Maid Rite Sliders
An Iowa Party Favorite
As a born and raised Iowa girl, a maid-rite loose meat sandwich was a staple at many parties growing up. You were guaranteed to see these sandwiches at every graduation party or family get-togethers - just about any place where a large number of people were gathering. If you’re not familiar with this midwestern delicacy, a maid-rite is like a sloppy joe without the “sloppy”. It’s a sandwich with flavored ground beef, optionally served with cheese and pickles, but no sloppy-style sauce. For this recipe, I made the sandwich even more party friendly by turning them into sliders. It still has that large party, get-together feel, but allows guests to nibble on smaller portions and enjoy all of the possible snacks at your party! Plus, who doesn’t love a slider? Maid-rite sliders feel like an ultimate celebration food!
Tips For Making These Sandwiches
If you plan on making these maid-rite sliders, here are a few tips:
- One option to help make assembly easier, keep the rolls in one large piece, versus separating into individual rolls. When assembling the sandwiches you can scoop everything on at once and then separate the rolls into individual sandwiches when serving.
- This recipe can easily be doubled (or tripled) if serving a large group! If making this for a party, you can leave the cooked loose meat filling in a pot over low heat or in a slow cooker over low heat until you’re ready to serve.
- If you’re going to splurge on an ingredient for this recipe, i would recommend the pickle chips! The ground beef has tons of flavors added to it, so pick an option that’s reasonable within your budget. In my opinion, a high-quality, fresh pickle will ultimately elevate this sandwich to the next level!
Recipe Details
This recipe is incredibly simple! If you can brown ground beef, you can make these sandwiches. To begin, you’ll make the loose meat sandwich filling. The base of this part of the recipe is sauteing yellow onion until they are translucent and a bit sweet. The onion, plus some garlic, adds an aromatic start to the beef. After browning the beef in the onions, you’ll add the classic-maid flavorings - some sugar for sweetness, some ketchup for tartness, and a bit of worcestershire sauce for savoriness. This doesn’t create a thick sauce, but adds a saucy flavor to the beef. Almost barbecue sauce-like, but really subtle and light!
Once your sandwich filling is complete, you can prepare the sandwich bookends - the Hawaiian sweet rolls. I’ve kept the simple, but better than just throwing some ground beef on plain white bread. You’ll toast the rolls in the oven, with a bit of olive oil to help it crisp up, and a bit of cheddar cheese, because cheese makes everything better.
To serve these sandwiches up, you’ll layer in the ground beef on top of the melty cheddar cheese, add a layer of crisp pickle chips, and place the toasty top pieces of the rolls onto each sandwich. Serve right away and enjoy!
If you like the sound of this recipe, you should also check out these for your next party:
Be sure to tag @laura.loves.to.cook on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook to let me know how your recipes turn out. I hope you love it as much as I do!
This recipe is a party sized version of the classic loose meat sandwich. Full of flavorful beef, slices of cheddar cheese, and pickles, served on sweet Hawaiian rolls. It’s sure to be a favorite at your next get-together!
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef (85% beef, 15% fat)
- 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp ketchup
- 1 tsp sugar
- 12 sweet Hawaiian rolls
- 6 slices of cheddar cheese, cut into quarters
- dill pickle chips
Pre-heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the chopped yellow onion and salt. Saute the onions for 5-7 minutes, until softened and translucent,
Add the minced garlic and stir into the onion. Let cook until very fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add the ground beef, breaking it up into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon. Brown the beef, stirring occasionally until no pink is left in the beef, about 5-7 minutes.
Once the beef has browned, add in the worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and sugar. Stir to coat the beef with the ketchup, sugar, and worcestershire and let cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
Set aside while you prepare the remaining sandwich ingredients.
Preheat your oven to 300°F.
Cut the sweet Hawaiian rolls in half and arrange on a large baking tray, cut side up.
Add two quarter-pieces of cheddar cheese onto the bottom pieces of bread.
Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top pieces of bread.
Toast in the oven for about 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the top pieces are slightly toasted. Remove from the oven and assemble the sandwich.
Spoon the loose meat sandwich filling onto the bottom slices of each roll.
Arrange one or two pickle chips onto each sandwich and add a top slice of bread to each roll.
Serve right away, with silverware to catch any lost pieces of sandwich meat, and enjoy!
