{Recipe} Oven-Baked Sliders

This Sunday is one of my most favorite days of the year.  The delicious party food, my friends all gathered around, cheering on two teams as they battle for the ultimate trophy, the commercials, the half-time show...I just love the Puppy Bowl.  No seriously, in our house we usually set up two TV's; one showing the Super Bowl & one showing the Puppy Bowl.  In the past few years, other networks have piggybacked on this idea with the Kitten Bowl, the Fish Bowl & now they're doing a Dog Bowl featuring SENIOR DOGS! How incredible is that?!?! Needless to say, we are excited in our house for Sunday!

 

So let's talk about these sliders & how YOU HAVE TO MAKE THEM for whatever party you're attending. Seriously, they are SO easy (if you follow my tips) to throw together, SO tasty & the absolute perfect addition to any spread. If you're having a big group over, I definitely recommend doubling the recipe because these suckers will go FAST.

A few notes...

-The original recipe calls for adding sliced cheese on top.  This recipe already has shredded cheese mixed in to the meat. Personally, I didn't think it needed any more, but that's just me.
-The original recipe also said once you place the additional cheese on top, to throw them back in the oven for 10-15 mins.  The first time I made these, I did this & BURNED THE CRAP out of the buns. So I don't recommend putting them BACK in the oven unless you top with cheese. In that case, 5 mins MAX.
-I also preferred to keep my toppings to a minimum, but you could easily set up a whole little spread with lots of toppings for people to customize them!

ABOUT
Makes: 12 Sliders
Prep & Cook Time: 35 mins max
How difficult was this for me? EASY.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground beef (I used 70% lean, 30% fat...this recipe is not a time to be healthy)
1 packet Lipton onion soup mix
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp mayo (I did use light here because that's what we had in the house)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 package (12 count) Hawaiian rolls
Addition cheese & toppings of your choice!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a big mixing bowl, combine ground beef, onion soup mix, cheese, mayo & garlic powder.

In a greased 9x13 glass (not metal) pan, press meat mix flat. 

You'll think the meat will never spread out enough...it will. Just keep pressing.

Bake in oven for 20-25 mins

Remove from heat

(Don't be surprised how much grease is floating around. It's gross, but I pretend not to see it...& better that it cooked out of the meat than eating it. Also your meat will have shrunken up)

Slice meat into 12 even squares (good luck) & place on buns!

At this point, we ate our sliders as is.  The original recipe called for placing the bottom of the buns w/ the meat on top into another 9x13 pan, topping with cheese, covering with tinfoil & cooking for an additional 10-15 mins.  This is when I burned mine the first time around. So IF you want to place more cheese on/heat up the buns, I recommend only cooking for about 5 additional mins.

Enjoy!