Pro Tips to Elevate Your Sandwich Game
When we were growing up, there was a Subway across the street from our high school. Want to guess what we ate a lot of? That’s right, Subway.
Brittany’s Order: Italian herbs and cheese bread, ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, pickles, mustard (sometimes toasted, depending on the mood).
Trevor’s Order: Depends entirely on the mood. But the high school accurate order was a footlong sweet onion chicken teriyaki on Italian herbs and cheese bread, with lettuce, cucumber, red onion, sweet onion sauce, and a little bit of mayo.
In the 14 years since we’ve been out of high school (dear god where does the time go?) Subway as a chain has lost the plot completely and taken a nose dive in quality. The subs are skinny, they skimp out on ingredients, and it’s overall just kinda sad now.
We know we can do better. 🥪
Since we’ve been getting into making bread recently, we decided to make a bunch of sandwiches and show you that you also no longer have to be beholden to the $15 footlong. (We’re Canadian, it’s less for you American folks.)
Sidenote: We know you’re not an idiot sandwich. You know how to make a sandwich. It’s whatever you want between two slices of bread. That could be peanut butter and jelly, meats and cheeses, or a bunch of veggies if you’re vegetarian. We’re just here to help you level it up from “meh” to “mouthwatering”! (We hope… we’re just two mediocre chefs after all. 😉)
How to Make a Better Sandwich
Bread 🍞
Bread is sort of the defining thing for sandwiches. So if you want to make a better sandwich than Subway, the first place to start is to get the best quality bread you can find. If that means making it yourself from scratch, well, we have a blog post for that.
The only hard and fast rule we’re going to leave you with is this: if there is a lot of moisture in the sandwich (e.g. sauce, tomatoes, etc) then try to choose a denser bread and toast it. The bread will hold up better to all the liquid.
If you don’t have time to make your own bread, instead of buying shitty Dempster’s or Wonder Bread, check out your local bakery. Yes, it’s going to be expensive. But it’s going to be worth it. We promise.
We know this slice is thick. It wasn’t used for sandwich making!
Breads other than white bread to try:
Sourdough bread
Ciabatta buns
Focaccia bread (Brittany’s fave)
Brioche bread
Bagels (everything bagel, sesame bagels, jalapeno cheddar bagels, etc)
Meats & Cheeses 🥓🧀
If you hate talking to people and always buy prepackaged deli meats and cheeses, we’re here to tell you…stop. Talk to the person at the deli counter. Get that freshly sliced meat and cheese. This also allows you to customize how thick or thin you want your fillings.
Super thin meat is great for building height and texture (pile it high) and it layers well. Thicker cut deli meat is not as flexible, but provides a hearty bite.
🥪 Mediocre Tip: Sometimes deli staff will also give you samples. Take advantage of that!
Don’t limit yourself to one meat and one cheese. Try a few different meats on your sandwich for more flavour. Tired of deli meat? Try thinly sliced steak (like the Italian beef sandwich from The Bear) or leftover turkey from Easter/Thanksgiving/Christmas.
Deli meats we like:
Prosciutto
Mortadella
Gypsy salami
Genoa Salami
Capocollo
Black forest ham
Soppressata
Sundried tomato and basil turkey breast
Leafy Greens (And Other Vegetables) 🥬
If you’re going to add greens to your sandwich (you should), do these things:
Wash your lettuce, and then dry it well! If it’s still wet, it’ll make your bread soggy and gross.
Use lettuce as a barrier to keep other ingredients (we’re looking at you, tomatoes) from making your bread soggy.
Tear your leaves into smaller pieces for even coverage. This makes it so you don’t accidentally pull out a full leaf when trying to eat your sandwich. Making a deli sandwich or sub? Shredded lettuce works even better!
Add it to your sandwich last to keep it crisp (especially when adding it to a hot or toasted sandwich).
Greens to try:
Romaine lettuce
Iceberg lettuce (best shredded, IMO)
Butter lettuce
Arugula
Spinach
Cabbage (again, shredded)
Tomatoes and onions are also popular sandwich veggies. But you could also do cucumber, sprouts, or bell peppers. Or a mashed avocado. Mmmm.
The Importance of Pickles 🥒
A lot of sandwiches tend to be very rich. Between sauces, cheeses, meats, and possibly bacon, there is a lot of fat and salt going on. How does one cut through all of that? Acid! And what better way to get some acid into a sandwich than pickled vegetables.
Pickled cucumbers and pickled onions are great places to start. They will add acidity and a nice crunch for texture!
Pickles also make a great side.
🥒 Mediocre Note: We bought some pickles the day of making these sandwiches and they were sad. Somehow they had gone soggy. Don’t be like us, insist on crunchy pickles. If you’re Canadian check out Matt and Steve’s pickle spears. They are dope. Straight fire fam.
Condiments 🫙
Mustard. Mayo.
Those are the basics.
You could go crazy and try pesto, hummus, tzatziki, ranch, hot honey, etc. The possibilities are endless, really. We’re not going to go into too much detail here, as it’s really dependent on the type of sandwich you’re making.
And remember, you don’t have to limit yourself to one condiment. You can use multiple, you just have to understand what works together and what doesn’t. That takes trial and error, but there are some classics that stand the test of time like mustard and mayo, ranch and BBQ sauce, and Italian dressing and mayo (many sub shops do this).
Also don’t forget to salt and pepper your sandwich. We usually add it to our eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, or avocado if including them on a sandwich. Why? It just tastes better.
To Toast or Not to Toast? 🤔
This is very much a personal preference. As we said above, if you have a high moisture content then we recommend that you definitely toast the bread to prevent soggy bread.
Aside from that, it’s up to you? Do you like your sandwiches warm and crunchy? Then toast it.
You can simply do this in the toaster, but if you want to take it up a notch, you can toast your bread in a pan with some butter. If you REALLY love toasted sandwiches, invest in a panini press.
Going Off Script 🧑🔬
We love a good recipe. In fact, when we started this blog, we mostly wrote recipe reviews—sharing what worked, what didn’t, and our tips along the way. We usually stick to recipes as written, since even small changes can affect the final dish. After all, recipes are blueprints!
But with sandwiches? Even if you’re a follow-it-to-the-letter type like us, it’s okay to go off-script. Experiment!
Swap your plain white bread for focaccia.
Spread hummus on your sandwich.
Try different combinations of meats and cheeses.
Add crispy fried shallots to add crunch to your sandwich.
The possibilities are endless!
What to Serve With Your Sandwich 🥪
So you’ve made a dope sandwich. If you’re a hungry boy (or girl), here are some side ideas:
French fries
Sweet potato fries
CHIPS
Pickle spears
Soup
Fruit salad
Potato salad
Pasta salad
Veggies and dip
Coleslaw
Classic Sandwiches To Try
Grilled Cheese
This one is a classic. There are, at most, three ingredients: bread, cheese, butter. That’s it. Yes, yes, we know. Some of you like putting bacon, or ham, or onion, or whatever else on your grilled cheese. That’s fine, but you’re wrong.
For bread we recommend going with something like a sourdough — it’ll help cut through the richness of the cheese and make the whole thing not just one note.
For the cheese we recommend using the same logic as in our macaroni and cheese post. Use a melting cheese and a flavor cheese. Cheddar and mozzarella is a good combination. If you have access to American cheese, that would also be a solid option.
🧀 Mediocre Tip: Once your grilled cheese is more or less done cooking, add a teaspoon of water to the pan and cover it with a lid for 30 seconds or so. The resulting steam should help finish melting the cheese. Be careful to not use too much water or else your sandwich is going to get soggy.
CHEESE.
BLT
A simple and classic sandwich. Fry (or bake) up some high quality bacon, cut up some fresh tomato, and find the least sad looking head of lettuce. For bread, a nice white sandwich bread is the classic choice. Because of the nature of tomatoes, you’re probably going to want to toast up the bread to help try and resist the moisture. Either toast the bread in a toaster, or get fancy and fry the bread in some butter in a pan.
Now it’s assembly time. Bread, mayo, lettuce, tomato, bacon, mayo bread is the official order that we recommend.
🍅 Mediocre Tip: A BLT will taste the best when tomatoes are in season. And not all bacon is made equal — our favorite is Fletcher’s Alderwood Smoked Bacon from Costco.
Our bread-to-filling ratio was a little off here, but it was still very good!
Turkey Club
Take two BLTs and stack them on top of eachother. Remove one of the middle slices of bread and insert some turkey breast in both layers and viola, you’ve got a turkey club sandwich. Also be sure to hold it together with a toothpick.
If you’re going to do a turkey club sandwich we recommend trying to find some sundried tomato and basil turkey breast to use. That shit slaps. And hey, if you don’t like turkey, use chicken instead to get yourself a chicken club sandwich.
Chicken Salad
If you hate chicken salad, can we convince you to try it one more time? You probably hate it because it’s just chicken and mayo. But that’s NOT a salad. That’s chicken with mayo. 🤢 And that’s gross.
Try this recipe, you won’t regret it. If you don’t have red grapes or pecans, that’s fine. This recipe takes good without those added, but they definitely elevate it even further if you do have them. The lemon juice plus dill combo in the dressing is divine. The crunch from the red onion and celery is also important to balance the texture.
If you want to go a bit off-script, make this recipe (minus the pecans and grapes, that’s fine) and spread some homemade cranberry sauce on one side of your bread. Add some lettuce to the other side, with your chicken salad in the middle. Thank us later. 😌
🍗 Mediocre Tip: Buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco and shred it to save time! (It’s also super cheap.)
Italian
There are a lot of recipes for Italian sandwich recipes out there, but the panino from The Italian Centre (a grocery store where we live) takes the cake. It’s simple, affordable (only $10!) and filling.
You can get it mild or hot, but we typically opt for the mild because we’re babies. To make the mild version all you need is: genoa, capocollo, mortadella, provolone cheese, olive oil, oregano, and vegetable spread.
The olive oil and oregano get spread on one side of the panini, and the vegetable spread gets smeared on the other side. Then you just add your meats and cheeses and there you have it — a damn good sandwich.
If you want to make it spicy, you can swap out the mild for hot capocollo and the same goes for the vegetable spread. Or you can add some banana peppers for a little bit o’ heat.
🥪 Mediocre Flashback: Many years ago we bought the “Real Diehl” Italian sub from Meuwly's here in Edmonton. It was one of the best sandwiches we’ve ever eaten in our lives. They shared how to make it, so check out the link above!
Firehouse Subs: Better Than Subway?
There’s a new kid in town when it comes to chain sandwich shops. Or, at least, they’re new here in Edmonton. We’re talking about Firehouse Subs. We decided to give them a try on the day of our sandwich experimentation.
The results were okay. The sandwiches were better than Subway in terms of quality, but we got less sandwich for the price (approximately $15 for a sub that was somewhere between a 6 inch and a footlong).
Was it worth it? If you’re in a rush and want a good quality sandwich, then sure. But if you’ve got the time, just make one yourself.
