2025 year-in-sandwich-review

I made a whole lot of sandwiches in 2025. I wrote at least 48 posts throughout the year about bread, sandwiches, and sandwich-adjacent items. To dig into the archives and give you a rundown on my year in sandwiches, I’ve picked some of my favorites from each month with quick descriptions and comments to hopefully detail the sandwich in a way that might entice you to click through, read, and bookmark recipes. Enjoy and share with friends!

Follow me over on BlueSky or on Instagram if you want to keep up with my antics. And hopefully you’ll have a great 2026!

Chicken, bacon, ghost pepper ranch

If you like a little spice, this is a great sandwich that kicked off 2025 with a melty zip. I also dug into two fast food preparations of ghost pepper ranch and shared my recipe for a copycat version of the sauce.

Gabagool, provolone, and vinegar peppers

In the second-to-final episode of The Sopranos, way back in 2007, Tony Soprano orders a gabagool, provolone, and vinegar pepper sandwich and proceeds to have some sort of breakdown. I recreated it and shared the recipes so you can see how it stacks up.

The beer-in-everything sandwich

I partnered with my friend JP, who is a brewer at Dovetail Brewing in Chicago, to attempt to incorporate beer into every component of a sandwich. This was a fun experiment that turned into a tasty adventure. Read about the process and use my recipes to recreate it if you’re daring.

Choose your own pan pizza adventure

Ok, you caught me. This isn’t a sandwich. Shh, don’t tell anyone.

During the late winter, I took a deep dive into pan-style pizza, which led me to develop an online tool where you can enter the dimensions of a baking pan (or cast iron skillet), and the tool will formulate a dough recipe so that you can make perfect pan pizzas. This was a whole lot of cheesy fun, and you can read the blog post I wrote about it or get the full recipe below.

Coconut curry chicken dog

I made my own, simple chicken sausage and paired it with an easy-to-make coconut curry sauce to produce this fun sandwich that’s topped with crunchy fried wontons. This was basically just an excuse to eat coconut curry sauce with crispy fried things, but it really turned out to be a great sandwich.

Diablo Sandwich and a Dr Pepper

I did some basic investigation to recreate a sandwich that never existed until it was spoken into the world by Sheriff Buford T. Justice in the movie Smokey and the Bandit. My version of the Diablo sandwich is a spiced-up pulled pork sandwich with a homemade Vidalia onion and jalapeno relish and some spicy Dr Pepper BBQ sauce.

You got fried chicken in my waffles!

The chicken-focused fast-food chain Bojangles started making a fried chicken sandwich inside of two “Bo-Berry Waffles,” and I figured we could make that better. I concocted a few recipes and turned them into this fantastic sandwich experience that’s topped with hot honey butter and homemade blueberry maple syrup inside of sandwich-sized blueberry waffles.

I’m Red Hook sandwich crawlin’

I visited Brooklyn earlier this year and stopped at two well-known sandwich shops to do some sampling. This is a recreation of a sandwich called the Chenzo 13, and it was created at Defonte’s in honor of one of the owner’s sons who passed away. I share my recipe to recreate the sandwich, as well as a bit of a recap of my visit to Defonte’s Sandwich Shop and The Ocky Way.

Chicken parm with a shot of vodka

If you need a comforting sandwich, you might want to make a vodka chicken parm sandwich. This experience focuses on a creamy and savory vodka sauce, crispy fried chicken cutlets, and melty mozzarella, all in a homemade sub roll. Recipes for everything, just click the button.

Catching the red-eye to Gravytown

I stuck a really deep spoon into gravy in the middle of March and ended up sharing 4 different types of gravy and two different types of biscuit with recipes for all. If you’re craving gravy, this is the one for you.

Elevate your grilled cheese game

I came up with a bunch of tips that you can use to boost your grilled cheese sandwich techniques. I also tackled the butter vs mayonnaise spread on the exterior question that everyone likes to bring up. This is a good one to keep in your back pocket—aka browser bookmarks—for your next grilled cheese night.

Jimmy’s Danger Sandwich

Is this the most dangerous sandwich in all of Chicago? Four out of five dentists might agree. This is the Pork Chop w/ Bone sandwich from Jim’s Original, and I created a very simple recipe you can use to create one in your own kitchen.

Black and blue and green muffin sandwich

I had a hankering for some homemade English muffins and decided to pair them with blackened skirt steak, blue cheese crumbles, avocado, and a bit of hot honey. This is a good, fairly easy way to turn some simple bread into something special.

The Arlen Barn meatloaf sandwich

Hank Hill loves this meatloaf sandwich. I don’t think the animated version would taste very good, so I brought it into the real world and shared some recipes for a great slice of meatloaf and everything that goes along to turn it into a good sandwich.

The best airport sandwich?

If you’re traveling through Chicago’s O’Hare airport, I’ve got a great sandwich you should try. If you’re not traveling, I’ve shared my recipes that you can use to make it from scratch in your own home. This is the chorizo, egg, and cheese on a homemade telera roll that was inspired by the sandwich sold at Tortas Frontera.

Summer Meats Fall

Right at the end of Summer, I had the idea to combine my favorite pimento cheese recipe that I always crave during the summer with Fall favorites, apple butter, and apple cider vinegrette to merge the two seasons into one sandwich. Oh, and I also snuck some ham and prosciutto in the middle just for good measure.

Chicken finger wrap battle

This may just look like a fancy version of McDonald’s snack wrap, but it’s actually a Hani sandwich from Detroit, Michigan. Since Hani is trademarked by National Coney Island, all the other fast casual restaurants in the Detroit area have to call theirs a chicken finger pita. I’ve shared all the recipes so you can make your own and call it whatever you want.

All-the-way to Carolina burgers

This one I spent a lot of time on, and I’m fairly passionate about because this is the burger style I grew up with. I wrote about the Carolina burger, which is a simple cheeseburger topped with chili, coleslaw, mustard, and diced onion. I covered where you can get authentic versions in North Carolina and also shared the recipes to recreate your own.

Jalapeno club crunch

If you like your sandwiches a little spicy and a lot loud, this one is for you. I borrowed the concept for this sandwich from a restaurant chain called McAlister’s Deli that I’ve never visited. I haven’t tried their version of this sandwich, but mine is really good. Click that button to get the recipes.

Greek-style chicken cakes

Someone else invented the concept of turning a crab cake into a chicken cake, but I took their idea and twisted it with Greek-style components like tzatziki sauce, a simple tomato, red onion, and feta salad inside of Kalamata olive and sun-dried tomato sandwich buns. A lot is going on here, but it all comes together beautifully.

We have the meats! And also 3 cheeses.

This is another entry into that sandwich blog post category where I try to recreate sandwiches that have been discontinued from fast food or fast casual restaurant menus. This is the Angus three cheese and bacon from Arby’s, and I can guarantee that my version is way better than Arby’s ever could have dreamed of.

You’ll dig this big pig and fig thingamajig

Ham and bacon, and melty brie cheese? Yes, this sandwich is packed full of flavor inside a warm, crusty baguette. Also, I put fig preserves and some green things in there to make you feel better about your choices. This is my fig and pig thingamajig.

Ring the Bell for this Beefer

You might not know this, but Taco Bell used to sell a sandwich on its menu. I spent some time creating my version of their simple ground beef for tacos and figured it would be a great time to write about the Bell Beefer as well. I honestly think they should probably bring it back because they already have all of the ingredients to sell it.