AmericanGrilled cheese sandwich
Grilled cheese: buttery pan-toasted bread with a molten cheddar centre, the American lunch with tomato soup
In the United States a grilled cheese is pan-fried, not grilled, and it is the lunch of school canteens, diner counters and snowy days at home, almost always dunked into a bowl of tomato soup. Buttered bread toasts slowly in the pan until deep golden and crisp, while the cheese inside melts into long, gooey strings. It contains wheat and milk. Cheddar is often made with animal rennet, so choose one labelled vegetarian if that matters to you. The usual mistake is a heat that is too high: the bread burns before the cheese has melted. Keep it at medium-low and be patient. Chef's tip: grate the cheese instead of slicing it, and press the sandwich with a lid or a second pan for the first minute; grated cheese melts evenly right to the edges.
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 8 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Serves
- 2
- Per serving
- 450 kcal
Ingredients
- 4 slices white sandwich bread or sourdoughabout 1.5 cm thick
- 1 oz salted buttervery soft
- 4 oz mature cheddar (vegetarian if needed)coarsely grated
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (1)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Spread one side of each slice of 4 slices white sandwich bread or sourdough thinly with 1 oz salted butter, right to the crusts.
Step 2: Turn two slices butter-side down on a board. Spread with 1 tsp Dijon mustard if using, then pile on 4 oz mature cheddar (vegetarian if needed) in an even layer and top with the other slices, butter-side up.
Step 3: Heat a large frying pan over a medium-low heat for 1 minute. Add the sandwiches and press them down with a pan lid for the first minute.
1 minStep 4: Cook for 3–4 minutes, until the underside is deep golden and crisp and the cheese at the edges is starting to melt.
4 minStep 5: Flip carefully and cook for another 3 minutes, until the second side is golden and the cheese is completely molten when you press the middle.
3 minStep 6: Rest for 1 minute so the cheese does not run straight out, then cut in half on the diagonal and serve hot, with tomato soup if you like.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 450 kcal
- Protein
- 17 g
- Carbs
- 32 g
- Fat
- 28 g
- Fibre
- 2 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does grilled cheese sandwich take?
- About 13 minutes in total: 5 minutes to prepare and 8 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 2 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of salted butter?
- The same weight of ghee or coconut oil (for frying and most baking).
- What can I use instead of mature cheddar (vegetarian if needed)?
- Any hard cheese, same amount.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Sandwich grecKebab baguette
In Paris, a "grec" is the late-night kebab sandwich named after the Greek-run shops that first sold it in the Latin Quarter. On rue de la Huchette and rue Saint-André-des-Arts near Saint-Michel, students queue after a night out for crusty bread or pitta stuffed with meat shaved from a turning spit, lettuce, tomato and onion, a garlicky white sauce, and, the Paris touch, a handful of fries pushed right inside. This home version marinates chicken thighs in spiced yoghurt, sears them hard and slices them thin, with oven fries. It contains milk, egg (in the mayonnaise) and wheat. Chef's tip: slice the meat thinly across the grain after resting; thick chunks don't feel like a grec.
French
Lemongrass tofu banh mi
Bánh mì is Saigon's favourite street food: an airy, thin-crusted baguette split and stuffed with pickled carrot and daikon (đồ chua), cucumber, coriander and chilli. At vegetarian stalls near the city's pagodas the meat is swapped for sticky, caramelised lemongrass tofu, as in this version. Eat it for breakfast or lunch, warm, with a glass of iced coffee. Chef's tip: warm the baguette in a hot oven until the crust crackles when you squeeze it, and pull out a little of the soft crumb, so every bite is crisp shell, juicy filling and herbs in balance.
Vietnamese
ZapiekankaOpen baguette with mushrooms and cheese
Zapiekanka is Polish street food born in the 1970s and perfected at the hatch windows around Plac Nowy in Kraków's Kazimierz district, where students and night owls queue for one at midnight. Half a long baguette is topped with mushrooms fried with onion, covered in grated cheese and baked until crisp at the edges and bubbling, then finished with a zigzag of ketchup and chives. The classic version has no meat at all. Use a hard cheese made with vegetarian rennet (many supermarket mild Cheddars and Goudas are). Chef's tip: fry the mushrooms until completely dry before they go on the bread; wet mushrooms make the baguette soggy instead of crisp.
Polish