By now you probably realized, I love to cook simple and easy foods. That doesn’t mean that they are bit sized snacks or anything, I try my best to take whatever hearty and full-filling meals that are out there and simplify it as much as I can so that people who just don’t have much time to cook can still eat very good food. I do my best to limit the ingredients and amount of handling time so I don’t have to spend all of my day cooking.
This next dish is also a very simple and easy dish to make and doesn’t require a lot of time; handling wise. I bring unto you: Classic Reuben Sandwich.
What You’ll Need:
- Corned Beef
- Sauerkraut
- Swiss Cheese
- Rye Bread
- Thousand Island Dressing
Instructions:
First thing you need to decide on is the type of corn beef and how it’s prepared. There are 3 different ways: make it yourself from scratch, buy a prepared and ready to cook corn beef, or go to your deli and get some freshly sliced corned beef sandwich meat. I went for option number two just because I didn’t want to prepare it from scratch but also didn’t want to grab the deli style corned beef. Whichever option you choose, they will all taste great.
If you elect to take option two, you’ll have to slow cook your corn beef in a crock pot on low for at least 8 hours or on high for 5 1/2 to 6 hours. This sounds long but when you cook anything with a slow cooker, most of the time it’s just setting and forgetting it until it’s done cooking, which is exactly what I did. Now, with the corn beef that I had purchased, it came with some minor seasoning packets so just follow whatever instructions they give you.
I found the corn beef to be particularly difficult to handle once it was done cooking and very delicate to take out of crock pot for cutting. So I elected to take the easier route and just used two forks to pull apart the meat. Also, don’t forget to drain the liquid and as much as you can from the corn beef itself because it can cause your bread to become quite soggy.
Next comes plating. You’re going to want to place two slices of rye bread down, and a slice of swiss on each bread (don’t mind the oddly shaped swiss cheese slices as my son had nibbled on them). Then top with the drained corned beef and a good serving of thousand island dressing. For the sauerkraut, I find that it helps to drain it of any excess liquids as it too can cause your bread to get soggy. Once everything is in place, we’re going to go ahead and grill it.
I just used my George Foreman grill to do the work but if you don’t have one, you can use a panini griller or just a skillet. I used a spray oil like PAM to grease both sides of bread and grilled on the Foreman for about 5 minutes or until the cheeses are melting and oozing out. For a skillet, just melt butter and place sandwich on skillet and cook for 3-5 minutes, then flip and cook the other side for another 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted; serve hot.
And there you have it, a very easy and super simple recipe on how to make yourself a Home-made Reuben Sandwich. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Zooj Noj 