Derby Hot Browns — The Recipe I Reached For After a Week of Holding It Together

September in Alabama still feels like summer until it suddenly does not. This first week was still thick and humid. The kids at the daycare were restless. They could feel fall in the calendar even if not in the air. We had a meltdown on Tuesday that lasted forty minutes. Not mine, one of the kids. Mine was quiet and happened in the car on the way home and lasted about ten minutes and then I turned on the radio and let it go.

I called Crystal once this week. She answered on the second ring which is better than the three times out of five that she does not answer at all. We talked for eleven minutes. I counted after. She asked about my work. I asked about hers. She is waitressing at a diner in Mobile. We talked around the edge of the thing we never talk about directly. I do not know what I want from those calls. Proof of life maybe.

Tyler and I drove to Debbie on Saturday. The Clarkes call it a normal Saturday which means six or seven people minimum, something on the grill, and his brother Marcus telling a story that takes thirty minutes and ends with everyone laughing. It is the opposite of how I grew up in every way. The noise used to set my teeth on edge. Now I just eat and listen and let it be warm around me.

Debbie sent me home with a container of her pimento cheese. I ate it on crackers Sunday morning instead of cooking a real breakfast. It is genuinely the best pimento cheese I have ever had and I have started asking her for the recipe in small pieces, one question at a time, because I do not want her to feel like I am stealing it, I just want to understand it.

Debbie’s pimento cheese got me thinking about the whole category of food that Southern families just quietly produce and hand you in a container — no ceremony, no recipe card, just here, take this home. The Derby Hot Brown is that same kind of food to me now: open-faced, generous, unapologetic about how rich it is. After a Tuesday meltdown that wasn’t mine and a ten-minute one in the car that was, and a Saturday at the Clarkes’ where I let the noise be warm instead of grating — this is the kind of thing I want to make on a Sunday when I have nowhere to be and something to process.

Derby Hot Browns

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 8 slices thick-cut white or sourdough bread, toasted
• 1 lb roasted turkey breast, thickly sliced
• 8 strips thick-cut bacon, cooked until crispy
• 2 medium tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Paprika and fresh parsley, for garnish
• For the Mornay Sauce:
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk, warmed
• 1 1/2 cups sharp white cheddar, shredded
• 1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

1. Make the Mornay sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes until the mixture smells slightly nutty. Gradually whisk in the warm milk, a little at a time, until smooth. Continue whisking over medium heat for 5–6 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar, Parmesan, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg until fully melted and glossy. Set aside.
2. Preheat the broiler. Position an oven rack about 6 inches from the broiler element and preheat to high. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil.
3. Assemble the hot browns. Arrange toasted bread slices on the prepared baking sheet — two slices per serving, slightly overlapping. Layer turkey generously over each pair of toast slices. Top with 2–3 tomato slices per serving.
4. Sauce and broil. Ladle Mornay sauce liberally over each assembled open-faced sandwich, covering the turkey and tomatoes. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Slide under the broiler for 4–6 minutes, watching closely, until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden and spotted brown in places.
5. Finish and serve. Remove from the oven and immediately cross two strips of crispy bacon over the top of each hot brown. Dust with paprika and scatter fresh parsley over the top. Serve at once, directly on the baking sheet or transferred to warm plates.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 680 | Protein: 45g | Fat: 34g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 1180mg