These Cowboy Beef Sliders Are Perfect for Football Season

BBQ beef, bacon, cheddar, jalapeños, crispy onions, and cowboy butter stuffed into Hawaiian rolls. Get the full recipe for Cowboy Beef Sliders and upgrade your next get-together.

These Cowboy Beef Sliders from The Kitchn are making my mouth water.

We’re talking barbecue beef. Bacon. Sharp cheddar. Jalapeños. Crispy fried onions. Hawaiian rolls.

And somehow we are still not finished.

You have my attention.

This Is Basically a Bacon Cheeseburger Having an Identity Crisis

The foundation here is pretty straightforward.

Ground beef gets cooked with chili powder and barbecue sauce, which immediately moves things somewhere between cheeseburger territory and a very enthusiastic sloppy joe.

Honestly, either direction works for me.

Then you take an entire slab of Hawaiian rolls, slice it horizontally, and start layering.

Cheddar goes down first, followed by the barbecue beef, crispy bacon, thinly sliced jalapeños, fried onions, and even more cheddar.

Once everything is stacked, put the tops back on and the whole tray into the oven.

This is exactly what you want from party food. It looks impressive, feeds a bunch of people, and doesn’t require you to individually assemble twelve tiny sandwiches like you’re running a miniature deli.

We Need to Discuss the Crispy Onions and Cowboy Butter

I can appreciate bacon.

I respect melted cheese.

And I will happily accept a jalapeño pepper.

But the crispy fried onions might be the ingredient that pushes these sliders from “sounds good” to “I need one immediately.”

And there is something deeply satisfying about using the same fried onions usually reserved for Thanksgiving green bean casserole in a barbecue bacon cheeseburger slider.

Before the final few minutes in the oven, brush the tops with a cowboy butter made with melted butter, parsley, horseradish, Dijon mustard, smoked paprika, and salt. Then return to the oven until the cheese melts and the rolls toast.

This may be my favorite part of the entire recipe.

Football Food Should Be a Little Ridiculous

This is game-day food at its best. The recipe makes 12 sliders and takes about 15 minutes of prep plus 35 to 40 minutes of cooking time.

But I also don’t see any reason to restrict them to sporting events.

Make them for a party. Make them for dinner. Or make them because it is Tuesday.

What I like most is that they’re easy without feeling boring. You’re starting with ground beef and store-bought Hawaiian rolls, not spending six hours smoking a brisket or baking bread from scratch. But those extra layers make the finished sliders feel like you put in considerably more effort than you actually did.

That is one of my favorite cooking tricks.

Go Make the Cowboy Beef Sliders

Are barbecue beef, bacon, cheddar, jalapeños, crispy onions, and cowboy butter excessive?

Probably.

Do I see that as a problem?

Absolutely not.

The only real danger is putting the tray down in front of a group of people and assuming one slider per person will be enough.

It isn’t.