Chicken parm sliders, twelve at once
The whole slab of rolls stays joined until the end. You bake it as one object and cut it into twelve at the table.
At a Glance
Story
Bake the chicken as one flat rectangle rather than as twelve patties, then cut it to fit. A single slab holds its juice where twelve small ones dry out at every edge, and it means one cooking time instead of a tray of things at different stages. The same logic runs through the rolls: leave the 12-pack joined, slice it horizontally into one top and one bottom, and build a single giant sandwich you cut at the end.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 egg
- ½ cup Parmesanfinely grated, plus 2 tbsp for the top
- ¼ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup basilfinely chopped
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 × 12-pack Hawaiian rolls
- 4 oz mozzarellagrated
- ½ cup marinaraplus more to serve
- olive oilsalt, pepper
Method
Caroline Chambers built these because a meatball sub falls apart in your hands four bites in. The slider is the tidier sibling.
This is not the pounded cutlet already on this site, and it is not trying to be. That one is about a thin crisp escalope. This is a soft roll, a juicy patty and an obscene quantity of cheese, which is another appetite altogether.
- Heat the oven to 400°F and line a rimmed tray with parchment.
- In a large bowl combine the chicken, egg, ½ cup of the Parmesan, the panko, basil, garlic powder, 1¼ teaspoons salt and a lot of black pepper. Mix with your hands.
- Turn the meat out onto the tray and flatten it into one large rectangle, slightly bigger than the footprint of the rolls.
- Bake about 15 minutes, until it is firm when you press it. It will look alarming and leak a lot of liquid. That is normal.
- Slice the joined rolls horizontally with a serrated knife, so you have one giant top and one giant bottom, as even as you can get them.
- Set the bottom slab on a sheet of parchment and scatter ½ cup of the mozzarella over it.
- Lift the cooked chicken off its tray and blot the excess grease. Discard the parchment underneath, wipe the tray, spread the marinara over the patty, top with the rest of the mozzarella, and close the sandwich with the top slab.
- Use the parchment to move the whole thing back onto the tray.
- Spray or brush the top with oil and scatter over the last 2 tablespoons of Parmesan.
- Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes. Foil off, another 2 minutes, until the top is light golden. Let it sit a few minutes, then cut it into twelve and serve at once, with extra marinara for dipping.
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