It doesn’t get much easier than a grilled cheese sandwich. Sometimes, it doesn’t get much tastier, either: just think of cheddar cheese oozing out of toasted sourdough bread — yum! Although we usually associate grilled cheese sandwiches with lunch, they can be a fun option for your dinner meal planning since they don’t require a lot of time, equipment, or effort. We’ve mentioned having breakfast for dinner sometimes; this can be a lunch for dinner option. Here are tips on how to make a great grilled cheese sandwich, as well as fun ideas to add variety, and maybe a bit more nutrition. This is a perfect dish to get your kids involved in the kitchen; they can select and assemble ingredients.
The Basic Grilled Cheese
Grilled cheese sandwiches can be made almost anywhere — a frying pan on a stove, in a toaster oven, on an electric griddle, on in our personal favorite, a sandwich press. This recipe is for two sandwiches.
- 4 slices of bread
- 1 Tablespoon of butter
- 3 ounces of cheese (or about 1 cup of grated)
1. Spread butter evenly on each slice of bread. With the buttered side down, divide the cheese among two of the slices, then cover with the remaining slices, buttered sides out.
2. Heat a large skillet (use a small amount of cooking spray if you are not using a nonstick skillet) over medium heat. Place sandwich in skillet and cook 5 to 10 minutes per side.
Cooking Tip: If you ever have problems with cheese that hasn’t melted in the middle of the sandwich, use this trick we learned from Katie Workman’s The Mom 100 Cookbook: After you place the sandwich in the skillet, cover the skillet and cook for 2 minutes. Flip the sandwich, then cook for another 2-3 minutes. Flip again to get the sandwich crispy.
Ideas, Tips, and Variations
- Grated cheese melts more evenly than sliced.
- For browner and crispier bread, brush melted butter on the slices before cooking.
- Spread sauces (like mustard or mayonnaise) on the bread before adding cheese.
- Cut the sandwich up into small pieces and use as croutons on soups, like tomato soup.
- Use a popsicle stick to skewer cut up pieces of the sandwich and let your kids eat them off the stick.
- Vary or combine cheeses: Cheddar, Gruyere, Monterey Jack, fontina, blue, goat, muenster, Provolone, Swiss, Brie with rind cut off, feta.
- Add fillings: Caramelized onions, chutneys, relishes, Dijon mustard, olive or sun-dried tomato tapenade, pickled jalapeno, bacon, thin apple slices, tomato slices, ham or prosciutto, thin turkey slices, sautéed mushrooms, mashed black or cannellini beans.
- Sandwich any additional fillings in between the cheese so the sandwich sticks together.
- There are endless possibilities. You can use anything that sounds good to you, but for more ideas, check out this long list from the Food Network.
- For a decadent take on the grilled cheese, try this “Ultimate Grilled Cheese” recipe from Barefoot Contessa’s How Easy is That?
From Kimberly’s kitchen: For one of those inexplicable reasons, my girls decided they don’t like grilled cheese sandwiches anymore. So, I started making an “open-faced” grilled cheese by broiling the cheese on a slice of bread. Sometimes I add mashed black beans (It might sounds strange, but it is good!) or other spreads on the toast first. The cheese gets melted and a little browned by doing it this way — and bonus, my girls eat it!