Love Corned Beef But Don’t Want To Cook It? Grilled Reubens for Two are a quick, easy, and delicious alternative!

Not into cooking corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day? Try these delicious Grilled Reubens for Two with Homemade Thousand Island Dressing!

Have you ever wondered why corned beef and cabbage are associated with St. Patrick’s Day? And what is corned beef, anyway?

Turns out, the Irish were never big beef eaters before they were conquered by the British. Cows were kept for the dairy products they produced (Kerrygold butter, anyone?), and were only killed for their meat if they were too old to produce milk. The British were the ones who started the beef industry in Ireland. Corned beef wasn’t big there until after the Cattle Acts of 1663 and 1667 that prohibited the export of live cattle to England and necessitated salt-curing the meat.

I was surprised to learn that “corned” beef has nothing to do with corn. I’m not sure what I thought the process was or how corn was a part of it. But turns out the reason it’s called that is because the salt crystals that were used to cure the meat were the size of corn kernels.

There’s a long history I won’t go into about why corned beef and cabbage are traditionally served on St. Patrick’s Day in America. You can read more in this fascinating article on Smithsonian Magazine. But it’s interesting to note that in Ireland the holiday meal most often includes lamb or bacon, not corned beef.

If you’re like me, and the whole ‘corned beef and cabbage’ thing doesn’t really appeal, we’ve got an alternative for you.

It’s not that we don’t like corned beef. Or cabbage. But the one time I tried to make it for St. Patrick’s Day years ago, I found it to be time-consuming, laborious, and (most of all) stinky! I think my kitchen smelled for days afterwards.

I think it’s fun to mark the holidays by having some kind of special dinner (like fajitas on Cinco de Mayo). So I came up with a slightly different version of the traditional meal: Grilled Reubens For Two with Homemade Thousand Island Dressing. It contains the corned beef and the cabbage (in the form of sauerkraut). Served with some Irish potato chips, it’s almost the full meal. You could even add some carrot sticks to the plate to complete the ingredients 🙂

This is a quick and easy St. Patrick’s Day dinner for two. Start by making the Homemade Thousand Island Dressing.

You can use bottled Thousand Island dressing if you want, but this recipe is fast and easy, and we think it tastes much better. It only takes a few simple ingredients you probably already have on hand: mayo, ketchup, dill pickles, onion, apple cider vinegar (you can use white vinegar if that’s all you have), garlic powder, and a hard-boiled egg. The egg makes the dressing taste richer, and gives it more body.

You should start by pressing the hard-boiled egg through a fine sieve with the back of a spoon. It may seem like it won’t go through at first, but keep pressing! This step will result in super-fine egg pieces. If you don’t have a sieve or would rather just use a knife, try to chop it as fine as possible so you don’t have chunks of egg in the dressing.

After you have processed the egg, finely chop the pickle and grate the onion on a microplane or fine grater. Then it’s just a matter of mixing in the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate any leftovers after you make the Grilled Reubens. This dressing is also great on salads, and we love it in burger bowls.

The next step is to assemble the Grilled Reubens for Two and prepare to cook them. Make sure you start off with a cold frying pan or griddle!

You don’t want to preheat the pan for these sandwiches. The outside of the sandwich will brown before the inside heats up and the cheese melts if you do. So start by buttering one side of four slices of seeded rye bread and laying two of them butter-side-down in a cold frying pan or griddle.

Then you want to layer on the rest of the ingredients. Mound thinly-sliced deli corned beef on the bread slices first. After that, you can pile on the sauerkraut. Make sure you squeeze all the liquid from the sauerkraut before adding it to the sandwich. You can do this in a strainer or just squeeze it out with your hands. Use as much sauerkraut as you want – we like lots on ours! Top all that off with slices of Swiss cheese and the remaining slices of bread, buttered side up.

Now you want to turn on your burner to about Medium, and grill the sandwiches.

It will seem like it takes forever for the first side to brown, but be patient. You can lift an edge ever-so-slightly once in a while to check on them. If your burner heats unevenly like mine does, you may want to rotate the sandwiches in the pan once or twice to get the all-over golden brown you’re looking for before you flip.

When it comes to flipping, make sure you hold down the top as you lift the sandwiches with a wide pancake turner. And be very careful when you turn them over. You don’t want all your sauerkraut spilling out during the process. Be warned: it takes a lot less time for the second side to brown than the first one did, so be watchful and don’t let them burn.

Serve these Grilled Reubens for Two with a little dish of the Homemade Thousand Island dressing to dip them in.

Add a couple slices of dill pickle, and maybe some Irish potato chips on the side. If you can’t find Irish potato chips, a side of potato salad will do.

You can substitute deli smoked turkey in these sandwiches if you don’t like corned beef. And remember, you don’t have to wait for St. Patrick’s Day to serve this meal. You can enjoy them any time you have a craving for a good grilled Reuben!

Let us know if you try these Grilled Reubens For Two with Homemade Thousand Island Dressing. We’d love to hear what you think of these recipes in the comments!

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