Recipe: Chile Garlic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Learn more about the making of this sauce in my earlier posts, Hot headed: A twist on Homemade Sriracha Sauce, and Hot Headed: DIY Sriracha-inspired fresh chile garlic sauce.

This recipe uses Recipe: Creamy Chile Garlic Sauce (and Recipe: Sriracha-inspired fresh chile garlic sauce).

The creamy chile garlic sauce melds the fresh taste of chile and garlic beautifully with the rich melted cheese, and immediately livens up this classic with its zippy flavors. Works well with just about any kind of sliced bread, such as country-style white, sourdough, or Texas toast. Its bold flavors can stand up to heartier whole grain breads as well. If you don’t have a skillet large enough to grill both sandwiches at once, do them one at a time in a smaller skillet.

The key to golden crisp bread and oozy cheese is cooking the sandwich over low heat and leaving it alone. As a finishing touch, “kiss” the edges of the sandwich with the hot pan. This partially seals the edges, letting the oozy cross sections brown slightly and giving you some irresistible bits of frizzled cheese.

Serves 2.

4 slices bread4 tablespoons creamy chile garlic sauce

2 ounces medium cheddar cheese, sliced

2 ounces Swiss cheese, sliced

3 ounces roasted turkey, sliced

Spread 1 tablespoon of creamy chile garlic sauce evenly on all 4 slices of bread. Place cheddar cheese slices on two slices of bread, top with turkey slices, then Swiss cheese slices. Cover with remaining bread slices, spread side down.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softenedKosher salt, preferably Diamond Crystal brand

Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Spread one side of each sandwich with 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons butter (you want a thin uniform layer that reaches to the edges of the crust) and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place sandwiches in heated skillet, buttered sides down. In the skillet, spread the bare sandwich tops with remaining butter and sprinkle lightly with salt.Let brown, undisturbed, until bread is crisp and golden brown, and cheese closest to pan is beginning to melt, about 5 minutes. Carefully turn sandwiches over to cook other side, letting brown, undisturbed, until bread is crisp and golden brown, and cheese is melted and oozy, about 4 minutes.

Remove sandwiches from skillet and place on cutting board. Cut each sandwich in half diagonally with a serrated knife.

To “kiss” the edges, return sandwich halves to hot skillet, cut side down, to brown slightly, about 30 seconds (leaning the halves against each other helps to keep them upright). Turn sandwich halves, browning each of the back edges for about 30 seconds each.

Serve immediately.

What’s in your favorite grilled cheese sandwich?