A New Take On An Old Sandwich

Taking a page from Elvis, this week's installment of Sous Chef Series featured Scott Gallegos's late-night snack of choice: a peanut butter, bacon and strawberry jam sandwich.

Intrigued by the possibilities, we created The Sandwich Matrix. Our goal: Nine sandwiches that are at once sweet and salty, each simple but not boring.

First, choose your bread (we're partial to white). Next, choose your spread: we experimented with creamy almond butter, chunky peanut butter or Nutella, applying a generous layer to each slice of bread. Finally, select your topping, choosing from dried apricots, sliced banana or crisp strips of bacon–or a combination of two (bacon, peanut butter and banana is particularly good).

To further spare you from the lunchtime rut, try these other spectacular sammies: open-face broccoli, goat cheese and onion jam smorrebrød; a grilled fish sandwich with jerk slaw; biscuit sandwiches with griddled ham; grilled pimento cheese sandwiches; chicken salad with walnuts and grapes; and a fully loaded fried-egg-and-kimchee sandwich.