Grown Up Grilled Cheese
I love a good grilled cheese because it hits all the right notes – salty, crunchy, greasy, and sometimes even sweet.
Many Americans have eaten grilled cheese since they were young. In my youth, I used to think they were called girled cheese. But a grown up grilled cheese is a little more mature than the American cheese on white bread sandwich of my youth…not that there’s anything wrong with the classic.
I have three rules for grown up grilled cheese:
- Use the right bread. A boule or rounded Italian brick oven loaf sliced thin is perfect.
- Press the bread while it’s cooking. You’re basically making it into a panini, using a heavy skillet or saucepan as a modified panini press.
- Stuff it with quality ingredients.
Here are some of my favorite grown up grilled cheese combinations:
- Avocado and cheddar – 1/3 to 1/2 of a ripe avocado mashed into the bread with the back of a fork, a sprinkle of salt, and maybe some red pepper flakes
- Truffle – Trader Joe’s has a great, chewy truffle cheese – add a tablespoon of truffle oil to the butter in the pan
- Prosciutto, manchego, and fig jam
- Chicken pesto – breaded chicken cutlet, pesto, and fresh mozzarella, and maybe a tablespoon or two of freshly grated parm
- Chicken parm – breaded chicken cutlet, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and maybe a tablespoon or two of freshly grated parm
- Roast beef, cheddar, and caramelized onions
- Patty melt – hamburger patty, Swiss cheese, and caramelized onions
- Assemble your selected ingredients between two slices of bread.
- Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on medium low in a heavy skillet large enough to fit your bread.
- Place the sandwich in the melted butter and put a heavy skillet or saucepan large enough to cover the sandwich on top. This will add weight and press the sandwich.
- Cook until browned on bottom, approximately 3 minutes. You may need to adjust the heat to prevent the bread from burning, while giving enough time for the cheese to begin to melt.
- Remove the sandwich and place it on a plate while you melt an additional 1 tablespoon of butter in the skillet.
- Flip the sandwich, press it with the heavy skillet or saucepan, and brown the other side for an additional 3 minutes or until done.
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