The Best BLT Sandwich
Everything a BLT should be — smoky skillet bacon, perfectly toasted white bread, crisp iceberg lettuce, and juicy ripe tomato. Five ingredients, twenty minutes, no shortcuts needed.
- 6 slices bacon
- 4 slices white bread
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
- 1 large tomato
- 1 cup iceberg lettuce
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Lay the bacon slices in a heavy-bottomed or cast iron skillet and heat to medium. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until it reaches your preferred crispness, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
- While the bacon cooks, thickly slice the tomato and tear large chunks of lettuce off the head rather than shredding it finely — thick tomato slices and big lettuce pieces hold up better against the bread and won't slide out with the first bite. Season the tomato slices with kosher salt and black pepper.
- Once the bacon is done, toast the bread until golden. Slather one side of each of the four toasted slices with mayonnaise.
- Tear or cut the cooked bacon in half. Layer six half-slices of bacon in two stacked layers on two of the mayo-covered toasts, alternating the direction of each layer so the bacon covers the bread edge to edge.
- Top the bacon with one or two slices of tomato and several layers of torn lettuce, then close each sandwich with the two remaining slices of toast, mayo-side down.
- Slice each sandwich in half and serve right away with potato chips on the side.
Chef's Note: A great BLT really does come down to just five ingredients done properly, which means there's nowhere to hide a weak link — thickly sliced, genuinely ripe tomato and bread toasted to real crunch matter just as much as the bacon itself. Layering the bacon in two stacked, alternating layers rather than one flat row is a small detail that makes every bite consistent instead of front-loaded with bacon on one end and bare toast on the other.
Bacon is the one component here that's genuinely worth making ahead — cook it up to four days in advance, keep it refrigerated, and assemble sandwiches fresh whenever the craving hits. If you want to take things further, a thin slather of softened butter under the mayonnaise on each piece of toast adds another layer of richness that's hard to argue with.
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