Thanksgiving Sliders

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If Thanksgiving dinner is your favorite meal of the whole year, you need these Thanksgiving Sliders in your life. Sliced turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and melty cheese all layered on soft Hawaiian rolls, brushed with a savory butter glaze, and baked until golden. It is everything you love about Thanksgiving, in one warm, pull-apart slider.

I saw a few versions of these sliders in videos and knew right away I wanted to make my own. Most of the versions I saw used provolone cheese, and a couple just brushed the tops with plain butter and garlic.

Mine is a little different, in two ways that I think make it better.

First, the cheese. I stood in my kitchen debating between three cheeses — an aged white cheddar, Butterkase, and a cheeseball cheese spread. The cheese spread lost first, because it was just too hard to spread and would have been a fight in the middle of assembling these. The white cheddar would have been tasty, but I went with the Butterkase. It is the cheese that got so popular stuffed inside sweet potatoes, and there is a reason for that — it melts beautifully. It goes so creamy and gooey, and that cheese pull when you pull a slider apart is worth it all by itself.

Second, the butter on top. Plain butter and garlic felt like the easy way out to me. I went with a butter glaze with Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce instead, and it makes such a difference. The rolls and the cranberry sauce are already sweet, so that savory, tangy glaze on top balances the whole pan.

This is the part I went back and forth on the most, so learn from my debating.

My first instinct was cranberry sauce first, right on the bottom roll. But cranberry sauce is the wettest thing in this pan, and sitting on bread through the whole bake is exactly how you get a soggy bottom.

So here is the order I landed on, and why:

Turkey first. The turkey acts like a shield between the roll and everything wet.

Cranberry sauce second. A thin layer, spread over the turkey — not poured on thick.

Stuffing third. The stuffing sits right on top of the cranberry and soaks up the extra juice like a sponge as it bakes.

Butterkase last. The cheese melts down over the stuffing and holds all those crumbly stuffing pieces together when you pull the sliders apart.

It works. The bottoms stay soft but not soggy, and you still get every flavor in every bite.

Butterkase is a mild, buttery cheese that melts incredibly well. If you have seen the sweet potatoes stuffed with cheese all over social media, that melty cheese is Butterkase. I found mine at Aldi, in their Emporium Selection cheeses.

It is mild enough that it doesn’t fight with the cranberry or the stuffing — it just makes everything creamy. Slice it while it is cold, straight from the fridge, because it softens up fast on the counter and gets hard to slice thin.

No Butterkase near you? Provolone, Havarti, or Swiss will work. The aged white cheddar I almost used would be delicious too, just know it won’t give you the same stretchy pull.

• 1 package (12-count) St. Pierre Brioche Slider Rolls (or Hawaiian sweet rolls)
• 12 ounces sliced turkey — deli turkey works, and so does sliced leftover roast turkey
• 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce — about 2/3 of a 14-ounce can
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups prepared stuffing — your favorite boxed stuffing made as directed, or leftover homemade stuffing
• 6 ounces Butterkase cheese, sliced thin while cold or shredded

For the Butter Glaze

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard — Dijon, not yellow mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional, they look pretty on top)

About the Cranberry Sauce

Use a thin layer and don’t spread it all the way to the edges. One cup is plenty for the whole pan. If you dump the whole can on there, the sliders will be soggy and slide apart, no matter what order you layer them in.

Jellied cranberry sauce works too — just slice it and lay the slices over the turkey instead of spreading it.

About the Stuffing

Make your stuffing a touch on the drier side if you can. It is going in the oven between a layer of cranberry sauce and a layer of melted cheese, so it will pick up plenty of moisture while it bakes.

1. Prepare the pan

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray, or line it with parchment paper.

2. Slice the rolls

Without separating the rolls, slice the whole slab in half horizontally with a serrated knife, so you have one big top and one big bottom.

Place the bottom half in your baking dish.

3. Layer the turkey

Layer all of the sliced turkey over the bottom rolls, folding the slices so they fit and cover the whole slab.

This layer goes first on purpose — it protects the bottom roll from the cranberry sauce.

4. Spread the cranberry sauce

Spread 1 cup of cranberry sauce in a thin, even layer over the turkey.

Keep it a little bit away from the edges.

5. Add the stuffing

Spread the prepared stuffing evenly over the cranberry sauce, all the way across the pan.

Give it a gentle press with the back of a spoon so it sits in an even layer.

6. Add the Butterkase

Cover the stuffing completely with the Butterkase — slices or shredded, either one works.

This is the layer that melts down and holds the stuffing together.

7. Add the tops and the glaze

Place the top half of the rolls back on.

Whisk together the melted butter, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and poppy seeds if you are using them.

Brush the glaze generously all over the tops of the rolls, letting it drip down the sides and into the seams. Use all of it.

8. Bake covered, then uncovered

Cover the dish loosely with aluminum foil.

Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. I give these the full 20 minutes covered because that thick stuffing layer needs time to get hot all the way through.

Remove the foil and bake 7 to 8 minutes more, until the tops are golden and the cheese is completely melted and gooey.

9. Rest and serve

Let the sliders rest for 3 to 5 minutes.

Then cut them apart, or just let everyone pull their own right out of the pan. Pulling one apart while that cheese stretches is the best part.

I will be honest, I spent longer than I care to admit standing in my kitchen just deciding on the cheese.

I had the aged white cheddar in my hand twice. And the cheeseball cheese spread from Trader Joe’s sounded so interesting — but the second I thought about actually spreading it across twelve sliders, I knew it would be too hard to work with and I put it back.

The Butterkase was the right call. It is popular for a reason, it melts better than any of the other options would have, and it doesn’t overpower the turkey or the cranberry. Mild, buttery, and gooey is exactly what this pan needed.

The other thing I am glad I trusted my gut on was the glaze. I saw the plain butter-and-garlic version and it just felt like the easy way out. The Dijon and Worcestershire take about ten extra seconds to whisk in, and the tops come out tasting like something — savory and a little tangy against all that sweet cranberry. That contrast is the whole slider, to me.

Different cheese: Provolone is what most versions use, and it’s good. Havarti, Swiss, mozzarella, or aged white cheddar all work — just expect less of a pull from the cheddar.

Leftover turkey: This recipe was made for it. Sliced or shredded leftover turkey both work, about 12 ounces or 2 to 3 cups shredded.

Ham sliders: Swap the turkey for sliced ham and you have a whole different holiday slider. Leave the cranberry on — it’s delicious with ham.

Jellied cranberry sauce: Slice it and lay the slices over the turkey instead of spreading.

Add a little heat: A pinch of red pepper flakes in the glaze is really good against the sweet cranberry.

Store leftover sliders in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

To reheat, place them in a baking dish, cover with foil, and warm at 325°F for about 15 minutes, until heated through. Covering them keeps the rolls from drying out and getting hard.

You can microwave a single slider for about 30 seconds in a pinch, but the oven keeps the tops much nicer.

These are rich, so something simple and fresh next to them is perfect — a green salad, green beans, or roasted Brussels sprouts.

They are also wonderful right on a holiday appetizer table next to your other leftovers-turned-new dishes. Honestly, a pan of these and a plate of leftover pie and I am happy.

Thanksgiving Sliders are pull-apart Hawaiian roll sliders layered — in this order, to keep the bottoms from getting soggy — with 12 ounces of sliced turkey, 1 cup of whole berry cranberry sauce, 1 1/2 to 2 cups of prepared stuffing, and 6 ounces of melty Butterkase cheese. The tops are brushed with a savory butter glaze made with Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and onion powder, then the pan is baked at 350°F for 20 minutes covered and 7 to 8 minutes uncovered. They are an easy way to turn Thanksgiving leftovers into a new meal, and they make 12 sliders in one 9×13 pan.

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