My Chef-Husband Just Taught Me the Best Way to Make a BLT and My Sandwich Life is Forever Changed

Labor Day might be over, but tomato girl summer is still going strong. Just this week, Martha Stewart posted her overflowing tomato bounty on Instagram, saying, "That time of year again! Tomatoes of all kinds! Tomorrow bake Japanese white bread. Make tomato sandwiches for everyone. Sliced tomatoes and mozzarella. Tomato sauce for freezer. Etc etc." and I'm so glad she did because now I feel justified in all the tomatoes I just bought at the farmers' market.

Heirloom tomatoes are actually at their peak right now, as late summer creeps into early fall. Now's the time when the farm stands and grocery stores have some of the ripest off-the-vine tomatoes of the season, and if Martha's making more tomato sandwiches, so am I. But I'm going to add some bacon and lettuce and head in a BLT direction.

When it comes to a classic BLT, everyone has their opinion on the right way to make one. I thought was pretty skilled at making the stacked sandwich, but my husband, who is also a chef, just clued me in on the proper way to make a BLT this week.

With his bread hack and a superior spread, I became a bonafide BLT pro in less than 30 minutes. And you can, too, if you follow his BLT tips below.

Related: The Best BLT Pasta Salad

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Ingredients for the Best-Ever BLT

Like almost all dishes, BLTs begin with the best ingredients, according to my husband, Luke. A ripe tomato, freshly-cooked bacon and quality bread are essential. You want to choose heirloom tomatoes when they are at their peak—like right now—and are perfectly ripe. Once you select your tomatoes, you'll also need lettuce. Although iceberg is a classic choice, my hubby prefers arugula for its peppery bite. For the bread, he likes whole wheat sourdough or ciabatta.

Then there's his secret weapon, avocado mayo, which we'll get to later on, but you'll need an avocado and mayonnaise to make it, although he says you can also use spicy mayo or garlic aioli. Ghee is another game-changing ingredient for buttery, toasted bread, but if you don't have any on hand, you can use butter or olive oil spray for your pan.

Side note: The pictured chips are not a BLT ingredient but a preferred side snack, and chef Jose Andres' superior Spanish potato chips are the best for BLTs, in our humble opinion.

Related: 12 Epic BLT Recipes

How to Make the Best-Ever BLT

Start by cooking your bacon. Luke uses a sheet pan, a Silpat and a rack so the bacon cooks up nice and crisp. You can broil the slices on low or bake them at 400°F until they're as crispy as you like.

While your bacon is cooking, work on your toast. This is the part where I've been failing. Instead of placing a few sourdough slices in the oven to toast next to the bacon like I usually do, Luke whipped out a frying pan and reached for a tub of ghee (aka clarified butter). He reasoned that you could create perfectly buttered toast when you cook the bread on both sides in a puddle of ghee. Spoiler alert: He was right.

While your bread is toasting, make the avocado mayo. To make it, you just mash half an avocado into a few tablespoons of mayo. This spread is heaven on earth for avocado lovers and will forever change how you make BLTs.

Around this time, your bacon and toast should be about done, and from here, it's really a matter of assembling. Slice your tomatoes in thick rounds, then stack things up.

Luke likes a smear of avocado mayo on both pieces of toast, then tops one toast with a row of overlapped tomato slices. Before moving on to the next layer, you'll want to season your tomatoes with a bit of flaky sea salt and some cracked black pepper.

Once you've S&P'ed, add a pile of arugula to the other piece of toast and arrange the bacon on top of the tomatoes.

You could easily call it a day and dig in, but Luke took this BLT's brilliance a step further. He fried an egg. Why? I asked. It's not BLTE? "You said show me how to make the best BLT," he replied. "So I did." Fair enough. On went the egg before he added the arugula-topped toast and secured the sandwich with two toothpicks.

The toothpicks are crucial, so don't skip this step and make sure you use two—one on either side of the BLT—so you can cut it in half easily and not have the layers sliding all over the place when you do.

Tips for Making a Chef-Level BLT

1. Cook your bacon right before you make the BLT. The absolute HORROR on my husband's face when he saw me pre-cook bacon slices for BLTs once and leave them on a plate. Why would you do that?! he gasped. Apparently, I thought this was saving time by getting one step out of the way, but I discovered that BLTs are better when everything (bread, bacon, etc.) is nice and warm, ready to layer simultaneously.

2. Tomato and bread slices should be uniform. While it's completely acceptable to use different kinds of heirloom tomatoes, Luke always slices his tomatoes to the same thickness. He does this with all tomatoes, really, even cherries for salads. Your food will look better and taste better, too, because you're getting the same amount of each ingredient in each bite.

3. Use up any tomato scraps. We used a few bigger heirlooms and couldn't fit all the slices on the already stacked sandwich, so we chopped up the rest for salsa, throwing in a serrano pepper, a bit of red onion and cilantro.

My Honest Thoughts About This BLT

This isn't the first time Luke's made me an insanely tasty BLT, but this was the first time I watched him make one from start to finish and honestly, I learned a lot. My timing was off for most steps, and my bread prep was all wrong. I was even opposed to the fried egg once I saw what was happening, but wow, what a delicious world of difference it made. Plus, extra points for extra protein.

Once you slice the whole shebang in half, you get the drippy egg yolk mixed with tomato seeds and juices, globs of avo-mayo and bits of bacon in between. Yes, it's ridiculously messy, but that's how a BLT should be. Bite into it like no one's watching. Sop up every last drop with your bread. Leave an empty plate that looks like straight carnage after you're done and that, friends, is how you make—and devour—a proper BLT.

Next up, how to make Ina Garten's Garden Fresh Heirloom Tomato Bread Salad.