Baked Ham and Cheese Bagel Sandwiches

Baked Ham and Cheese Bagel Sandwiches are a delicious, easy meal for any time of day! Deli ham, Swiss cheese, and spinach are layered on a buttery bagel with a Dijon mustard, mayo, and Worcestershire sauce spread. These easy ham sandwiches are baked until they are warm and melty.

I love a good bagel sandwich for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! They're filling, satisfying, and easily customized. This popular dish makes my whole family happy whenever I make it.

What makes these bagel sandwiches even better is that they are wrapped in foil and baked! Wrapping them in foil means you can take them right from the oven in the morning to the car, to eat on the way to work. Tin foil meals are also fun for picnics and camping adventures!

Baked ham and swiss sandwiches are everyday party sandwiches made using an entire package of rolls. You'll find them made this way in a ham and cheese sliders recipe.

My recipe is inspired by those Hawaiian roll slider recipes (like these Hawaiian roll cheeseburger sliders), but is instead made on a bagel and in a portable aluminum foil packet!

If you love a baked ham and cheese bagel, then you have to try my BLT Bagel Sandwich. Another one of my popular sandwich recipes is my recipe for rolled Pinwheel Sandwiches.

Ingredients

• Bagel - I used large, plain bagels for this recipe. We end up topping the bagels with melted butter and poppy seeds. You could always choose a poppy seed bagel instead.
• Deli ham - You'll want to use a thin sliced deli ham. Any variety will work. My preference is an oven-baked style.
• Swiss cheese - Swiss cheese is one of the most common cheese choices for a sandwich recipe like this. I like to use 2 slices of cheese per sandwich, but one single slice of cheese would work as well. Swiss cheese is what is used when making Hawaiian ham and cheese sandwiches. Hawaiian ham sandwiches are usually made with sweet Hawaiian rolls, also known as King's Hawaiian rolls, and sometimes contain pineapple slices too!
• Spinach - I add spinach to this recipe because spinach is one of the only sandwich greens that softens well when heated. I love the color that it adds to the sandwich as well!
• Dijon mustard - A mild Dijon mustard is my favorite type of mustard. If you don't have Dijon you could use a yellow mustard or a ground mustard instead.
• Mayonnaise - Mixing the Dijon with mayonnaise helps to cut the sharp taste of the mustard. You only need a little mayo to accomplish this.
• Worcestershire sauce - Worcestershire adds a slight umami flavor to the mustard mayo mixture.
• Butter - Melt butter ahead of time, when you are prepping your ingredients. Luckily the prep time for this recipe is very minimal!
• Poppy seeds - The poppy seeds are added to the melted butter before brushing the buttery mixture on the tops of the rolls.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Make your mustard mayo mix by combining the Dijon mustard, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, combine the melted butter with the poppy seeds.

Step 2: Cut open your bagel and start layering your ingredients! Start by spreading the mustard mayo mix onto both insides of your bagel.

Step 3: Add your spinach leaves to one side of the bagel.

Step 4: Layer on your swiss cheese and deli ham! I usually do alternating layers of slices of cheese and ham slices. I love to use black forest ham, but Virginia ham, honey roasted ham or brown sugar maple ham would all be delicious as well.

Step 5: Now close both sides of your ham sandwich together and brush the melted butter mixture over the top of the ham sandwiches. You most likely will not use all of the butter if you're only making one ham and cheese bagel. This recipe can easily be adapted to make multiple ham and swiss sandwiches at one time though!

Step 6: Wrap the bagel sandwich in aluminum foil. Transfer the unbaked sandwiches to your preheated oven. You can place the bagel directly on the oven rack or you can place it on a cookie sheet, baking sheet or prepared baking pan.

Step 7: Place the ham and cheese bagel sandwiches into the preheated oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese melts. Remove the bagel sandwiches from the oven, open up the pieces of foil and let cool for 2-3 minutes. Once they are slightly cooled down, cut open the hot ham and cheese sandwiches using a large serrated knife. Enjoy!

Substitutions and variations

• Ham - I don't suggest swapping out the ham, since it's a main ingredient in this recipe. If you really wanted to though, then you could use deli turkey slices or deli roast beef slices.
• Cheese - I've actually made this sandwich recipe using a few different types of cheeses. You could easily substitute in any cheddar cheeses or provolone cheese.
• Bagel - I chose plain bagels for this recipe, but you could use poppy seed bagels, a delicious buttery onion bagel, or an everything bagel! If you want to skip the bagels all together, then you could use soft Hawaiian rolls, hamburger buns, or a thick sliced sourdough bread.
• Extra toppings - In addition to spinach, you could add sliced tomato, thinly sliced onion or caramelized onions. You could do a mixture of swiss and cheddar cheeses. Add a fried egg to make these even more of a breakfast sandwich! If you add an egg, I would make sure the yolk is cooked through and not runny so that the sandwich isn't too messy to eat.

Serving suggestions

Serve ham and swiss bagels with my air fryer sweet potato fries, Dutch oven chicken noodle soup, or my summer tortellini salad!

Bagel sandwiches would also go well with potato chips, garden salad or raw fruit & veggies. They would be delicious with a side of bacon, turkey bacon, scrambled eggs or sausage. Any type of pasta salad would go well with them too!

Tips and tricks

• Start checking your bagel sandwich after 15 minutes of baking. The cheese will be perfect somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. If you are going to let the bagel sandwich sit for a while in the foil after you remove it from the oven, then you may want to pull it out at 15 minutes, because the cheese will continue to melt as it stays wrapped in the warm foil.
• You could use room temperature butter mixed with some poppy seeds, instead of melted butter. The butter just needs to be soft and easy to spread.
• In addition to poppy seeds, you could add a little bit of black pepper and onion powder to the melted butter.
• You do not need to toast your bagel before making this recipe. The bagel will get warm and soft as it is baked in the oven.
• This recipe is easily scaled up or down, making it perfect for your next brunch party! This recipe would be a great addition to your Easter breakfast menu or Mother's Day menu too.
• Make these bagel sandwiches the night before, wrap them in foil and place them in the refrigerator. In the morning, all you will have to do is pop them in the oven while you're getting ready for the day!
• If you let the warm bagel sandwich sit in the foil for a while after you've taken it out of the oven, it may start to get a little soggy on the bottom. This is due to the trapped steam creating moisture. You can vent the aluminum foil after you take it out of the oven to try to prevent this from happening.