Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders

These hot ham and cheese sliders are slathered with apple jam and caramelized onions and then baked until the cheese is melty. The sweetness of the apple jam pairs perfectly with the savory caramelized onions, smoked ham, and white cheddar cheese. These delicious ham and cheese sliders are perfect for parties and holidays. Your loved ones will be requesting them in the future, trust me!

Ham and Cheese Sliders with Apple Jam

A lot of the traffic on my website comes from people looking for my slider recipes. Over the past few years I have created quite a collection of delicious slider recipes and I love creating new ones for you to enjoy. If you love these Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders, you can find all of my other slider recipes here: Slider Recipes

I love using apple butter and pumpkin butter in the Fall so i wanted to put a little autumnal twist on the classic ham and cheese sliders. I am familiar with people adding a brown sugar syrup to their ham and cheese sliders before they bake them, but I take it a step farther by using apple jam, specifically apple pie spread, that I found at Trader Joe’s. Apple butter can also be used but it is less sweet, so the sweetness will not be as pronounced if you use that.

I always cut my ham and cheese into small pieces when I make sliders so that the sliders are easily separated after baking. I also love caramelized onions with all of my heart so I added them to these hot ham and cheese sliders and they were the perfect touch!

Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders with Apple and Caramelized Onions

Caramelized Onions can usually always take a recipe from basic to amazing! In the fall I cook with them often and I love the rich savory flavor they give my recipes. I love them on burgers, with pasta, and especially on sliders. Adding caramelized onions to these ham, cheese, and apple sliders was a great move. Do not skip this step. And raw onions just do not hit the same.

If making caramelized onions sounds intimidating to you, try my recipe for crockpot caramelized onions. You can cook 5 large onions at once in a slower cooker. If this sounds like a lot of onions, it is. But, I like to freeze them in 1/2 cup silicone containers and then thaw them when I need to use them. When you are ready to use them in a recipe, just add a portion to your saute pan and cook them on medium low heat to thaw. The onion and butter that was on them from the crockpot will melt into your pan as well and you can get them perfectly caramelized in about 10-15 minutes. Compared to the 45-50 minutes it normally takes to caramelize an onion, this is such a win!

How to Make Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders with Apple Jam and Caramelized Onions

INGREDIENTS  

• 1 pack Hawaiian rolls
• 7 oz sweetened apple jam trader joe’s sells apple pie spread which is what I used in this. 
• 1 large yellow onion sliced thin
• 1 tbsp salted butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 8 slices cheddar cheese use white cheddar if possible
• 7 slices smoked ham regular slices, not super thin slices

Optional

• 1 tbsp salted butter
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme

INSTRUCTIONS 

• First, you will need to caramelize your onions. I like to cut my onion in half first, and then create thin slices from each half. I cook these onion slices in 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of salted butter. 
• Add 1/4 tsp of salt to the onions and then cook on low heat for about 45 minutes or until all onions are a dark golden brown. Stir frequently while they are cooking. Put them into a plate once they are done cooking. 
• Preheat the oven to 375F
• Lay your Hawaiian rolls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then, cut your rolls in half so that you have a set of tops and a set of bottoms. 
• Spread your apple jam on the insides of the rolls, dividing it evenly amongst the tops and bottoms. 
• Cut your 8 slices of cheese into quarters. It should make 32 smaller squares of cheese. Lay half of your cheese down on the bottom half of the rolls. I fit 16 pieces on the bottoms, by doing 4 slices across on each row. 
• Cut your 7 slices of ham into quarters. it should make 28 little pieces. Layer these pieces on top of the cheese. 
• Top the ham with the remaining pieces of cheese the same way you added the cheese to the bottom. 
• Add your caramelized onions on top of the cheese and then carefully put the tops of slider buns on top. Your tops should already have a layer of apple jam on the inside of them. 
• Press the tops of your slider buns down gently and then place some aluminum foil on top over the buns. This will ensure your tops do not get too brown. Place them in the oven for about 30 minutes. Once there is 5 minutes left on the timer, you can carefully remove the aluminum foil.
• Cut and serve

Optional

• spread a light layer of butter on top of each roll and sprinkle a little fresh thyme on top.