Improved Polish Boy Recipe

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3.67 from 21 votes

For the Cleveland Polish Boy, the sausage can be grilled or griddled, and some are even flash fried after cooking to give the casing extra snap. There are variations. Chili sauce has appeared on some, cheese on others, hot sauce on many, and a few swap the slaw for kraut. I've even heard of a Polish Girl that has pulled pork on top! Noting the creative license taken in Cleveland, I took some liberties with my interpretation.My improvements

I don't do much deep frying at home, especially for a small quantity, and, although one can come close to good French fies in the oven, I make my Polish Boy with oven baked Tater Tots because they stay crunchy longer than fries. The original Polish Boy calls for sweet red barbecue sauce, but when I see pork sausage, I reach for mustard. I just happen to think mustard is better on a Polie than ketchup based sauce. To make it authentic, you should use the original Bertman Ballpark Mustard, the official mustard of the Indians and the Browns and it has been in just about every fridge in Cleveland since 1925. Finally, most of the Cleveland versions use a creamy cole slaw, but I think my Sweet Sour Slaw does a much better job of cutting the fat and brightening the whole thing up.

Course:

Dinner

Lunch

Main Course

Cuisine:

American

Polish

Makes:

Servings: 1 sandwiches

Takes:

Prep Time: 45

Ingredients

Notes:

About the hoagy rolls. You can use hot dog buns, but they will disintegrate quickly. You need something more substantial to stand up to all the juice.

About the sausage. If you can't find a good Polie, get a good bratwurst and hot smoke it. Then grill or griddle it til it is crispy.

About the mustard. Any yellow mustard will do but in Cleveland it must be Bertman Ballpark Mustard.

Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

Cook. Follow the instructions on the bag and bake the Tater Tots, usually about 30 minutes at 425°F (218.3°C).
Open the rolls and toast them on the grill. Try to keep the hinge intact in order to hold everything in.
Grill the raw sausages til brown and crunchy outside and at least 155°F (68.3°C) inside. If the sausage has been precooked or smoked, you only need to go to 145°F (62.8°C).
Serve. Usually the slaw goes on top of the sausage, but then it gets flavored by the BBQ sauce, and I like to keep its integrity. So I lay down the slaw first, then the sausage, then the sauce, then the Tots.

Nutrition per Serving