Amazing Grilled Cheese Recipe

I don’t care how old I get…or how healthy I try to eat…I will always love grilled cheese. There’s just something so warm and comforting about eating it…crispy, buttery bread + gooey, cheesy goodness. I grew up eating grilled cheese made from super thin “healthy” bread and (usually) just one, sad, American single. My mom would “butter” the outside of the bread—by butter, I mean she would use margarine (oh, the ‘80’s…), add the cheese to the middle, and then cook it in a pan on the stove.

Now, don’t get me wrong…I still thought the sandwich was delicious. We normally had good ol’ Campbell’s tomato soup with it, but also…we dipped the sandwiches in ketchup… I’m actually not sure why or how that started, but that’s how we always ate the grilled cheese. I’ll be honest…I still sometimes do that, and I don’t even care who knows it!

My next experience with grilled cheese sandwiches were the school’s iteration of them. Thick pieces of Texas toast with mystery cheese between the slices. Being the fluffy girl that I am…and not one to turn down carbs of any sort, I loved these sandwiches and would gladly take any off the hands of my friends who snubbed their noses at them.

It wasn’t until later years, once I got married and had to start figuring out how to cook dinners for us, that I realized cooking grilled cheese in a pan on the stove was a huge hassle. Always looking for an easy way out for everything, I thought back to those Texas toast grilled cheese sandwiches that the lunch ladies fixed and had an epiphany! There’s no way they were fixing hundreds of sandwiches on top of the stove, but instead, they were lining a giant baking sheet with several sandwiches and cooking them all at once—in the oven!

Friend…this was a GAME CHANGER!! I could crank out 8 sandwiches at a time for us…all within the span of minutes! Once I discovered this method, there was no going back. I also began to experiment with ingredients too, but that’s for another day. What I really want to share with you is the method I developed for making the most amazing grilled cheese sandwiches, that turn-out perfectly and deliciously every time!

The magic behind these sandwiches is how you put them together and then, how you bake them. You can really alter the ingredients as you see fit.

What You’ll Need:

-Bread, obvs. You can use whatever you have laying around. For the sandwiches I made here, I used English muffin bread…because that’s normally all we have on-hand.

-Butter—softened. Yes, use the butter.

-Mayonnaise. I use avocado mayo, but you can use whatever your fave is.

-Cheese. We had shredded cheese in the fridge, so I used that—mixing a few different kinds. The sandwiches I made for this post had Colby jack and pepper jack.

-Garlic powder

-Fresh ground pepper

-Baking pan and foil. The foil makes for easy clean-up (beware of melty cheese) and helps the sandwiches get even crispier!

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400° and line your baking sheet with foil.

2. Butter the outside of the bread.

3. Spread mayonnaise on the inside of each slice of bread.

4. Add Cheese.

5. Sprinkle with garlic powder.

6. Add fresh ground pepper.

7. Put sandwiches together and bake for 8-10 minutes on each side, until golden brown.

>> I didn’t include any measurements for anything because you don’t need them! It’s really a personal preference on all the things. Feel free to get creative, trying out different cheeses, adding meat, spinach, or even tomatoes! If you add tomatoes, I recommend de-seeding and patting dry—to keep your sandwich deliciously crispy! Serve with your favorite soup—hopefully it’s tomato…but Jason doesn’t really like that, so I understand the need to vary from the classic! Happy eating! <<