Bread bowls are often filled with soup or a simple cheese dip, but cutting into this one reveals something closer to a full sandwich. Turkey and bacon sit beneath the browned cheese along with a creamy base and chopped tomato.
The idea comes from the Hot Brown, a sandwich created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. The original combines turkey, bacon, tomatoes, and Mornay sauce over thick toast.
This recipe takes those parts off the toast and puts them inside a hollow loaf. Cream cheese and sour cream replace the Mornay sauce, while cheddar melts through the turkey and bacon. The bread becomes both the baking dish and something to tear apart for dipping.
Turkey and Bacon Go Straight Into the Cheese
Start by heating the oven to 375 degrees F and hollowing out a large round loaf. Keep the removed bread if the pieces are firm enough for dipping later.
For the filling, combine softened cream cheese and sour cream, then add chopped roasted turkey breast, cooked bacon, shredded cheddar, and garlic salt. Spoon everything into the hollow bread bowl.
Instead of stacking those ingredients between bread slices, the recipe suspends the turkey and bacon throughout the cheese mixture. Each scoop can pull out pieces of meat along with melted cheddar and the cream cheese base.
Bread Bowl Spends Almost an Hour in the Oven
Cover the filled loaf with foil before baking. That cover matters because the dip needs 45 to 50 minutes in the oven, enough time for an exposed loaf to become too dark around the edges.
Once the filling is hot, remove the foil and broil the top for a minute or two. Watch the bread during this step. The goal is browned, bubbling cheese without burning the crust.
Chopped tomatoes and green onions go over the top after baking. The tomato brings another part of the original Hot Brown into the dip rather than disappearing into the cheese mixture.
Even the Bread Bowl Becomes Part of the Appetizer
Once baked, the loaf holds a thick filling that can be scooped with the bread removed from its center. Toasted bread slices, pita chips, crackers, raw vegetables, or thick-cut potato chips can handle the dip too.
The bread around the filling also picks up cheese as the bowl gets eaten down. By the end, there is no separate serving dish to account for, just the crust that spent nearly an hour surrounding turkey, bacon, and melted cheese.
Would you rather eat a Hot Brown as a sandwich or scoop it straight from the bread bowl?
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