Best Sandwich In Every State | 50 State Favorites

From Banh Mi to Cubanos, here is each state's favorite sandwich. First up is Alabama's pulled chicken sandwich with white barbecue sauce, also known as Alabama white sauce. The sauce is tangy, creamy, and ridiculously good. Reindeer hot dogs can be found at street vendors across Alaska. The sausage is made from reindeer or caribou along with pork and beef. The hot dog is usually split and grilled. Despite the name, the fry bread taco isn't really a taco. It's more like a taco sandwich mashup. The deep fried bread is topped with ground beef, lettuce, cheese, and other standard taco toppings. Fry bread was created by displaced Native Americans in 1864. The fried bologna sandwich is a timeless classic. Bologna slices are fried and placed onto soft white bread with a schmear of mustard. Simple but delicious. People are obsessed with In-N-Out burgers. The most popular is the double double burger with two patties and two cheese slices. You can also get a carbless version with lettuce buns. A fool's gold loaf is more than 8,000 calories. It consists of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with peanut butter, grape jelly, and a pound of bacon. It was created by the Colorado Mine Company in Denver and is rumored to have been an Elvis Presley favorite. Legend has it that the king himself flew two hours to Denver just to satisfy his craving for the sandwich. The first hamburger in the U.S. was made in 1895 at Lewis Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut. The original burger was sandwiched between two slices of toast and the rest is history. Lewis Lunch is still cooking and serving the burgers the same way it did when it first opened. The Bobby at Capriotti's is basically Thanksgiving on a roll. It's made up of turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and a generous schmear of mayo. Except you can have this any time of the year. The Cuban sandwich was actually created in Florida by Cuban immigrants. It's gained immense popularity since and can be found on most restaurant menus in Florida today. Pimento cheese is a southern favorite and one of the best ways to eat it is in a sandwich. The tanginess of the pimento peppers combined with the richness of the cheese and mayonnaise is an unbeatable combination. Kalua pork sandwiches are a Hawaiian favorite. Kalua is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method that uses an underground oven called an emu. The pig is roasted slowly all day and acquires a deep smoky flavor. Huckleberries are the state fruit of Idaho. Making a peanut butter and huckleberry jam sandwich the state's go-to snack. Often compared to a blueberry, the huckleberry is a little more tart and is often made into a jam. Chicago's Italian beef consists of thin slices of roast beef simmered and served with gravy on a roll. It can be ordered wet, meaning a little gravy over the bread, or dipped, which means dipping the whole sandwich into gravy. And to top it off you can add giardinara or sweet pepper. Midwesterners love their pork tenderloin sandwiches. Pork loin is thinly hammered, breaded, deep fried, and placed between hamburger buns. And the bigger the pork tenderloin, the better. The loose meat sandwich resembles a sloppy joe without the tomato-based sauce. It tastes like a hamburger but without the trimmings. The Z-Man sandwich from Joe's Kansas City BBQ is a hometown favorite of Kansas City. It's made of a toasted kaiser roll, thinly sliced brisket, smoked provolone, two onion rings, and some barbecue sauce. The Hot Brown is an open-faced sandwich created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Toasted bread is topped with turkey, tomato, mornay sauce, and bacon and then broiled until crispy and brown. Po' Boys are a Louisiana specialty. They're usually made with roast beef or fried seafood such as shrimp, crawfish, or oysters and served on New Orleans french bread. Lobster rolls are considered a Maine staple, especially since the state is the largest lobster producing region in the world. While additions differ from restaurant to restaurant, Maine lobster rolls are jam-packed with lobster meat on a New England-style hot dog roll. The Softshell Crab Sandwich consists of a whole crab, shell included. Softshell crabs are crabs that go through a molting process, shedding their hard outer shell and leaving an edible soft shell. They're usually tossed in batter and deep fried to be eaten whole. This gooey concoction is called a fluffernutter. It combines peanut butter with marshmallow fluff on soft white bread. Marshmallow fluff was invented in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1917. A Michigan Coney Dog consists of a hot dog topped with beef chili, yellow mustard, and finely diced white onion. The Juicy Lucy is a burger with a cheesy surprise. Instead of getting the cheese on top, it's put into the middle of the burger. Catfish is synonymous with Mississippi. The state is the largest producer of farm-raised catfish in the U.S. Locals love a battered and fried catfish. The Burnt End Sandwich is a must-have in Kansas City, Missouri. Burnt ends are the crispy point ends of a smoked brisket. They're cut into one-inch cubes and cooked further. Each piece comes out a bit charred but intensely flavorful and juicy on the inside. Pork Chop John's began serving boneless fried pork chop sandwiches from a wagon in 1924. While it has moved from the wagon to a brick and mortar, the restaurant still uses the same recipe. The Runza is native to Nebraska. It's basically a hot pocket with beef, cabbage, or sauerkraut and onions. It originated from Nebraska's German and Russian immigrant population. Some consider a patty melt a cross between a grilled cheese and a hamburger. With caramelized onions and melted cheese, juicy luscious flavors are guaranteed with every bite. The Monte Cristo is a fried ham and cheese sandwich. To make it an even more decadent meal, drench it in New Hampshire maple syrup. Depending on where you're from in Jersey, you'll either call it a pork roll or a Taylor ham. Either way, it's a delicious breakfast sandwich that can be found at almost every deli and diner in New Jersey. Green chili cheeseburgers are extremely popular in New Mexico. This is because green chili or the hatch pepper is grown in the Hatch Valley region. When roasted and added to a cheeseburger, it adds a smoky buttery flavor. No one does bagels better than New York City, and there is nothing as iconic as a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Popular deli Russ and Daughters typically sells 200 smoked salmon bagels and an additional 150 pounds of hand-sliced salmon on a busy day. The pulled pork sandwich is a must-have in North Carolina. There are two barbecue styles in different parts of the state, Eastern and Lexington. Eastern focuses on whole hog barbecuing with a vinegar-based sauce, while Lexington style uses only pork shoulder with tangy ketchup-based sauce. The hot beef sandwich is a favorite in North Dakota diners. It's made with sliced beef and a scoop of mashed potatoes, and best of all, it's smothered with hot beef gravy. The Polish boy consists of a kielbasa, which is a Polish sausage covered with coleslaw, french fries, and barbecue sauce on a bun. It's native to Cleveland, Ohio. Chicken fried steak is a comfort food in Oklahoma. The only way to make it even better is to put it between two buns and eat it with your hands. Grilled cheese is the best, especially made with Tillamook cheese. The Tillamook Creamery makes cheese and other dairy goods in Oregon. At full capacity, the creamery can churn out more than 160,000 pounds of Tillamook cheese a day. You can't think of Pennsylvanian food without mentioning the Philly cheesesteak. Invented in, you guessed it, Philadelphia. The sandwich is made up of thinly sliced pieces of beef steak and melted cheese. The hot wiener dog is a Rhode Island favorite. These sausages are topped with yellow mustard, meat sauce, and chopped onions. What's impressive is how the prepare them, balancing up to nine wieners on their forearm. The pulled pork sandwich is also popular in South Carolina, specifically in the central part of the state. Pulled pork is accompanied by Carolina gold sauce. The yellow sauce is a mixture of mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, and other spices. The pheasant sandwich is an old classic, dating back to World War II. Soldiers would pass through Aberdeen, South Dakota, where a canteen was serving free and delicious pheasant sandwiches. The sandwich is also popular because the pheasant is South Dakota's most famous game bird. The hot chicken sandwich is a Nashville original. Diners find themselves weeping with joy at how delicious and spicy the hot chicken is. The secret to its spice is lots of cayenne. You can't mention Texan barbecue without thinking of brisket. Hence, the brisket sandwich is the go-to for this state. Brisket is smoked for hours to get that juicy, tender texture and taste. The pastrami burger was popularized by Utah fast food chain Crown Burgers. Pastrami is placed on top of a juicy burger with a slice of Swiss or American cheese. And you can't forget about the much-adored fry sauce, made from one part tomato ketchup and two parts mayonnaise. The Vermonter sandwich is made up of all things New England. Maple mustard, hickory smoked ham or turkey, sharp Vermont cheddar, and honey crisp apples. Virginians love a good country ham sandwich, especially made with Smithfield ham, which is a specific form of country ham cured in Smithfield, Virginia. Washington sandwich is the banh mi, thanks to its large Vietnamese population. The sandwich includes some form of pork, pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, and jalapeno served on a baguette. The pepperoni roll is West Virginia's pride and joy because it was created there. The roll was invented as an easy lunch meal for coal miners in the 1920s. Bratwurst or brat is Wisconsin's favorite meat. After being poached in beer, it's commonly grilled and served on a hoagie roll. Bison burgers look and taste pretty similar to their beef counterparts, with a coarser texture and a slightly sweeter flavor.