Club House Grill Sandwich
A griddled turkey-and-ham sandwich with cheddar and barbecue sauce, rebuilt to survive a day out of the fridge.
- calories
- 790
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 99
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 6 min
- total time
- 11 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| French bread | 2 slices | cut thick at home; a crusty loaf packs better than sandwich bread |
|---|---|---|
| Butter or margarine | 1 tbsp | soft is the point, so let it ride outside the cooler |
| Mayonnaise | 1/2 tbsp | single-serve packet |
| Shredded cheddar | 1/3 cup | or 1.5 oz off a block of hard cheddar |
| Foil-packet turkey | 1 packet (2.5 oz) | shelf-stable, replaces deli slices |
| Dry-cured ham or prosciutto | 2 thin slices | or hard salami |
| Barbecue sauce | 1 tbsp | packet or squeeze tube |
| Sun-dried tomato | 2 pieces | optional, the oil-packed kind |
Method
- Get a skillet hot over the fire, grate, or stove. Medium heat, not roaring, or the bread burns before the cheese gives up.
- Butter one side of each slice. Lay one slice in the pan butter-side down and spread mayonnaise across the dry face.
- Scatter half the cheddar over the mayonnaise. Push the ham to one side of the pan to crisp for thirty seconds, then move it aside.
- Pile the turkey on the cheese. Add the tomato, spoon the barbecue sauce over it, then lay the ham on top and finish with the rest of the cheddar.
- Cap it with the second slice, butter-side up. Flip the whole sandwich and press it down for two to three minutes until both faces are browned and the middle has gone soft.
- Cut it in half before it cools or the cheese pulls the whole thing apart.
The original is a diner sandwich, which means deli meat and a fridge. Neither travels. Foil-packet turkey and dry-cured ham do the same job at room temperature, and a block of hard cheddar holds for days in a pack. The mayonnaise packet stays sealed until you use it, so it is not the liability it sounds like.
The assembly order is doing real work. Cheese goes down first against the bread so it melts from below, and the barbecue sauce sits in the middle where it cannot soak into the crust. Butter on the outside faces is what browns the bread; the pan should be hot enough to sizzle when the slice lands but not so hot that it darkens in under a minute. If you are feeding several people, keep one sandwich browning while the next round of meat heats beside it and you get one out every couple of minutes.
Packing
Bread in a hard-sided container or it turns to crumbs. Meat, cheese, and sauce in one bag; butter in a small screw-top jar. Skip the tomato if you are carrying anything you do not want oiled.
Variations
- Swap in a tortilla and make it a quesadilla-shaped thing if bread is too bulky.
- Hot sauce instead of barbecue sauce cuts the fat better.
- Pepper jack in place of cheddar melts faster and takes the smoke well.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/club_house_grill_sandwich-2192.asp