Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich

Use leftover turkey or chicken to make a Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich! Cheesy gravy, tomato and thick slices of bacon on toasty white bread!

We’re big fans of open-faced sandwiches with gravy around here. Roast beef or turkey right from the deli on toasted bread with brown gravy. This is the kind of dinner that I used to make when my wife was away or couldn’t be home for dinner.

Easy, and my boys love it. And yep, I used a package of powdered gravy. I think after all this time they might even prefer it over homemade gravy – as horrifying as that is to my wife.

So we had a bunch of chicken left over from our Beer Can Chicken, even after a night of leftovers. What could I make with the leftover chicken? Kentucky Hot Browns.

A Kentucky Hot Brown is a famous sandwich that usually has slices of turkey and tomato on toasted bread, then covered with a mornay sauce and placed under the broiler. And because I sure as hell didn’t know, I’ll tell you that a mornay sauce is a white sauce with cheese, just in case you didn’t know either…

Then you would typically top the whole sandwich with slices of bacon.

But I thought I’d switch it up a bit and make it my own way. More like the hot open-faced gravy sandwiches I like to make.

How Do You Make A Kentucky Hot Brown?

First I shredded up some of the leftover chicken and cooked up some bacon.

Then I started the gravy. I wanted to put the bacon IN the gravy instead of on top. Much more bacon-y flavor that way…

All that was left was to toast up the bread, place the shredded chicken and tomato on top and cover with the bacon-gravy.

You could stop right there and just dig in, cause we did just to make sure it was coming out OK…But to make it Hot Brown style, stick it under the broiler for a minute or two to brown the top. This is probably my new favorite sandwich ever!

Looking For More Leftover Chicken or Turkey Recipes?

• Chicken Pot Pie
• Chicken Marsala Baked Ziti
• Chicken Fried Rice
• Turkey A La King Casserole
• Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup

Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich

• Author: Dan
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x

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These comforting, open face sandwiches are perfect for using up leftover chicken or turkey!

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded chicken or turkey
• 4 slices of thick-sliced white bread
• 8 slices of tomato
• 8 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped (reserving 3 T. of bacon grease from cooking)
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Start by making the bacon gravy.
2. Add the reserved bacon grease to a medium sized saucepan.
3. When the bacon grease is hot, add the 3 T. of flour and whisk, cooking for 1 minute.
4. Next slowly pour in the milk, whisking as you pour. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer and let cook for 5 minutes until thickened.
5. Add in the chopped bacon, salt and pepper and stir. Cover and set aside.
6. Toast the slices of bread, then layer on the shredded chicken, splitting between the four slices of bread.
7. Top each slice of bread with 2 pieces of tomato, then spoon the bacon gravy on top.
8. Repeat with the remaining pieces of bread and place onto a baking sheet.
9. Place under the broiler for 4-5 minutes until the top gets browned.
10. Slice each open-faced sandwich in half diagonally and serve.

Recipe Notes

You can swap out the shredded chicken for turkey, or even use sliced turkey or chicken from the deli to make it even easier!
Also, you can thin out the gravy with a little more milk if it gets too thick.

• Category: Dinner
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: kentucky hot brown, bacon recipes, leftover turkey recipes, leftover chicken recipes, sandwich recipes