I grew up with many trips to the American diner, Denny’s. Their grilled turkey and bacon sandwich called the Super Bird was one of my favorite late night meals throughout high school. While I haven’t frequented a Denny’s in quite some time, I found that these craveable paninis are super easy to make at home!

When I make this meal, I call it Diner Night and serve it the way I used to get it at Denny’s: alongside oven fries, a pickle spear, a tossed salad, and occasionally, a small bowl of homemade applesauce. (Does anyone else remember Denny’s applesauce?)

A few tips if you’re looking to achieve that very particular Denny’s taste:

The order in which you stack the elements of this sandwich actually matters. Whenever I randomly throw this together, it doesn’t taste right, so follow the recipe: bread, cheese, turkey, bacon, tomato, bread.

While the additional salt seems unnecessary, it makes a difference in the accurate Denny’s (not to mention delicious!) taste, so don’t skip it! These are totally worth the extra squats the next morning.

Copycat Denny’s Super Bird
(Original recipe: Food.com)

3 -4 slices deli turkey
2 slices bacon
2 slices swiss cheese
2-3 slices beefsteak tomatoes
2 slices sourdough bread
Butter, softened

Cook bacon and set aside.

Heat some butter in non-stick pan over medium heat. Grill the turkey breast in a stack until the meat is golden brown on both sides. Remove and set aside.

Butter sourdough lightly on one side of each slice. Place one piece in the hot pan, butter-side down. Place a slice of Swiss cheese on the unbuttered side facing up. Add the grilled turkey on top of the Swiss cheese and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place two bacon strips on the salted turkey. Stack a slice of tomato on top of the bacon. Top off with the remaining sourdough slice, with the unbuttered side toward tomatoes. When the bottom is golden brown and the cheese is melting, flip the entire sandwich over.

After 2 minutes, or once the second piece of bread has become golden brown, remove the sandwich from the heat. To serve it like Denny’s, slice the sandwich into 3 equal size triangle pieces.