Grilled Mini Reubens

Heat oven to 400ºF and throw in whole rye bread. Bake until crusty, around 10 minutes. Remove and cool so it is easy to slice for sandwiches. At the same time, steam corned beef quickly in steamer.

Mix all ingredients for the thousand island dressing and set aside.

Spray a little butter-flavored Pam on the griddle and grill the drained sauerkraut, turning until it is very slightly browned. Not only does this dry the kraut out a bit (not too much) but it also subtly intensifies the flavor! After trying this, you won’t want to put “raw” sauerkraut on your Reubens again!

Slice 12 slices of rye bread. Using a large cookie cutter, cut 12 rounds out of the of the slices. Do the same with the Swiss cheese. Lay out bread and spread with thousand Island dressing and lay Swiss cheese on all 12 pieces of bread. Divvy up the corned beef and put on 6 slices of bread. Spread a bit of Thousand Island dressing on meat. Divvy up the sauerkraut and lay on meatless side of bread. Close up the sandwiches.

On the top slice of each Reuben, spread butter. Flip the sandwich onto the griddle, taking care not to mess up the Reuben, and then butter the bread facing you. Grill on the cleaned griddle for 6 or 7 minutes and turn. Put something heavy on each sandwich and cook another 4-5 minutes until the cheese has melted and the sandwich is a nice color.

Turn Reubens out onto a plate and serve.