SuperFrico Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

You all already know how much I love cheese (check the bio!). It's kind of an old story. Yet when someone introduces me to more ways to love cheese, I am still excited. My good friend Renai shared this recipe a few months ago and I have been thinking about it ever since. The best part of grilled cheese sandwiches and nachos and basically anything with melted cheese is the crispy-crunchy, brown cheese on the side. Making a grilled cheese sandwich that purposefully adds a bunch of that to it? Sign me up.

Of course, school got in the way, but since the end of the semester, I've had time to go through all of those posts and recipes I've set aside for later and this one was at the top of the list to actually do. And because it is cheese, it is so worth the wait.

These sandwiches are also inspired by a fantastic food cart not too far from my house, Grilled Cheese Grill. the Jalapeño Popper is amazing. I really like that you can add potato chips to the inside of a sandwich. Talk about amazing! Any way to modify grilled cheese into even better grilled cheese is always okay by me.

SuperFrico Grilled Cheese Sandwiches modified from Herbivoracious:

Makes 2 awesome grilled cheese sandwiches

2 Tb. butter
4 slices whole wheat bread (better with crunchy artisan bread, but whole wheat does its job)
A huge pile of grated colby jack, white cheddar, and basil-sun dried tomato cheddar
6 Tb. grated white cheddar (from Tillamook. Obviously.)
4 Tb. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
¼ sweet Walla Walla onion, sliced and grilled
2 pieces of bacon (for Aaron's sandwich)
A handful of crunched up Kettle Foods Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips (seriously, how did I not like salt and vinegar chips before? They rock!)

Mix together white cheddar and Parmigiano-Reggiano in a small bowl. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add two slices of the bread. The original recipe mentions letting them sit in the butter for a moment and then flipping them, which in hindsight would've been delicious, but I didn't do that. Top slices with onion and bacon, if using. Pile on cheese. Sprinkle on crunched up potato chips. Cover with other slice of bread. I like to spread a little butter onto the top slice before flipping to ensure that it doesn't stick. Plus, it tastes great!

Press down firmly. I use a spatula. Flip a couple of times until cheese is melty and bread is golden. Remove sandwiches and lower heat to medium. Add a bit more butter if the pan is dry. Sprinkle the mixed Flagship and Parmigiano Reggiano in the still-hot skillet, in a shape roughly the same as the sandwich but a little larger.

As the cheese melts, it will begin to brown and crisp. Before this process is complete, put the sandwich back on top and press down to weld the frico to the bread. Let cook for one more minute, then using a thin spatula, lift out the sandwich, flip and serve. If there are more crispy bits left in the skillet, retrieve them and place on top of the sandwich. Or, if you're like me, just eat them because the crunchy bits are the best bits. The bread was a little burned because I was slow in flipping it over, but the frico made it all better. I may never make a grilled cheese sandwich without this again.