Barbecue Balsamic Onion Grilled Cheese
Rated 5.0 stars by 2 users
Category
Entree
Cuisine
Americana
Servings
4
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Grilled cheese was a staple growing up in my house - it was always made the same way: in a skillet, with copious amounts of salted butter and always consisted of just two ingredients: processed violent yellow cheese product and honey top wheat bread. While I still have some fond memories in my heart for this fair, I'm glad it's not the staple in our home.
Brian Leigh
Ingredients
- 8 slices of sourdough
- 4 ounces Hilltopper Creamery Young Gouda
- 4 ounces Hilltopper Creamery Smoked Gouda
- 4 tablespoons softened butter
- 3 tablespoons Somethin' Somethin' Sauce
- 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Directions
Thinly slice your onions. Set aside.
Dice the Gouda into small cubes. It is best to do this while the cheese is cold. Place the cheese into a bowl and add the Somethin' Somethin' Sauce, tossing the cheese with the sauce. Set aside and allow to come to room temperature.
Slice your bread to your desired thickness if it isn't already sliced! Try to be uniform in thickness. Lay the bread out on your cutting board and heavily butter, edged to edge, one side of each piece.
Add your thinly sliced onions, dry, to a skillet and place the skillet over medium-high heat. Adding the onions dry will force the onions to cook using their own sugars, allowing for a better caramelization and sweeter onion.
Watch the skillet, stirring fairly often so the onions do not burn. Let the onions caramelize down, moving them around fairly often as not to burn them. The pan will get a bit brown on the bottom, but as long as the onions aren't burning, its fine. This should take approximately 20 minutes, with the need to stir increasing as it goes.
Once your onions are nice and browned, reduce heat to medium and add a tablespoon of butter. Stir to bring the onions and the butter together. Now add your balsamic vinegar and let cook. This will take a few minutes and you need to watch the pan. The vinegar will caramelize down even further and you will be left with a buttery, tangy and sweet onion.
Place a piece of bread, butter side down in the pan.
Add a smear of Somethin' Somethin' Sauce to the bread, then place a tablespoon of caramelized onions on top of it.
Now add the cheese cubes, piling it high on the bread. If some falls over, don't worry! melted cheese on a skillet is a perfect addition to this dish and will flip with the sandwich.
Cap the pile of cheese with another slice of buttered bread.
Cover your skillet to ensure that your cheese cubes melt.
Carefully press down on the top piece of bread to push the sandwich together, then flip it. It may take two hands.
Cover your skillet again and let it good to your desired crispness. You may have to add more butter. Oh the humanity!
When I serve grilled cheese, I like to let it set up for a three minutes or so prior to cutting on the angle, or however the bread speaks to you!
