Club Sandwich
Three slices of toast, two fillings, four cocktail sticks and a serrated knife. The order of the layers is what stops the whole thing sliding apart.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 2
- Revisions
- 1
Allergens
- Cereals containing gluten
- Eggs
- Mustard
- Sulphites
Named from the ingredients as written, including those carried in from sub-recipes. This is not a guarantee — check the labels on what you actually buy, and note that a product’s recipe can change.
Ingredients
Serves
Sandwich
Method
Sandwich
Grill or fry the bacon until properly crisp and drain it on a rack.
Lay the tomato slices on kitchen paper and salt them lightly. Ten minutes draws out enough water to keep it from flooding the bread.
Toast all six slices of bread and butter them while hot, to the very edges. The butter is a waterproof layer as much as a flavour, and an unbuttered corner is where the sandwich goes soft first.
Mix the mayonnaise and mustard.
Spread mayonnaise on the first slice and lay on the chicken, then lettuce.
Put the second slice on top and spread mayonnaise on its upper face.
Lay on the bacon and then the drained tomato.
Wet things go against toast and dry things against the middle slice. Tomato directly on an unprotected slice is how the middle layer collapses.
Top with the third slice, buttered side down, and press the whole thing down firmly with your palm for a few seconds.
Push a cocktail stick down through each quarter, about 2cm in from the corner.
Cut diagonally into four triangles with a serrated knife, using a sawing motion and no downward pressure. Pressing down squeezes the fillings out of the sides.
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What to expect
- Taste
Salt from the bacon, richness from the mayonnaise, and the mild sweetness of tomato and chicken behind them. It is a sandwich that works by contrast rather than by any single strong flavour.
- Aroma
Bacon and hot toast.
- Texture
The point of the third slice: crisp toast, soft filling, crisp toast, soft filling, crisp toast. Bacon that shatters and lettuce that snaps.
- Sound
The first bite, if the bacon and toast are right.
- How the flavour moves
Salt first, then fat, then a cool sweet finish from the tomato.
- Serve it
Warm toast and hot bacon against cold chicken and tomato.
- Goes with
Crisps, chips, or a few cornichons. Tea, or a cold beer.
Cook's notes
- Difficulty
Beginner. It is an assembly problem rather than a cooking one.
- Cost
Low, and a good use of leftover roast chicken.
- Equipment
A grill or frying pan, a serrated knife and four cocktail sticks.
- When to make it
Lunch, or after a roast.
- Best season
The tomato is the only thing that has a season, and in winter it is worth leaving out rather than using a poor one.
- You know it is done when
The bacon should be evenly brown and rigid rather than floppy — soft bacon in a club sandwich pulls out in one strip at the first bite.
- And it feels like
Each quarter should hold together when picked up. If it slumps, the cocktail sticks are in the wrong place or the tomato was not drained.
- Food safety
If using leftover chicken, it should have been cooled quickly and refrigerated, and used within two days. Nothing else unusual.
- Where it goes wrong
- Undrained tomato, which floods it within minutes.
- Unbuttered edges, where the toast goes soft first.
- Tomato directly against the middle slice, which then collapses.
- Soft bacon, which pulls out in a strip.
- Pressing down with the knife instead of sawing, which squeezes the filling out.
- If it does go wrong
Sliding apart: the sticks are too far from the corners; put them about 2cm in. Soggy: the tomato. Difficult to eat: it is too tall — use medium-sliced bread rather than thick.
- Making it ahead
None of it. This is a sandwich that is worse after five minutes.
- Keeping it
None. It is made and eaten.
- Reheating
No.
- Freezing
No.
- Leftovers
None by design.
- Scaling it
Scales linearly with no complications.
- Substitutions
Turkey is at least as traditional as chicken and is the classic American version. Leftover roast chicken is better than a packet of sliced. Sourdough works but the sandwich is easier to eat on soft white.
- Dietary swaps
Contains gluten, plus eggs, mustard and sulphites from the mayonnaise. Dairy free if the butter is left out, at some cost to structure. Nut free.
- Shopping for it
Dry-cured streaky bacon crisps better than wet-cured, which releases water into the pan.
- Keeping the cost down
Made with leftover roast chicken it costs almost nothing.
- Sustainability
Chicken and pork are the two lower-footprint meats, and the quantities here are modest. The most useful thing about this sandwich is that it is a leftovers dish by design — a club made from Sunday's roast is a use for meat that would otherwise be forgotten in the fridge, and using what is already cooked is a larger saving than any substitution.
- Nutrition
Substantial. The mayonnaise and bacon carry the fat.
- Worth it?
Drain the tomato and put the lettuce in the right place. Two decisions and the sandwich holds.
Where it comes from
- Origin
The United States, 1890s.
- Also called
Club sandwich, or clubhouse sandwich.
- Said out loud
Straightforward.
- What the name means
Almost certainly from the private clubs where it was served, though this is inference rather than documentation.
- History
Recipes and mentions appear in American newspapers from the 1890s, and the sandwich becomes a hotel and railway dining staple through the early twentieth century. The double-decker construction with a third slice is present from the beginning and is the defining feature; the specific fillings have moved around, with turkey and chicken both long-standing.
- Why it matters
The default hotel room-service sandwich worldwide, and one of the few dishes whose form is recognisable in every country that serves it.
- When it is eaten
Lunch, late-night hotel food, and a good use of Sunday's leftover chicken.
- The traditional way
Toasted bread, layered fillings, secured with sticks and cut into quarters.
- How it changed
Very little, which is unusual. Fried egg and avocado are the main modern additions.
- Regional variations
Turkey in most American versions; a fried egg is standard in parts of Europe and South America.
- How this version differs
Nothing unorthodox — the layering order and the drained tomato are stated as steps because they are what determines whether it holds together, and most recipes leave them to chance.
- Sources and credit
None reliable.
Mayonnaise
BLT
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Chicken Caesar Salad
Grilled Cheese Toastie
Tuna Melt
Air Fryer Chicken Wings
American
Lunch
Chicken
15 minutes