Polish Boys
Last year I entered the lottery to hike The Wave out on the Utah-Arizona border. Since the odds were low I'd actually win—I read comments of people who entered many, many times until they finally won—I was coming up with back-up plans just in case. One of those other potential trips was going to be to Cleveland, which I know sounds a lot less exciting than hiking among some of the most amazing red rock formations, but I was actually kind of excited for it too. I had put together a nice week where, beyond the Cuyahoga Valley that drew my attention to the area, I was going to catch Guardians and Tigers games, hit up some museums, and spend a day at Cedar Point. One of the things I was most looking forward to though was trying out Polish Boys, a Cleveland born creation of a kielbasa topped with coleslaw, fries, and barbecue sauce. I ended up winning the The Wave lottery, so left that Ohio trip for another time, but I didn't want to keep waiting for those Polish Boys, so made them at home instead.
Seeing that I've never been to Cleveland, my take lacks direct experience, but from what I could tell from my research, a Polish Boy has some leeway for personal taste as long as the four primary components are represented. So I didn't see a need to attempt any Cleveland-centric coleslaw, if there is even one, and put together a fairly standard recipe that began by mixing together a vinegar and mayo dressing that had celery seed, sugar, and black pepper as the seasonings.
I also used a standard slaw combo of green cabbage, red onion, and carrot that I had drawn moisture out of by mixing those all with salt and sugar first. After letting that stand for five minutes, I rinsed the veggies, dried them, and then added in the dressing. The final product was a pretty great standard bearer coleslaw with a tangy and creamy character alongside a good crisp crunch.
The fries posed the biggest challenge for me in making these Polish Boys. I have my fry process down with an initial low temperature fry to soften the spuds, then a final high temp fry to crisp up the exteriors. The question came when I was trying to figure out when to do that second fry—either do it before the sausages are cooked, but then the fries won't be fresh and hot in the final sandwich, or fry after the sausages are cooked, in which case the kielbasa will cool a bit waiting for the fries to be done. I chose the former option and think the later would have been preferable since not having hot fries didn't feel right. If you're able to cook the sausages and finish the fries at the same time, that would be the most ideal situation.
I've only bought kielbasa in those long horseshoe shaped links before, so initially I was going to pick up a few of those, thinking I could slice them up to get three or four sandwiches out of each, but while out grocery shopping I saw these standard size links and decided to give them a try. They tasted pretty great—better than the links I normally buy—and my only complaint was the casing was a bit tougher than I was used to. So they took a little more effort to bite through and had a bit more chew, but those are really a minor inconvenience for an otherwise stellar sausage.
Since these kielbasas were precooked, which is how you'll likely always find this Polish sausage, they just needed to be heated through on the grill. I cooked them over direct heat so they would also get a nice color and light char by the time they were full heated. The links did start to rip in spots, but I considered this a feature more than annoyance and probably a misstep on my part because I also tend to cut slits in my kielbasas before grilling them and didn't this time around just because I was a bit rushed and it slipped my mind.
Once the links were all done, I nestled them into hoagie rolls, topped them with coleslaw, fries, and barbecue sauce and served. Polish boys are definitely a sandwich after my heart—I'm a sucker for kielbasa to begin with, and also a big fan of fries in sandwiches, so I was off to a great start with just those two things, but add in my beloved barbecue sauce and I'm over the moon. The coleslaw was key too because it added a cooling crunch that also helped cut through some of the heaviness. I had purchased higher quality and standard squishy supermarket rolls and I had a preference for the squishy ones that held together better and added a little bit of a hot dog feel to the final sandwich that tasted right in the backyard setting. I'm excited to one day get to Cleveland and try a few true Polish boys, but I'm also happy I didn't wait until then because these went over great with myself and my friends.
