Reubens

My mom made Reubens recently and whoooooweeee they hit the spot. Y’all Reubens have it all. The warmth, the tanginess, creaminess, meatiness. Unfortunately, they’re not all created equal and learned of this after I ordered Reuben after Reuben in restaurants. Most of them (unless you go to New York) fall flat due to meager fillings sandwiched between two slices of bread.

Reubens should ALWAYS be corned beef and not pastrami, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese on rye bread. Most of the time I see them with Russian dressing but I grew up eating them with Thousand Island so that’s the route I go.

Here's my mom’s recipe. Follow it and you won’t go wrong.

Ingredients Dressing
½ c mayonnaise
1 Tbl chile powder
1 Tbl chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives
1 tsp chopped chives
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
¼ tsp paprika
salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Ingredients Sandwich
rye bread
sliced corned beef
sauerkraut
sliced Swiss cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 375.

Mix the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Start with a pinch of salt and ¼ tsp black pepper. Taste. Adjust salt or pepper.

Cover a sheet pan with parchment or foil. These will be open face sandwiches so take 1 slice of bread for each sandwich and lay it on the parchment or foil (it’s easiest to build them directly on the pan). Stack it with corned beef. You. want the meat to be about 1” high. Top it with about 1.5” sauerkraut. Top with 2-3 (depending on the thickness of the slice) layers of cheese. Bake until the center is hot. The cheese will be melted and a little bubbly. My mom says it’s about 15 minutes – I didn’t want to include a time so you can thank her for the hint.

The bread will be slightly soggy so use a spatula to move it onto your plate it. Put dressing on the side and eat it with a fork and knife.