Packed with flavor, this grilled turkey sandwich is made with bell peppers, onion, jack cheese, Thousand Island dressing, and Parmesan-crusted Sourdough! It’s truly a perfect grown up sandwich! Serve with fries for a full meal.
Meet a new sandwich you are sure to love: the Parmesan-Crusted Sourdough Turkey Sandwich. I know my mom and I fell in love with it the first time we had it! This sandwich is full of unique flavors you wouldn’t expect would go well together, but it’s so delicious. Truly, this is a grown-up grilled turkey sandwich.
If you are new to the blog (or if you’re not), welcome! If it’s not your first time, you know I love creating my favorite restaurant foods at home. Especially when I can’t easily access them. This recipe is no exception.
This sandwich is inspired by one you can find at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. In their Lake Hotel Dining Room, they serve a very similar sandwich. When we visit, my mom and I both love to order it for lunch and take in the beautiful view across the lake. I’m those memories are why I love this sandwich so much, and I’m excited to share it with you!
Parmesan-Crusted Sourdough Turkey Sandwich Ingredients
As always, the outcome of the final sandwich will depend on the quality of ingredients you use. So, try to use the best ingredients you can find.
Sourdough Bread
Starting with the bread, you’ll want to use a good quality sourdough. Recently, I’ve been making my own artisan sourdough bread that’s absolutely delicious. If you want to learn to make it at home too, I highly recommend the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Although, you can easily find fresh, good quality, sourdough at your local bakeries or grocery stores.
What I’m trying to say is, for the love, don’t use Wonder bread! You’ll want to use sourdough to get that tangy flavor. It really adds a grown-up taste.
Turkey Breast
For simplicity, I recommend using good quality deli meat for this sandwich. When choosing your meat, look for thick-sliced oven-roasted turkey. In my experience, the thick-sliced turkey tastes much better than the thin, overly processed stuff.
Obviously, the best choice is to ask your deli to thickly slice turkey for you. Although, if you don’t want to wait for the deli counter, I recommend Oscar Mayer Carving Board Oven Roasted Turkey Breast. It tastes like I roasted it in my own oven. Plus, it’s never slimy and has great flavor.
Of course, this sandwich is absolutely delicious with homemade roasted turkey. (Thanksgiving leftovers, I’m looking at you!) My Kroger store (Smiths in Utah), carries mini frozen turkey breasts. On the weekends, I often meal prep Honeysuckle White Frozen Young Turkey Breast to use throughout the week. It’s also yummy in this sandwich.
Parmesan and Monterey Jack Cheese
Similar to the deli meat, I use deli-sliced Monterey Jack cheese. It keeps preparation simple, and the slices are the perfect thickness. Monterey Jack cheese is a mild tasting cheese that melts very easily. So, it’s the perfect pairing in this sandwich.
For the Parmesan cheese, don’t use the grated kind. Instead, use the shredded kind that looks like long strands of cheese. I’ve used both refrigerated and shelf stable shredded Parmesan cheese with success.
Thousand Island Dressing
Before you look at that pink bottled dressing, and think, “Eww”, bear with me! If you’ve ever eaten a Big Mac from McDonalds, you’ve had Thousand Island Dressing. Basically, it’s like an elevated fry sauce.
While you can easily buy Thousand Island Dressing, I prefer to make it at home. The flavor is much better, and I can control what ingredients go into it. Even better, you probably already have all the ingredients you need to make it. You’ll need ketchup, mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish, vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt. To really kick up the flavor, you can also add a dash of hot sauce.
Note: When making this turkey sandwich, be sure to prepare the Thousand Island Dressing at least 1 hour before using it. This will allow the dressing time to chill and meld all the flavors together.
Green Bell Pepper and Onion
Finally, to add texture and flavor, we will be using sauteed green bell pepper and yellow onion. Medium-to-large sized vegetables will give you the perfect amount on each sandwich.
Parmesan-Crusted Sourdough Turkey Sandwich Preparation Tips
For this recipe, I like to use a 12″ skillet. Use the largest skillet or griddle you have. Otherwise, you may have to grill the sandwiches in batches.
Just like the Lake Hotel Dining Room does, sauteing the onions and bell pepper takes away their harsh bite. I can’t stand raw onion, but I like the flavor when they are cooked. Plus, have vegetables ever not tasted good when cooked in butter?
Even though, the outside of the sandwich will be grilled, I also toast the inside of the bread. This helps the sandwich keep it’s crispy texture. Rather than adding additional butter to the pan, I like to lightly toast the bread on one side in the residual butter from sauteing the veggies.
If the Parmesan cheese doesn’t fully stick to the outside of the sandwich, place the cheese in the pan. Place the sandwich on top of the cheese, and then continue to grill. Depending on how hot your pan is, it will take about 3-6 minutes for the Parmesan to brown and crisp up. Keep grilling the sandwich until a hard crust forms. Also note, the cheese will harden a little bit more as it cools.
Don’t forget to serve this sandwich with a side of fries! I have a recipe for Perfect Homemade Air Fryer French Fries that would be so yummy with this sandwich. Or you could also serve it with a side salad.
Love this Parmesan-Crusted Sourdough Turkey Sandwich?
Thank you so much for reading and for your support! I love sharing my favorite foods with you, and I know you’ll love this sandwich as much as I do.
If you want to try some of my other recipes, I recommend checking out these:
- Egg, Ham and Cheese Breakfast Bagel
- Grilled Monte Cristo Sandwich
- Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Pork
- Slow Cooker Kalua Pork and Cabbage
- Hawaiian Macaroni Salad
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Parmesan-Crusted Sourdough Turkey Sandwich
Ingredients
Grilled Turkey Sandwich
- 6 tbsp Butter Divided
- 1 medium Onion (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 medium Green Bell Pepper (about 1/2 cup)
- 8 slices Sourdough Bread Good Quality
- 8 tsp Thousand Island Dressing (see below)
- 12 slices Oven-Roasted Turkey Thick-sliced
- 4 slices Monterey Jack Cheese
- 1 cup Shredded Parmesan
Thousand Island Dressing
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp Ketchup
- 2 tbsp Sweet Pickle Relish
- 1 tsp White Vinegar
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/8 tsp Salt
Instructions
Thousand Island Preparation
- To a small bowl, add all the thousand island ingredients. Mix until well combined.
- Refrigerate for a least an hour to allow flavors to combine.
Grilled Turkey Sandwich Preparation
- In a large skillet, add 2 tbsp butter, onions, and green pepper. Saute over medium high heat for about 6-8 minutes until onions start to soften and turn translucent. Remove onions and peppers onto a plate. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, toast the bread slices on one side (adding additional butter or cooking spray if the pan is completely dry). Remove from skillet.
- With the toasted side up, spread 1-2 tsp of Thousand Island dressing on each slice of bread.
- Evenly divide the onion and green pepper mixture over half of the slices of bread.
- Add 3 turkey slices and 1 one jack cheese slice on top of the onion and green pepper mixture.
- Close the sandwich by placing the bread slice with only Thousand Island Dressing on top of the turkey. (Thousand Island dressing should be facing inward).
- Spread a generous layer of butter (about 1 tbsp) on the outsides of the sandwich. Press 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan into the butter, on each slice.
- Return sandwiches to the skillet, and grill for 2-3 minutes until cheese crisps and browns.
- Cut sandwich in half and serve with fries! Enjoy!
