8 Easy And Delicious Slider Recipes

"Slider" is a word of multiple meanings, since it can be a type of sandal or a breaking pitch where the ball winds up where the batter's not looking. When combined with the word "recipe," however, the term obviously refers to a miniature sandwich. White Castle claims to have invented the dish back in 1921 and may be responsible for the name. According to one story, "slider" refers to how the chain's employees used to slide the two-bite burgers down the counter to waiting customers. A less appetizing tale, however, credits the moniker to WWII sailors who joked that chow hall burgers were greasy enough to slide down their throats.

Sliders these days have evolved beyond their fast-food roots and are no longer necessarily of the burger variety -– tiny brioche buns filled with duck confit, pork belly, or brie with fig jam would not be out of place on the menu of a hipster bistro. Our sliders aren't so much of the trendy amuse-bouche variety however, but are instead something you'd make for a potluck, picnic, or game day gathering. We do have a few burger slider recipes (including two White Castle copycats), but the fillings also extend to ham, chicken, roast beef, and even meatballs dressed up for Halloween. If you're planning a party, it might be fun to put together a selection so you can offer slider tasting flights.

While a great big honking ham and cheese sandwich can make for a satisfying lunch, a platter of mini 'wiches is even more fun as party fare. Feel free to change up the recipe to suit your own preferences — swap out the Swiss for cheddar, exchange the pickles for banana peppers, or use pretzel buns instead of plain ones if you wish.

Recipe: Ham And Cheese Sliders

Whether you've never tried a White Castle slider or you're already a fan, this recipe is worth checking out. After all, they're mini cheeseburgers with pickles and onions; what's not to like? While this recipe is meant to mimic the fast food chain's offering as much as possible, you could always swap out the beef for ground turkey or even a plant-based meat substitute and have them your way. (Oops, wrong burger chain!)

Recipe: White Castle Sliders Copycat

Food that's all dressed up for Halloween is so much fun, why feel constrained by the holiday season? As long as you can round up some frozen meatballs, pizza sauce, cheese, pimento-stuffed olive "eyeballs," and slider buns, you can cheer yourself up with a monster-faced mini meatball sub at any time of year.

Recipe: Little Monster Meatball Sliders

Slider buns, Hawaiian rolls, dinner rolls, or biscuits — any of these would make the perfect enclosure for a two-bite roast beef and cheese sandwich. The sandwiches are baked in the oven to melt the cheese, but what really sets them apart is the seasoned butter that tops off the buns.

Recipe: Easy Roast Beef Sliders

Even though slider making is seldom labor intensive (unless you're a chef at a hipster bistro, that is), this recipe may well be the easiest one of the lot since you won't be assembling the sliders one at a time. Instead, the burgers are baked in a brick, then sandwiched between a block of still-attached Hawaiian rolls. Even the condiments, consisting of chopped onions and the ketchup/mayo mixture known as fry sauce, are applied to all of the burgers at once.

Recipe: Oven Baked Hamburger Sliders

This recipe requires slightly more work than the other ones on the list because you'll be breading and frying the chicken, although this doesn't take too long since the boneless breasts are cut into slider-sized pieces. You also get two bonus sub-recipes to use as you please, these being hot honey (yes, you can make your own in about 30 seconds) and broccoli slaw (ditto, since all it takes is bagged mix and bottled dressing).

Recipe: Fried Chicken Sliders With Simple Slaw And Hot Honey

Here's another White Castle copycat that's even simpler than the first since at its most basic, you can make it with nothing more than ground beef, dehydrated onions, and slider buns (plus water, if that really counts as an ingredient). What really gives the burgers that distinctive White Castle taste and texture is that the patties are cooked while still frozen and allowed to steam in the same water that's been used to reconstitute the onions.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient White Castle Hamburgers

The building blocks of this sandwich are pretty uncomplicated: deli roast beef, sliced provolone, and small rolls or buns, baked in the oven until the bread is warm and the cheese starts to melt. The thing that makes these sliders stand out, though, is a special sauce made from onions, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, and Worcestershire. But wait, that's not all. The bread rolls are also brushed with honey butter before they go in the oven to make for sliders that are both sweet and savory.

Recipe: Easy Hot Roast Beef Sandwich