Jeff Mauro’s Double Decker Monte Cristo | The Kitchen | Food Network

This classic late-night Chicagoland diner favorite is completely bananas. Jeff double-deckers his Monte Cristo sandwich and then batters it, deep-fries it, dusts it in powdered sugar and serves it with jam!
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Double Decker Monte Cristo
RECIPE COURTESY OF JEFF MAURO
Level: Intermediate
Total: 3 hr (includes chilling time)
Active: 35 min
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

9 slices honey wheat bread (something fairly thin)
6 slices sharp Cheddar
8 ounces shaved smoked turkey breast
6 slices Gruyere
8 ounces shaved tavern ham
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, beaten
3 quarts peanut or vegetable oil
Confectioners’ sugar, raspberry preserves and honey Dijon mustard, for serving

Directions

Special equipment: a deep-fry thermometer; toothpicks

On one slice of bread, place a piece of Cheddar and then ribbon on the turkey. Top with a slice of Gruyere. Add another slice of bread for the middle layer, then top with another slice of Gruyere, then the ribboned ham and finally a slice of Cheddar. Top with a final slice of bread and press down a little. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 2 more sandwiches. Slice diagonally and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or ideally overnight, so it all stays together during the fry.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, then the eggs and 2 2/3 cups water; whisk just until smooth. (Do not overmix.) Let the batter sit for at least 10 minutes or up to 30 minutes while you heat up the oil.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven to 350 degrees F. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with a wire rack and set aside.

Unwrap each sandwich and place a toothpick in the center of each to hold them together while frying. Working with one sandwich at a time, dunk in the batter with tongs and evenly coat. Let the excess batter drain, then dunk in the oil. Submerge and hold in the bubbling oil until the batter sets, about 20 seconds. Fry until golden on all sides, flipping halfway through, 4 to 5 minutes. Place on the wire-racked sheet to drain and keep warm in the oven. Repeat with the rest of the sandwiches.

Garnish with a light dusting of confectioners’ sugar and serve with a sidecar of raspberry preserves and honey Dijon mustard.

Cook’s Note
It’s best to build the sandwiches, then wrap them and chill them in the fridge for at least 2 hours or ideally overnight.

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Jeff Mauro’s Double Decker Monte Cristo | The Kitchen | Food Network

this is uh sweet it’s Savory it’s double decker it’s quite possibly the most Preposterous sandwich on the planet it is the double decker Monte Cristo or should I say the moro Cristo ktie you are my what was that now all right you’re going to help uh me build a sandwich in tandem with me here starting with for a little restraint a little wheat bread yeah restraint what’s up with that but you got to get the fiber in when you can Kati looks like white it’s like honey white it’s like honey wheat this is like faux wheat it’s like faux wheat yeah there’s not much extra fiber SAR was not buying no she one is not even close this is not in her wheelhouse at all so we have some ham like honey ham nice sliced thin some like smoked turkey some sharp cheddar and some gr so you use now Monte Cristo is like a double decker sandwich like ham turkey cheese usually Swiss I’m going to use guier I think it’s just way more flavorful and melts really nice okay so first layer cheddar Katie on the bottom then take one we know it’s a it’s a dainty sandwich so just one Nice Slice make sure it’s nice and thin right you want that translucent test see your finger through it and then we’re going to ribbon it up nice on there very good little height now we come with the grew year boom first layer done rich man Swiss the rich man Swiss next comes another slice of bread oh now comes the grw here and then the ham what and then the cheddar and then another slice of bread like a classic Club style double decker and we’re not putting any like there’s no mustard no mustard no mayonnaise no I don’t want any of it I want it pure because we’re going to have plenty of tomorrow criso let me let my Diner dictate the dippage gabish kiss kiss his grits kiss my grits now we take the finest a fine plastic wrap Katie I will show you what to do and you can follow suit does anybody like to guess how the this huh how the sandwich was made most likely well it’s it’s a spin on like uh croak you know um we’re going to cut this really quick in half give us a little trivia now yes most likely it was named after M Alexander Duma 1844 who wrote The Count of Monty kristo how about that all right this has to go on the fridge tighten up get cold two hours minimum can you freeze it no I’m not joking uh I wouldn’t freeze it cuz it’s a fairly quick fry cuz there’s really nothing to cook inside it’s just we want to melt it inside 2 hours you can do it overnight I got a couple ready to go why does it need to be refrigerator this is what they do in the restaurant in my research it’s a moisture from that deli meat soaks into the bread and creates a natural spackle I love it going to hold it together all right baking powder allpurpose flour yeah because we wanted all right and pour some salt and some egg we’ll put right in there this is like a full breading going on this is more yeah this is a batter tell you I don’t know if I’ve ever had a Monte Cristo now that I’m thinking about it it has the powdered sugar on it right all right yes itbe don’t give it away Katie all right then some water not all of it we’ll start with like a cup at a time and just see how it all comes together depending on the local humidity now you want a loose batter because you don’t want you know you need to be able dip a sandwich into this this is not like you know this is wild it is wild I’m a wild guy and I love this sandwich and you serve this I don’t think I’ve had this all right this got to sit almost like a pancake batter for about 10 minutes I got one ready to go here it’s l Perfecto L those you know kind of everything the flour is extra hydrated it’s ready for the deep fryer it’s ready to cling to the bread can you unwrap those Katie don’t you think that brunch is like really an excuse to splurge too like on the diet yeah like it’s a meal to like have the sweet the Savory the fried bits guarantee you something you make this for your kids at home they’re going to love oh they’re going to get a big kick out of this they are they’re like what is that so we have our Ault cured half of ham turkey sandwich here we are going to pierce it this is a double duty uh toothpick here okay it’s going to keep it together it’s also going to make it easier to flip my oil is creeping up almost to 350 is the magic temperature for this right into there right all right look at this all up in there now we can kind of grab the ends of those toothpicks okay I’ll see what you’re working with see yeah oh that’s great gently let extr dipd into the diage Y you hear that the excess drippage into the dippage you want to try one more time nope I’m going to go with it just going to let it I’m going to walk it like they do at the fish shops you know it kind of let it walk in the oil mm and now so better go let’s do it again in there Jeff I’m excited like fun it is rediculous in every way shape or form but you know what it’s America baby I kind of want to try to do one of these Jeff do you want yeah there’s something about it that I’m into this just one roll like sandwich rolling and the reason we’re kind of clinging onto these toothpicks here is there’s no tongue Mark full coverage yeah full coverage man are you kidding me I’m going to chill for a minute oh mm I love it let it set I’m loving this good technique Jeff and now you can do that Katie if you want to grab some extra tongs in there now we got to do a little rolly right so he got the baking powder in there that well hydrated we sat that batter for 10 minutes you get these little cagles on there I mean that’s like prozone right there prozone I mean brunch right there it’s like I’ll tear it out a donut meets a waffle meets a club sandwich Meza grilled cheese Meza grilled cheese go idea for like a fast food chain right just do this Diner various Meats we are going to let this get golden brown this Brun style Sammy is going to knock your socks off when you see me put the finishing touches on welcome back today we’re whipping up a bounty full brunch and I am obviously haming it up with my double decker Monty Crystal look at all them bubs on there look at those deep fried golden brown batter bubs I call them cagles but okay cagles these are bubs bubs everybody in the bub getting tipsy getting crispy getting crispy I should have gone with that all right remember this is that ham guer cheddar turkey Triple Decker with a nice very healthy honey wheat bread I did some research I went country white at first and I was like no and you don’t want too much bread in this right you want like the the bag of bread the honey that’s in the wheat that actually gives this a little bit of sweetness there and of you know a little extra something to make you feel good but this is this is this is what we’re looking for that is the color I mean you can hear it from a mile away crunch crunch crunch crunch somebody could look at that and think they were like getting a big old piece of fried fish at first yeah I know but no it’s a literally a whole Sandwich inside there yeah now what’s missing with this you know what’s missing what is missing Jeffers you to remove the toothpicks oh that’s true thank you Jeffrey do that when listen I’ve done that before like impale on top thank you Jeffrey I was already thinking it I know not fun um well first of all let me point out the two classic pairings for such this dainty little bugger here we’ve got some honey mustard a nice honey Dijon straight from France I imported it from franch on account of D and then just some nice Jam yeah raspberry preserves no preserves oh preserves excuse and then I don’t know who the guy was that was like excuse me we there is one thing missing from this do you trust me Chef I’m just a call me all right I’m going to show you he came out of the Woodworks with the Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam powdered sugar on top mental it’s traditional it’s what you got to do don’t skip this step Sunny you are first yeah I think that the powdered sugar makes it brunchy I’m going to give you just a little more it gives you like French toast Vibes Katie can you grab the fresh dill and the Theo peino and please the uh on while it’s hot is it going to burn me it just might would you like uh would you like the uh a double double trouble double trouble Dipper yeah o Jeffrey when I make this I I usually thinly Veil The Bread on the inside with these so this is going to be nice fork and knife please yeah I’m going to cut yeah this is a this is this is this is a knife and fork yeah I mean I’m going to pick it up but I also just want to look at the end oh Jesus is it heavy heavy look at that huh let me see that inside you are the Sandwich King this is true wow look at that it’s melty melt