When you run a sandwich blog, you end up studying a whole bunch of online—and real-life—menus. Because of this, I do a lot of sandwich theory crafting to think about what sort of sandwiches I would have on the menu if I ever opened or help designed a sandwich restaurant.
At the moment, the sandwich I’m writing about today would be the turkey sandwich that I would select. It’s not the most unique sandwich and it’s not the most original sandwich, but it’s a solid contender that would have customers coming back to order it again and again. We’re going to put it on the menu.
What is this sandwich?
This is an oven-roasted sliced turkey sandwich with melty cheddar, pistachio pesto, roasted Roma tomatoes, and mayonnaise on butter-toasted sourdough slices.
If you want to dive straight into the components of this sandwich you can. But first I want to brainstorm a fun sandwich name on the menu.
Potential menu sandwich names?
Look around on deli menus and you’ll find that a lot of turkey sandwiches are just named “Turkey,” “The Turkey,” “Hot Turkey,” “Roast Turkey and Cheese” or other similar options that are straight to the point but overall pretty boring. I decided to play pretend and try to get creative with potential names for this sandwich. FYI: my wife said all my rhymes were goofy but that didn’t stop me.
Note: if I were running a restaurant or helping to build a menu there would likely be a consistent theme to the menu which would dramatically help focus the sandwich naming practice. But for this pretend exercise, we’re just naming one sandwich with no outside cohesion.
| Potential sandwich name | My reasonings for the name |
|---|---|
| Bomb Tom Turkey | A tom turkey is a male turkey. A male turkey is more often used for deli meats but a female turkey is more likely to end up on your Thanksgiving table. Regardless, “bomb tom” would stick in people’s minds. |
| High-five Jive Turkey | This rhymes and is fun to say but it is a little weird when you know that a jive turkey is someone who is unreliable and you might not want to high-five them. But then again, it’s just a sandwich name, and the phrase “jive turkey” is from the 1970s so I think it works. |
| Talk Turkey To Me | Talk turkey is a phrase that means to be honest and direct. This name has turkey in it, so it’s honest about the ingredients in the sandwich. This one was my wife’s choice probably because she hates my “cringe” rhyming names. |
| Wild Child Turkey | This sandwich is not made from wild turkey nor does it contain the beverage Wild Turkey, but it rhymes and has the word turkey in it so it could work on a menu. |
| Tom’s Turkey and Tomato | Direct and to the point. Tom is a male turkey and when you buy tomato plant seeds, they are often named things like Tommy Toe or Tumbling Tom. This one is not super original though because there are a lot of “tom turkey” sandwiches on menus already. |
| Quirky Tom Turkey | Much like the last one but just adds additional rhyme options. What can I say, I like rhymes. |
I have my favorite name from the list above and have used it to name the sandwich recipe. Guess which one I picked?
Enough pretending, let’s build this sandwich. First, we need some bread.
Just a note: at this point in the writing of this sandwich blog post the word “turkey” looks like it is spelled wrong because I have typed it so many times.
Rustic white sandwich loaf
Ok, I know I wrote that this sandwich was on sourdough a bit higher up in the blog post and some of the sandwiches were, but not all of them. Some of them were on my new rustic sandwich loaf recipe. You can make this same recipe with sourdough though and I added that option to the full bread recipe.
I don’t have the best memory and I had somehow convinced myself that I had a recipe similar to this white bread loaf already posted. I didn’t so I decided to fix it. The recipe I was misremembering was my semolina sourdough loaf which is similar to this recipe.
This is a good loaf for turning into sandwiches or to use for avocado toast if you’re feeling extra millennial in the morning. Basically, it’s a white loaf of bread made from all-purpose or bread flour that is baked in a Dutch oven. I have recently made this loaf a few times to get the recipe right and I have made it with instant yeast and once with some of my sourdough starter in the dough. I am sharing the instant yeast recipe and added tips to the bottom of the recipe if you want to use sourdough.
This is an easy dough with 57% hydration. When talking about dough, hydration refers to the amount of liquid in the dough compared to the amount of flour. If you were to make a dough with 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water, you’d be working with a 100% hydration dough and it would be super duper sticky and hard to work with.
This lower hydration level means that the dough should be very easy to handle and it will not be very sticky. The dough rises quickly, meaning that you should be able to get it in the oven in just a few hours.
To bake this loaf, I suggest that you procure an oven-proof Dutch oven and a good set of heat-proof oven mitts. The bread bakes inside the Dutch oven with the lid on for most of the baking time. This means you will need to handle the Dutch oven while it is super hot. Just be careful and try not to burn yourself.
The bake process is 25 minutes in the preheated Dutch oven then 15 more minutes with the Dutch oven lid removed and an additional 10 minutes baked outside of the Dutch oven, resting right on the oven rack. That last 10 minutes is not required, the loaf is already baked through.
The slices from this loaf will be chewy through the middle with a slightly firm crust. In theory, your crumb should be mostly tight, meaning you won’t have a whole lot of large holes in the bread. In one of three of my recent test loaves I did have a larger hole, but it wasn’t enough to be a problem with mayonnaise or pesto. You can see the hole I’m referring to in this photo.
I toasted each slice in butter in a pan which led to a rich and buttery final sandwich.
Rustic sandwich bread loaf
This rustic white bread loaf is baked inside of a Dutch oven. The main recipe requires instant yeast, but I have baked this same recipe using a sourdough starter—check the notes below the recipe for tips.
Get RecipeRoasted and sliced turkey
I can’t link up every single time that I have roasted and sliced a turkey for this sandwich blog, but it has been a bunch of times. It’s just easy and the return on investment is high. You simply coat the outside with a cajun spice blend—or your favorite salty spice blend—and bake until the turkey hits a certain temperature. Then cool the meat off for a couple of hours in the fridge (or overnight) and slice as thin as you can.
For a turkey breast, I typically set my thermometer to 155 F so that I’m alerted when it’s within 10 degrees of perfection. It usually takes me a couple of minutes to get the turkey out of the oven after the alarm goes off and that leaves my turkey at around 158 or so. The turkey will continue cooking even after it leaves the oven and the internal temperature will keep rising. I have monitored this myself and can tell you that in my oven, removing the turkey slightly below 160 will mean that the turkey will hit 165 F in just a few minutes of rest time. This whole concept or process is typically referred to as carryover cooking.
Turkey slicing
Once the meat is cooled it is a whole lot easier to slice thinly. You can slice while it’s still warm, but cooling the meat will firm it up and with a sharp knife you should be able to get fairly thin slices. A year or so into the life of this sandwich blog I decided to buy a somewhat inexpensive electric meat slicer. The slicer I bought is a 200W slicer with a 7.5-inch removable blade. You can adjust the thickness and it typically sells for around 100 bucks. I got it on a sale for around 85 bucks, which turned out to be well worth it for me.
I typically keep the slicer in the original box in a basement closet and bring it out when I need to slice something. I then clean all the parts and dry them. Eventually, the device ends up in the box downstairs until the next big hunk of meat needs cutting. The main downfall of this slicer is that it isn’t heavy enough to hold itself in one position on the counter very well. It has suction feet, but you have to be very careful that you’re not pushing too hard against the blade or you might slide the whole slicer. You just need to be very careful using it or you could put it up against the back wall of your counter.
Oven roasted Cajun turkey
A little spicy and super seasoned moist turkey, ready for slicing. Sandwich turkey is at the next level right here.
Get RecipePistachio pesto
I wrote about this pistachio pesto a bit earlier this year when I made a pistachio-focused mortadella sandwich. It’s the exact same recipe as the walnut basil pesto recipe that I have shared except the nut selection was different. I started out going to the store to buy ingredients and I figured ok, we’ve got these two other nut pestos I should probably buy some pinenuts and make a traditional version but the store was out. So, pistachio pesto it is!
I like pistachios better than pinenuts anyway so this worked out well. But the point is that you can pretty much make pesto from a variety of different types of nuts.
Pistachio pesto
Pistachios add great flavor and texture to this savory pesto. One key to a good pesto is adding the oil slowly to help create the proper emulsified consistency.
Get RecipeOven-roasted tomatoes
I shared the technique I use for oven-roasted tomatoes when I wrote about the Big Lou sandwich my wife and I created earlier this year. I used the same technique here which is a super easy way to get some Roma tomatoes to be a big flavor component in this sandwich.
One of the best parts of baking tomatoes this way is that it allows you to get great flavor from tomatoes that might not really be as ripe as you might want. The Roma tomatoes that I bought were not the best. But after getting roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper, they were elevated to be a whole lot more flavorful.
This roasted tomato recipe takes about 15 to 20 minutes in the oven. With 20 minutes plus preheating time, you’re looking at the bare minimum of 25 minutes to get these tomatoes ready for sandwiching. This works great if you are doing other things in the kitchen because this is all hands-off time. But what if you need those tomato slices right now?
Well, I actually did that too for this sandwich. I forgot to get the oven preheated and needed tomatoes for the final turkey sandwich so I just decided to pan-sear the Roma tomato slices and it worked really well in about a third of the time.
The pan-seared tomato slices aren’t quite the same thing texturally as the oven-roasted tomatoes, but they worked out pretty well in a pinch.
Sandwich building process
Once you have the pesto made and the tomatoes in the oven, everything else is accomplished on a griddle or a pan. The bread slices are toasted with a little bit of butter. Then the turkey is seared a little until it starts browning and getting really hot. The cheese is added and it will start to melt from the heat of the turkey and the pan. Then it’s all down to sandwich assembly.
The High-Five Jive Turkey sandwich
Ok, I went with the high-five jive rhyme because it’s fun and I think people would remember it after seeing it on a menu. It’s just a silly phrase that might stick in someone’s head and have them coming back for another sandwich. And that’s what we want. Keep people thinking about their next sandwich!
High-Five Jive Turkey sandwich
Here's an oven-roasted sliced turkey sandwich with melty cheddar, pistachio pesto, roasted Roma tomatoes, and mayonnaise on butter-toasted sourdough slices. Add it to your kitchen sandwich menu.
Ingredients:
Pistachio pesto- 3 to 4 ounces fresh basil (about 2 cups)
- 1⁄3 cup chopped pistachios
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt (if your pistachios are unsalted you can increase this a little)
- 2⁄3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1⁄3 cup grated parmesan cheese
- black pepper to taste
- 1 Roma tomato, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- pinch of salt and black pepper
- 2 slices of sourdough bread
- 4 teaspoons butter
- 4 to 6 ounces roasted turkey slices (recipe here)
- 1 to 2 slices of cheddar cheese
- 2 to 3 tablespoons pistachio pesto (from above)
- 3 to 5 baked Roma tomato slices (from above
- mayonnaise (optional)
Directions:
Pistachio pesto: add basil, pistachios, garlic cloves, and salt to a food processor or blender. Pulse to combine.
When things are chopped well, start slowly adding your olive oil while the processor/blender is running on low. This starts to form an emulsion and gives you the consistency you would want.
When the pesto is smooth and has a thickened consistency, remove from the processor/blender to a bowl add parmesan cheese, and stir.
Taste the fully combined pesto and add any additional salt and pepper that you think it might need. Store in the fridge for a few days.
Roasted Roma tomato slices: Slice the Roma tomatoes and place them on a sheet pan with at least a half inch of room between each one. Paint or spoon a little olive oil on top of each tomato and then sprinkle a tiny pinch of salt and ground black pepper on top of each tomato. Bake them at 400 degrees F (205 C) for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft but not falling apart. Remove them to a plate until it's time to make the sandwich.
Toast the bread slices: place a griddle or large pan over medium heat to preheat for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes have passed, add the bread slices covered with 1 teaspoon of butter per side. Cook, flipping occasionally until the bread is golden brown and toasted. Remove the bread to a cooling rack, and keep the griddle or pan on the heat.
Turkey and cheddar: wipe out the griddle or large pan and add several slices of turkey. Cook until the turkey is fully warmed through and starting to brown a little bit.
Add the slices of cheese on top of the hot turkey and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until the cheese starts to melt.
Sandwich assembly: spread a generous amount of pesto on one slice of bread and top that with the turkey and melted cheddar.
Add 3 to 5 slices of baked Roma tomatoes on top of the cheese. Add mayonnaise to the second slice of bread (if using) and add that piece on top of the tomato slices to complete the sandwich.
Check back next week
Next week we’ll be making a sandwich in honor of one of the United States’ former Presidents. The sandwich might have millions of peaches and maybe peanuts in it. You’ll just have to come back and tune in—same time, same place—next week!
