Perfect BLT Sandwiches with Special Sauce

It’s hard to beat a good Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. While this humble sandwich is free from pretense and fuss, it’s simplicity demands the highest quality ingredients and a really, really good sauce. Here’s how to make a kick-ass BLT.

The BLT Sandwich is in that group of dishes that have earned the right to be called “classic”. It’s the kind of sandwich that can be referenced anywhere – on a restaurant menu, in a novel, article, blog post, or conversation – and we all know exactly what it is. I mean… the clue is in the title. BLT. Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato.

I might not know you personally, dear reader, but I feel safe in making the following assumption: Unless you’ve spent your whole life eating a vegetarian diet, it’s probably safe to say that you’ve eaten a BLT sandwich. Yes? Of course you have.

Like hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza, the BLT is one of those things that somehow makes it onto everyone’s plate at least one time or anther, and most likely many, many times. I read something a while back that said the BLT is the second most popular sandwich in the US and the most popular sandwich in the UK.

I have no idea if that’s true, but it feels right.

Why is the BLT such an iconic sandwich?

Because bacon. Duh.

Bacon is the obvious point of a BLT sandwich, so it better be good.

Here’s the thing about that… finding really good bacon can be more challenging than it should be. I mean, yes – you can walk into any supermarket and find plenty of bacon options. But many of them are not what I’d call high quality.

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Bacon is a cured meat. Curing takes time and time is money. To speed up the process so that they can sell you cheaper bacon, some factories will inject chemicals into the bacon that are not the kind of thing you want to put into your body.

I think it’s safe to assume that if a producer is injecting chemicals into their bacon in order to produce it faster and sell it cheaper, they’re probably not investing in high quality pork to begin with. No bacon is better than this kind of bacon.

For all its deliciousness, bacon probably isn’t something we should be consuming in vast quantities. So, when you do eat bacon, make sure it’s the highest quality you can find.

For us, that means getting our bacon from Wild Pastures, an organization that sources high quality, ethically raised meat and poultry and delivers it to our front door. (Did you catch the delivers it to our front door part? It’s seriously the greatest.)

The thing about simple food is that every ingredient matters.

To make a great BLT sandwich, it’s important to not skimp on any of the components. Besides getting the highest quality, thick cut bacon you can find, the quality of your tomatoes and lettuce is also super important. Besides the sauce, there are only 3 ingredients in there. ALL of them matter.

This is why, sadly, I only make BLT’s in the spring and summer. It’s not that we don’t have fresh tomatoes available year round in Colorado. It’s just that, in the dead of winter they taste like cardboard. Call me crazy, but I’m not a fan of bacon, cardboard, and lettuce sandwiches.

But, when good quality tomatoes are available, there’s nothing better than a BLT.

Use whatever kind of bread you like, just make sure it’s a good quality rustic, crusty loaf. None of that tasteless white sandwich bread that is so flimsy your whole sandwich will fall apart after the first bite.

Let’s talk sauce.

BLT Sandwich Sauce

I adore this simple sauce on my BLT sandwich. It’s slightly sweet, savory, smoky, and creamy, and is the perfect complement to the salty bacon. It kind of pains me to say this, but the sauce is optional. You can, of course, use regular ol’ mayo instead.

But, I hope you try this sauce at least once because it’s the bomb. It only takes a couple of minutes to whip up and you can (and should) adjust it to your personal tastes and preferences. For example, I’m a super paprika fan, so I usually add more than what’s listed in the recipe.

More popular sandwich recipes:

Meal Plans that Include BLT Sandwiches:

Weekly Spring Meal Plan #5

Used in this recipe:

This Cusinart non-stick skillet is my go-to for frying and sautéing anything, including bacon.

Wild Pastures

We are happy customers of Wild Pastures, an organization that sources ethically pasture-raised meat and delivers it to our front door. It’s their bacon that you see in these BLT photos and the second the photos were taken, the delicious sandwich you see here was hapily devoured. Because you don’t waste bacon that good. You just don’t.

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #alittleandalot on Instagram.

Perfect BLT Sandwiches

Author: RebeccaBlackwell
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 sandwiches

Print Recipe

Description

Here’s how to make a kick-ass Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich.

Ingredients

1 pound good quality, thick sliced bacon
8 slices of thick-cut, hearty bread
2 tbsp butter (optional)
2 large, ripe tomatoes, sliced into 1/2-inch thick slices
Salt and pepper
Romaine or Iceberg lettuce

For the BLT sauce:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp dill pickle relish
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper

Instructions

Heat a skillet over medium heat until warm. Add a few slices of bacon and cook until crisp on both sides. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain while you cook the rest of the bacon.
Toast the slices of bread, buttering the outside of the slices. Buttering the bread is optional.
Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl.
Assemble the sandwiches: spread one slice of bread with a generous amount of BLT sauce. Lay a couple slices of bacon over the sauce, top with a slice or two of tomato and a few pieces of lettuce. Top with another piece of toasted bread and serve.