: Scald milk in a small saucepan. Melt butter in a second medium saucepan over low heat. Add onions to butter, stir and cook for 2 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent. Sprinkle with flour and stir, cooking for 2 minutes more. Slowly add the hot milk in a steady stream, whisking as the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Add salt and peppers. Pass sauce through a fine sieve into a medium sized bowl. Add sherry and cheese and stir until cheese melts and the sauce is smooth.
Assemble sandwiches: Warm turkey in a skillet seasoned with pan juices or a knob of butter. With buttered, toasted bread already on baking sheet, add slices and morsels of turkey plus a few slices of tomato on each. Ladle the Mornay sauce over each sandwich, covering the turkey, tomato and bread. Sprinkle the top of each sandwich with Parmesan. Immediately transfer to the oven and broil until the sauce bubbles and the tops turn a light golden brown colour.
Garnish and serve: Transfer 1 sandwich each to luncheon plates and garnish with a sprinkle of the chopped bacon and parsley. Serve with WATC BBQ Sauce.
Hot Brown Turkey Sandwich
Ingredients
½-¾ pound leftover turkey, sliced
4 slices bread
1 tablespoon butter
4-8 tomato slices
8 strips of bacon, used as garnish
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
For the cheddar Mornay sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
¼ small white onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1½ cups whole milk, scalded
kosher salt
pinch black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dry sherry
½ cup grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
To garnish:
sprinkle chopped parsley
chopped crispy bacon
serve with WATC BBQ Sauce
Directions
Cook bacon: Preheat oven to 425°F. Place bacon onto a foil-lined baking sheet, transfer to oven and cook until crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towel-lined plate and pat with additional paper towel to remove excess fat. When cool to the touch, chop and reserve to the side with the chopped parsley.
Toast bread: With rack in the middle position, turn oven setting to broil. Place slices of bread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and toast. Remove from oven and lightly butter each slice.
Prepare Mornay sauce: Scald milk in a small saucepan. Melt butter in a second medium saucepan over low heat. Add onions to butter, stir and cook for 2 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent. Sprinkle with flour and stir, cooking for 2 minutes more. Slowly add the hot milk in a steady stream, whisking as the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Add salt and peppers. Pass sauce through a fine sieve into a medium sized bowl. Add sherry and cheese and stir until cheese melts and the sauce is smooth.
Assemble sandwiches: Warm turkey in a skillet seasoned with pan juices or a knob of butter. With buttered, toasted bread already on baking sheet, add slices and morsels of turkey plus a few slices of tomato on each. Ladle the Mornay sauce over each sandwich, covering the turkey, tomato and bread. Sprinkle the top of each sandwich with Parmesan. Immediately transfer to the oven and broil until the sauce bubbles and the tops turn a light golden brown colour.
Garnish and serve: Transfer 1 sandwich each to luncheon plates and garnish with a sprinkle of the chopped bacon and parsley. Serve with WATC BBQ Sauce.
Hot Brown Turkey Sandwich
Loading...
Turkey and tomato on slices of toasted bread, topped with an aged cheddar cheese sauce and sprinkle of crispy bacon…
Got leftover turkey? Time for a HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH.
Think of this recipe as a homemade sandwich mashup; what happens when a HOT TURKEY SANDWICH collides with a cheesy, saucy CROQUE MONSIEUR. The result is a seriously delicious concoction that has us sharing it with everyone. Remember this recipe after any holiday that leaves you with ROASTED TURKEY leftovers. Our HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH, AKA the famous Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich, is just the thing to make.
Judging by the way this open-faced turkey sandwich recipe disappears every time I make it, I’m thinking you better PIN it to a favourite Pinterest board. Also, a good idea to share this LINK with friends and family. Lastly, please remember to follow us on Instagram and Facebook and SHARE pics of all the delicious food you’re making, using #weekendatthecottage when you post. Thanks!
Here are a few tips on how to make a HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH:
Make this recipe using roasted turkey leftovers.
INGREDIENTS
We’re showing the ingredients needed to make these sandwiches in two parts. This first one includes a bowl of the creamy, cheesy cheddar Mornay sauce, and the image of what you’ll need to make it comes next. Whew! One thing worth mentioning, HOT BROWNS were first created by Chef Fred Schmidt back in the 1920s at the Brown Hotel, in Louisville, Kentucky. This dish is so darn delicious, it’s no wonder they’re so famous.
Try to add a bit of white and dark meat to each sandwich.
TURKEY
Although we saw variations of this sandwich made with sliced, deli-style turkey loaf or country ham, please don’t use them. Using larger slices and morsels of roast turkey leftovers is so much more flavourful, it’s the only way to go. Another thing about the turkey; adding a little bit of both white and dark meat to each sandwich deepens the flavour. Has all this talk of turkey got you jonesing for some? The recipe for our famous DRY-BRINED TURKEY is right here.
You can prepare the sauce without sherry if you’d like an alcohol-free version.
MORNAY SAUCE
The signature cheese sauce on our HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH is a classic MORNAY. Although most often prepared using Gruyère, Parmesan or Emmental cheese, we opted for a more classic North American flavouring. If you can, follow our lead and make this sauce using aged cheddar cheese from Ontario or Quebec in Canada, or from the U.S., either Vermont or Wisconsin. These provinces and states produce some of the finest cheddars the world over.
The sherry and aged cheddar cheese give this creamy sauce a pleasing flavour.
When making the Mornay sauce, don’t forget to strain the sauce through a fine sieve before stirring in the sherry and grated cheddar cheese. The sauce needs to be smooth and velvety for best results.
You can use white, whole wheat, challah or multigrain bread for this recipe.
SLICED BREAD
There’s sliced bread and then there’s a loaf of bread you slice by hand to make these open-face sandwiches – the slight distinction is an important one. These sandwiches need a larger slice of bread to accommodate all the toppings that get heaped on. Toasting and buttering the slices of bread is a nice little added bonus for both flavour and appearance.
Swapping the lettuce from a BLT to parsley, creates a new classic. Hello BPT!
BACON, PARSLEY & TOMATO
I think the inclusion of bacon and tomato in this sandwich is brilliant, especially since they meet up with the flavour of the turkey and cheese sauce. We added the chopped fresh parsley at the end for a hit of green, but it also acts as an homage to lettuce from the classic BLT combo. One other adjustment we made was to oven-bake the bacon crispy and chop it up as a sprinkle for the hot brown sandwiches, added right before serving. This is a better way of spreading that beloved bacon flavour instead of burying strips under the tomato and sauce.
Add a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese to each right before you send them off to bake.
ASSEMBLE
Assembling this open-face sandwich is way, way easy. The turkey and tomato slices get stacked onto the toasted bread. Then add the Mornay sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Broil until browned and bubbly, then finish with a sprinkle of parsley and chopped bacon. Yum!
The Mornay sauce will bubble up and brown in the oven.
BROIL
Transferring the sandwiches to the oven under the broiler gives them their distinctive bubbly, browned appearance. It all happens quickly though, so stay close to your oven and watch closely. As soon as the sandwiches are done, sprinkle them with parsley and chopped bacon. Yum!
Try a Hot Brown Turkey Sandwich with WATC BBQ Sauce. So yummy!
SERVE
Although you can serve these hot turkey sandwiches with our CREAMY COLESLAW or CAESAR SALAD, they’re quite substantial on their own. The little sumthin’ sumthin’ we do recommend is a dollop of Weekend at the Cottage BBQ SAUCE.
Our BBQ SAUCE is tangy with a hint of sweetness and just the right amount of heat. Serve it with this HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH as you would any condiment like steak sauce, ketchup or mustard; this sauce is super tasty. If you haven’t yet enjoyed our BBQ SAUCE, simply click the STORE icon at the top of this page to order online, or to find the closest retail store carrying it. Thanks in advance for serving this sauce as a condiment with this sandwich recipe.
Try a Hot Brown Turkey Sandwich with WATC BBQ Sauce. So yummy!
This HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH will take your turkey leftovers from simple to amazing!
Cook bacon: Preheat oven to 425°F. Place bacon onto a foil-lined baking sheet, transfer to oven and cook until crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towel-lined plate and pat with additional paper towel to remove excess fat. When cool to the touch, chop and reserve to the side with the chopped parsley.
Toast bread: With rack in the middle position, turn oven setting to broil. Place slices of bread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and toast. Remove from oven and lightly butter each slice.
Prepare Mornay sauce: Scald milk in a small saucepan. Melt butter in a second medium saucepan over low heat. Add onions to butter, stir and cook for 2 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent. Sprinkle with flour and stir, cooking for 2 minutes more. Slowly add the hot milk in a steady stream, whisking as the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Add salt and peppers. Pass sauce through a fine sieve into a medium sized bowl. Add sherry and cheese and stir until cheese melts and the sauce is smooth.
Assemble sandwiches: Warm turkey in a skillet seasoned with pan juices or a knob of butter. With buttered, toasted bread already on baking sheet, add slices and morsels of turkey plus a few slices of tomato on each. Ladle the Mornay sauce over each sandwich, covering the turkey, tomato and bread. Sprinkle the top of each sandwich with Parmesan. Immediately transfer to the oven and broil until the sauce bubbles and the tops turn a light golden brown colour.
Garnish and serve: Transfer 1 sandwich each to luncheon plates and garnish with a sprinkle of the chopped bacon and parsley. Serve with WATC BBQ Sauce.