Sliders are one of the kid’s favorite party foods. We’ve made them for birthday parties, super bowl eats, or anytime we are looking for something fun for dinner. They go together pretty quickly and can be customized if you like to spice them up or top them with cheese or sauteed veges. The key is to bake the meat in a 8×12 or 9×13 baking pan instead of making individual meat patties to go on each bun.

For the buns, you can use slider buns, dinner rolls, or any other small roll. It’s best if they come attached to each other so you can assemble the sliders easily. Any kind of ground meat will work, about a 1 1/5 – 2 lb package. We used beef for these sliders at Cal’s request for his birthday party, although I usually prefer to use ground turkey or chicken.

To get started, grease the pan to make it easier later on when you are trying to lift out the meat. Put the ground meat in the pan and just squish it out so you have an even later of meat. Make sure that it is even thickness – it’s easy to overlook the edges and make them a little thin.

Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper. Bake this in a 400 degree oven for 30-45 minutes. (I like them well-done, but cook to your liking)

This beef shrunk quite a bit, but will still work. When we use turkey, it shrinks a bit, but not quite this much.

I cut this in half so that I could center each piece on 6 rolls.

I added some cheese to the top.

The tops of the rolls are the last layer.

Then cut down through the buns and meat to make the sliders.

Put them on a plate and serve. Super easy! These were a huge hit with Cal and his friends.

A couple of different ways to customize these:

• Add sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and/or onions before adding the cheese. The cheese will melt into the veges, making a yummy topping with the sauteed veges.
• Substitute your favorite meatloaf recipe for the meat.
• Add bacon! Enough said. 🙂