16 Cookout-Worthy Sandwich Recipes to Make for Labor Day

A summer party outdoors requires plenty of food you can eat with your hands—preferably just one hand, as you hold a beer with the other. Though burgers and hot dogs may be the first items to spring to your mind, expanding your Labor Day cookout menu to include a good ol' sandwich or two can be a great idea.

Sandwiches tend to allow for a much broader range of breads and fillings. And if you aren't cooking outdoors on Labor Day, we've got lots of satisfying sandwiches that can be made entirely in your kitchen. Below are 16 of our favorite sandwich recipes to keep you and your holiday-cookout guests happy, satisfied, and in that relaxed, summery kind of mood all day long. You can find even more excellent recipes for sandwiches, burgers, sides, drinks, and more in our grilling guides.

The Best Grilled Chicken Sandwich Ever

You can do more than you'd think to make grilled chicken breast tasty, but to become transcendent, it needs accoutrements. This sandwich turns humble grilled chicken into something to crave by topping the breast with smoky bacon, crunchy potato chips, crisp vegetables, mayo, and a zesty jalapeño-avocado sauce, all on a soft sesame seed bun.

Chacarero Chileno (Chilean Steak and Bean Sandwiches)

Sure, green beans seem more like a possible accompaniment to a sandwich than a topping. But chacarero chileno, a Chilean concoction of grilled beef, tomato, and green beans on a roll, just works somehow—trust us. The key is to overcook the beans until they're soft and tender, so that they can fully integrate with the rest of the fillings. We like beefy, loose-textured skirt or flap steak for this sandwich; brushing it with a quick homemade aioli before cooking it on the grill gets it nicely flavorful and browned.

Choripán (Argentinian Chorizo Sandwich)

This Argentinian staple sees smoky, paprika and garlic-spiced beef and pork sausage snug within a crusty baguette. Cooking whole sausages rather than butterflying them allows their exteriors to crisp while also helping them retain a juicy interior. We also like to lightly toast the bread to add crunch and absorb spoonfuls of herby chimichurri and acidic salsa criolla.

Turkey Club Sandwich

Our hot take? A turkey club is better than a BLT. You heard us! To perfect this classic sandwich, we like to toast the bread under the broiler on both sides to make it sturdy enough to hold all the toppings. Baking the bacon on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper makes for easier clean-up and allows the pork to crisp up in its own rendered fat. We also recommend opting for thin turkey slices that will easily fold into the sandwich.

Grilled Blackened Fish Sandwiches

Nothing says summer warmth and sunshine like this simple sandwich, a ubiquitous sight all over Florida: grilled grouper, mahi-mahi, or other firm white-fleshed fish, topped with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise (tartar sauce or rémoulade works, too) on a soft bun. It's not fancy, and that's exactly how it should be. Remember that the "blackened" part refers to the process of coating meat in a spice rub and grilling it just until it turns dark—you don't want the fish fillets to burn.

5-Ingredient Fried Chicken Sandwiches

Making an excellent fried chicken sandwich at home is easy when you use flavorful pickle juice as a brine. It seasons the chicken thighs while also breaking down their muscle structure, allowing them to retain more moisture as they cook. The only other ingredients you need are chicken, a bag of self-rising flour, some buttermilk, and a bun.

Grilled Lemongrass- and Coriander-Marinated Tofu Vietnamese Sandwiches (Vegan Banh Mi)

With low, slow cooking and a double coating of marinade, grilled tofu comes out crispy and packed with flavor. For these vegan banh mi sandwiches, we soak the tofu in a lemongrass-and-coriander marinade, then grill it and serve it with cilantro, cucumber, jalapeños, vegan mayo, and pickled carrots and daikon.

Roast Beef Sandwich

The roast beef sandwich is the beefiest sandwich we know, and by employing a few techniques, you can make this simple preparation really stand out. Salting the roast and letting it rest uncovered makes the meat more flavorful throughout, ensures tender meat, and creates a drier surface for better browning. Slow-roasting in a low oven cooks the beef evenly from edge to edge and ensures that the perimeter doesn’t dry out, while searing the roast briefly after roasting creates a welcome mahogany crust.

Philly Roast Pork Sandwich

Does the roast pork beat out the cheesesteak for best Philly sandwich? We don't want to start any fights here, but it just might. Whether or not you agree, we can still give you some tips to make a stellar version yourself. You'll want to opt for pork butt for tenderness and season it well. Make sure to braise the pork instead of roasting it to keep the meat from drying out, then let it rest before slicing it thin. And of course, make sure to use a good stock to get the most flavor out of your jus.

Steak Sandwiches With Roasted Tomatoes, Parmesan, and Radicchio

This indoor-friendly sandwich starts from the premise that even if it's the steak part of a steak sandwich that gets us excited, it's the condiments that really make it special. To get great contrast with the meat—use any cut, prepared any way, or even leftovers from yesterday's grilling session—we pile on a variety of flavors and textures, using sweet roasted tomatoes, bitter radicchio, nutty Parmesan shavings, and a sharp and creamy sauce of mayo flavored with anchovies and more Parmesan.

Iowa Loose Meat Sandwich

This squishy, snackable sandwich is an undeniable combination of Midwestern flavors, and a few tricks will help you get it just right. Grating the onion instead of dicing it helps the onion break down quickly to ensure it softens at the same rate the ground beef cooks through. Meanwhile, soaking the ground beef in a baking soda solution before cooking tenderizes it and helps it retain moisture, and adding a cornstarch slurry as the meat finishes cooking thickens the remaining liquid, helping it cling to the beef.

Classic New Orleans Muffuletta Sandwich

One of the signature flavors of New Orleans, the muffuletta is a sandwich that's tailor-made for picnics—it's big enough to serve multiple people (how many depends on your respective appetites), and it actually gets better if you make it ahead of time and let it sit at room temperature. In fact, even if you aren't taking the sandwich anywhere, we still recommend making it at least an hour before serving to allow the alternating layers of cold cuts, cheese, and olive salad time to meld.

Trapizzini (Homemade Roman-Style Pizza Pockets)

These puffy, crusty pockets of Roman-style pizza bianca are the ultimate party sandwich. Here, using a high-hydration dough made with bread flour creates pizza with an extra crisp crust that's still both tender and chewy. Cold-fermenting the dough overnight produces complex flavor and an even rise. We like to finish baking the pizza directly on a baking stone for a crisp and well-browned bottom crust.

Sheet-Pan Cuban Sandwiches

We love good Cuban sandwiches as much as the next person, but making them at home is an involved and time-consuming process, from slow-roasting pork shoulder to assembling and pressing the sandwiches themselves. This recipe relies on a few shortcuts to yield results that are not only delicious but plentiful enough to feed a crowd. We use a mojo-marinated pork tenderloin instead of the usual pork shoulder, so the meat cooks in less than an hour, and press the sandwiches between two sheet pans to produce a big batch in one swat.

Vegan Cheesesteak With Yuba (Tofu Skin) and Mushrooms

You don't have to call it a cheesesteak if you don't want to, since, admittedly, there's neither cheese nor steak in these vegan sandwiches. What they do contain is sheets of thick, chewy yuba, or tofu skin; meaty shredded roasted trumpet mushrooms; and caramelized onions, all soaked in a homemade mushroom broth for tons of umami flavor. We pile the yuba and mushrooms onto hoagie rolls along with a generous helping of Kenji's vegan nacho cheese sauce.

Shrimp Rolls (New England–Style Seafood Sandwiches)

No summer is complete in our eyes without at least one really good lobster roll, but the expense of buying lobster (and the extra work involved in dispatching and shelling it) makes enjoying one at home a tough proposition. Shrimp rolls, on the other hand, are cheaper and more convenient, and can be just as tasty. Poach the shrimp (we've found that a cold start is best for poaching many proteins) until they're just firm and perfectly cooked through, chop them up, fold them into a simple mayo-based dressing, and scoop them into buttered and toasted top-split buns. You'll feel yourself transported to a beachside seafood shack in no time.