Come home to an easy supper: hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches! Not only do they taste fabulous, but they’re also freezer-friendly.
When you freeze ham leftover from a holiday dinner, be sure to save some for this recipe as well as our favorite Ham and Cheese Foldovers.
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Sandwich Night need never be boring, particularly when you’ve got a stash of these spicy Ham and Swiss Sliders on hand. These small but mighty sandwiches, packed with ham, swiss cheese, and spicy horseradish mustard are freezer-friendly delicious!
I’ve always been a big sandwich lover. I’ve had many deep sandwich loves in my life: the Picnic Sandwich, the Spring Street Club Sandwich, and the Brie and Bacon Samwich, to name a few. Sandwiches are quick, easy to make, highly portable, and amazingly delicious.
A few years ago I started playing with freezer-friendly sandwiches that would later be served hot. You may have met some of them already: Cheesy Italian Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches, Pizzawiches, and the Chicken Bacon Sub. Today’s Ham and Swiss Sliders are the new kids in the club.
Here are some of the things that I love about these Ham and Swiss Sliders:
- They are make-ahead and freezer-friendly.
- You can cook them in the oven, on the grill, by the campfire, in the toaster oven, or even the crockpot.
- You can make them jumbo or small, depending on the size of roll you use.
- They taste great!
How I make this good:
Whenever possible I like to cook with plain old ingredients. While the convenience of mixes and canned sauces is nice, I feel better about feeding my family just real food whenever possible. (Go here for some of my reasons on all that.)
Now, there are only five ingredients in this recipe: bread, ham, cheese, mustard, and green onions. How uber-healthy you want to get will depend on the bread, ham, cheese, and mustard you buy since those can be minimally processed by some manufacturers or extremely processed by others. Read ingredients labels until you find the products that fit your criteria the best.
Whenever possible, I chose uncured ham, natural mustard, and cheese made without RBST. I can go either way on bread — sometimes I bake it myself with whole grain flours, sometimes I buy whatever the store has on markdown.
What you see in the pictures and what I used for testing were labeled as dinner rolls, but they were as large as small hamburger buns. Use whatever roll you prefer.
How to make this cheap:
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. For instance, when I see a great price on ham and cheese, I stock up. Both can be frozen for longer shelf life, though if I were going to make these sandwiches to freeze, I’d assemble the sandwiches prior to freezing. It helps preserve the texture.
- Buy bread on clearance. The day-old bread rack is a regular stop of mine at the grocery store. I regularly buy what’s been marked down from the bakery department.
Tools I use to make this recipe easy:
This is a pretty straight-forward dish. You don’t need any fancy equipment. However, having some good basic kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs. Here are the tools that I like to use in this recipe.
- plastic cutting boards – I have blue boards for veggies and white boards for meat.
- Ergo Chef serrated bread knife – I’ve had my set of knives for several years and they work well.
- heavy-duty aluminum foil – I prefer to use heavy-duty foil in freezer cooking. It holds up better and insulates the food more completely.
Ham & Swiss Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 dozen slider buns or dinner rolls
- 12 oz sliced ham
- 6 oz swiss cheese slices
- 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard or other favorite mustard
- 2 green onion (chopped)
Instructions
- On a large work surface, slice the rolls in half through the middle. If they are attached as dinner rolls often are, you can leave them together in groups of six, and slice horizontally through each large mass of rolls.1 dozen slider buns
- On the bottom half of the rolls, layer on the ham. Add the cheese in another layer. On the top half of bread, spread the mustard and sprinkle the onions. Place the two halves together and wrap tightly with aluminum foil. At this point the rolls can be frozen, for up to 1 month. Alternatively, you can refrigerate the sandwiches up to a day in advance.12 oz sliced ham, 6 oz swiss cheese slices, 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 2 green onion (chopped)
- Thaw the rolls completely in the fridge prior to baking, if frozen. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the wrapped foil package in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. At this point, slice through the rolls and separate. If not heated completely through, bake for another 10 minutes or until ham is hot, cheese is melted, and bread is crisp. Serve immediately.
Notes
- You can use large French bread loaves instead of individual sandwiches. Wrap each individually in foil.
- You can swap out the swiss cheese for pepper jack, mozzarella, or cheddar.
- Got a different type of cooked meat on hand? Use that instead.
Nutrition
Emily
Why are they only good for 1 month in freezer ? Most recipes I see are good for 3 months in freezer ?
Jessica Fisher
Food frozen under zero degrees is good indefinitely, but texture deteriorates over time. Getting an airtight seal on sandwiches is harder than other foods. Because you’ve got many layers here and a lot of surface area that could get freezer burnt, I recommend a month. They will be good longer, but the texture may not be ideal.
Adrienne
Simple but so yummy! I used cheddar instead of Swiss (family preference) and it was a hit!
Kellie
Can these be frozen after they have been made. I’m serving them, & I will probably have leftovers.
Jessica Fisher
I wouldn’t recommend it. They’ll be “fine” but the texture of the bread may change when refrozen.
Barbara
My question is: How well do the sandwiches do in the microwave? I’m looking for quick, hearty snacks for teen athletes. They can’t wait 30 minutes for a sandwich to bake! Does anyone know how these do? I know the bread would be soft…
Jessica Fisher
I don’t particularly like microwaving bread. I find that it makes it mushy/overly chewy. That said, it could be done, but I don’t have a recommendation for the timing. Sorry I can’t be more help.
KF
You could heat them open faced in the toaster oven! That would be a lot faster even though you’d have to do it in batches.
Jessie
These sound good and I would probably make them fresh, but I’m not sure about frozen 🙂 I have a thing with soggy bread… I will pack tomatoes and pickles separate from my sandwich when taking my lunch and my mother-in-law’s overnight french bread bake is pretty much soaked bread. I have to know, do the buns stay dry?
Jessica Fisher
I don’t like soggy bread either, so unless your kitchen is particularly humid, I think it’s fine. Maybe make them fresh and just freeze one? Then you can test it out. It cooks so long that the outsides get pretty crisp. And my french toast is not soggy: https://goodcheapeats.com/2014/05/buttered-maple-french-toast-casserole/ #justsaying 😉