There are few things that scream “American” more than bacon and eggs. But, bacon and eggs don’t have to be just for breakfast. No no no. They can easily be combined into a new dish that works for both lunch and dinner. That is why we decided to share with you today our recipe for bacon and egg salad paninis. While egg salad is pretty amazing in and of itself, we love to add bacon to everything (in case you haven’t figure it out yet), including egg salad. The crisp, salty bacon pieces give the salad a nice texture contrast with the soft eggs and balances the sweetness of the sugar. We add some celery and red onion both for color and crunch. You are going to want to serve the egg salad within a day or two so that the complex texture contrast is retained.
We could have just eaten the egg salad as is or even just on a piece of bread. But, we wanted to get some more use out of our panini press and felt that this was a pretty good opportunity to do so. But, we wanted to make something small, something that you could easily have with other yummy foods too. I often feel as though paninis end up being large and in charge, filling me up right away. So, we decided to use slider buns to make these bacon and egg salad paninis. They are the perfect size! We add a little romaine lettuce for a but more color and crunch and some munster cheese to get that creamy texture that every panini has. The combination of the bacon and egg salad, romaine, and cheese is superb!
This is a pretty easy meal to make and perfect for a small house party. Enjoy!
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Ingredients
- 9 large eggs (hard-boiled)
- 3 strips bacon
- 1/2 cup red onion (diced)
- 1/2 cup celery (diced)
- 1/2 cup mayonaise
- 2 tablespoons brown mustard
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 6 slider buns
- 3-4 romaine lettuce leaves (loosely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted)
- 6 small squares of cheese (muenster works well)
Instructions
- Hard boil the eggs. To do so, simply place them in a large stock pot and just cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and immediately remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes (at sea level, if at elevation, adjust accordingly. For example, at 5500 feet, we let them sit for 21-22 minutes). Remove from the water and place in a bowl. Let cool.
- While the eggs are cooling, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Crisp the bacon in the oven until most of the fat has been rendered out. Remove from the over and transfer to a paper towel to remove the excess grease. Once cool enough to handle, dice the bacon.
- Once the eggs have cooled, carefully remove the shells and chop coarsely, transferring the egg pieces to a mixing bowl.
- In the mixing bowl, add the mayonaise, mustard, salt, pepper, bacon, celery, and red onion. Fold to combine (do not mash or mix vigorously . . . we want a salad, not mush). Set aside.
- Preheat your panini press.
- To assemble the paninis, trim the slider rolls so that the tops and bottoms are flat. Lightly butter one side of the bottom half of the slider bun. Place the butter side down. Place a few pieces of the chopped romaine on the bun and top with about 3 tablespoons of egg salad (more if you have larger buns). Then, place a slice of cheese on the bacon and egg salad. Top with the other half of the bun and lightly brush butter on the top.
- Once all of the paninis have been prepared, carefully place them, two at a time, on the panini press for 3-4 minutes. You want to cook them just until the buns begin to become dark brown. Remove and serve.
