Homemade Sliders!

 

I can honestly say that I’ve never eaten one of those little square greasy burgers from that fast food chain that made the ‘slider’ popular in the 1920s.   Hard to believe, I know.  

During WWII, sailors made the slider even more popular by creating similar sandwiches on ship.   They created greasy little burgers that were consumed in two bites and would slide down!

In the 1970s, Silver Dollar sandwiches became a popular supermarket deli catered item.  They were typically filled with sandwich spreads made with ham or chicken.  The buns were about the size of a silver dollar.  In the 1990s, Funeral Sandwiches became popular.  You know that recipe using Hawaiian rolls filled with ham and cheese, baked with a brushing of a savory butter mixture.   These sandwiches were created out of the history of small bun sliders, just given different names.

Now, sliders have reached the highest popularity ever, but not really because of the greasy burger!  Sliders today are all about the small size of the bun.  They include any of a huge variety of sandwich fillings … hot or cold.  My granddaughter and I love to make them.  We love to eat them, but we enjoy the creative ideas in making them.  Here are some of our creations from the last year!

This first one is a simple burger made with ground beef!  I season these heavily with a grilling combination of spices typically used for steaks.  Use your favorite.  Then we dress the burger with our favorite cheese and toppings.  We love thick slices of tomato and bread and butter pickles!  I usually make 5 sliders from a pound of burger.   So simple and lots of fun.

This one is a breakfast slider.  We put a pork sausage patty on a biscuit with cheese.  We added lettuce and tomato, mayonnaise, katsup and some crumbled bacon … just because I had some left from the previous morning’s breakfast!

This catfish fillet slider is made with fried fish from the previous evening’s meal!   I frequently fry too much fish and refrigerate it for a couple of days and make sandwiches with it.  You can microwave it for about 30 seconds or put it in the air fryer for about  a minute to reheat it.   These sliders included thinly sliced red onions and tomatoes with tartar sauce.

See how good these barbequed pork sliders look.  A pork tenderloin is another item that I always have left.  There are lots of foods that I cook for one person, then have to plan the ways to use the leftovers.  Pork is easily pulled apart and frozen in small packages.  You can put it in a microwave proof dish with a little BBQ sauce on it, cover it and microwave it from the frozen state.  This makes awesome sandwiches.

Here are a couple pictures of one of my most favorite ways to use left over salmon.  There is nothing better than fresh salmon.  Refrigerate your leftovers … or freeze them for later (thaw them in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for about an hour).  Crumble the salmon and for every 2 cups of salmon add ½ cup dried breadcrumbs, a Tablespoon of dried minced onion, a dash of Old Bay seasoning and an egg.  One of these patties has lots of fresh dill added.  The other does not.  Form the patties and bake them for about 8 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees.  You can use an air fryer.  You can also pan fry them in a drizzle of canola oil.  Tartar sauce, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles make these sandwiches even better.

Not every slider has to be crunchy!  Here’s a good example of our creativity.  This buffalo chicken slider is made with sliced chicken breast meat that was originally baked to have with a baked potato and a green salad.   

We reheated the meat by microwaving it for a minute, then topped it with a drizzle of bottled buffalo sauce and crumbles of blue cheese.  We added a tomato slice and off to the side had celery sticks.  All the flavor and the crunch … without the mess that wings make … made us pretty happy!

I hope these ideas help you create some sliders.  Do your best to repurpose foods in ways that are fun and totally different than the original menu!   I keep slider buns in the freezer all the time so I’m aways ready to get creative with my granddaughter!

Enjoy!