Follow this easy method to make the best grilled cheese with crisp, buttery bread and perfectly melted cheese every time.
Bacon Slayer is not much of a cook. I don’t say that to be mean or to inflate my own skills in the kitchen–it’s just a fact. I don’t say that he’s not much of a cook because his food is terrible or that he’s completely inept in the kitchen–just the opposite, really.
Believe me, when he does cook, his food is outstanding. He rarely requires a recipe, and he can make a cake from scratch better than most. Bacon Slayer just doesn’t particularly enjoy the process of cooking, so he doesn’t do it often. After all, why would he? He’d have to kick me and Son #1 out of the kitchen first, and we can be a tad territorial about that space.
One of Bacon Slayer’s specialties is that he makes the best grilled cheese sandwich on the planet. Don’t laugh! Making a good grilled cheese takes some practice. Making a great grilled cheese takes skill. Bacon Slayer definitely has Mad Grilled Cheese Skillz. (“z” intentional.)
Well back before he was called Bacon Slayer, my man was just a recent college grad living in a penthouse in an old campus hotel. It wasn’t as swanky as it sounds, believe me. At one time the penthouse was quite grand, but over time the building fell into disrepair, so it was relegated to a big apartment with cool architecture and a killer view of the city. Even so, I was impressed. One of the buildings that the penthouse had a view of was the business school in which I was finishing my last semester of university. Being a hopeful IT geek, I worked in the basement computer lab, and often joked that I was like a rat in a maze because I rarely saw the light of day.
Bacon Slayer took that comment as an excellent opening to invite me to his place during my lunch hour, so that I would have at least some exposure to the sunshine and wouldn’t end up with Vitamin D deficiency. Charming, right?
However, because he had already mentioned that he wasn’t a fan of cooking, I grabbed a Snapple and a bag of Sun Chips from the vending machine on my way over, just in case.
I cashed the Snapple half way up to the penthouse because I was informed upon entering the building that the elevator was out of order…again. So after hiking up 11 flights of stairs, I was really, really hoping that I would be dining on more than Sun Chips. I arrived at his door a hot, sweaty mess. Excellent impression for a lunch date! In that state, I was absolutely delighted to greeted by the aroma of awesomeness when I arrived.
I didn’t know what he was cooking, but it smelled like the best thing ever. The Best Grilled Cheese ever! That first grilled cheese wasn’t anything fancy. I’m pretty sure it was comprised of Kraft singles on Wonder Bread…with a pile of Fritos on the side. I’m positive that it was the method in which Bacon Slayer makes grilled cheese, and not young love, that is what made that sandwich taste so, so good! I mean, I’ve made grilled cheese my entire life, and never had I witnessed someone make it quite the way my man does it.
I have full permission to share his (not so) secret method for elevating grilled cheese from good to the best grilled cheese ever!
Start off by buttering the bread on both sides. You heard me. Spread a thin layer of butter on both sides of each slice of bread. I’m not talking about half a stick of butter per sandwich or anything! Use about half a tablespoon per slice, making it stretch to cover both sides. We prefer honey oatmeal bread, but you can use any variety.
Next, comes the real secret to the best grilled cheese–toasting both sides of the bread!
Lay the bread in a single layer onto a hot griddle. Once the butter on the top side starts to melt into the bread, flip it over, and then layer on the cheese. We like to mix at least two types of cheese per sandwich. Top the cheese layer with the toasted side of one of the other pieces of bread. Once the underside of the sandwich is nice an golden brown, flip it and toast the opposite side of the sandwich. By toasting both sides of the bread, the inside of the sandwich doesn’t get mushy as the cheese melts. It stays nice and crisp, and starts the cheese melting so that the finished sandwich doesn’t end up toasted on the outside with half melted cheese on the inside.
Half melted cheese in a grilled cheese is The Worst.
But no worries! With the best grilled cheese method, the cheese is always warm and gooey, and the bread is nicely toasted and perfect. Bacon Slayer might not cook all that often, but when he does, his methods are solid!
Go ahead and try Bacon Slayer’s method for the Best Grilled Cheese.
You know you want to! Then, do yourself a favor and dip a grilled cheese in a steaming bowl of 10-Minute Tomato Soup. You’re welcome. 😉
♥♥♥
Ready for a little Comfortably Domestic in Real Life?
Fact: grilled cheese is incredibly hard to photograph because as soon as it cools, the cheese no longer looks melty and inviting. Such is what happened with this particular grilled cheese.
After staging the photograph, I had to pop this baby back on the griddle to warm it back up until the cheese looked edible again. During which time at least one Son urgently needed my attention for something, and then I promptly forgot that my sandwich was reheating…until I smelled it burning. Oops.
So that pretty grilled cheese in the photographs? Completely charred on the underside. Like, to the point of it being almost inedible. I didn’t think even Daisy would eat it. Not that that is saying much–that dog shuns any human food that doesn’t start with bacon and end with beef.
So imagine our surprise when the hound not only ate the blackened grilled cheese, but rather inhaled it! Weirdo.
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