How to Make an Amazing Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Start with the right ingredients, blah blah. You know the deal. Good bread. Good cheese. Butter in a frying pan or spread on the bread (I prefer to have it in the pan). I use Monterrey Jack cheese and I sprinkle some dried red pepper flakes in there. So I guess it's like pepper Jack.

Anyway, the Amazing Part is using a lid while pan-frying at low heat (on my gas stove I set it between 2 and 3 on the dial which goes from lo to 1-6 to hi). I use a glass lid so I can see what's going on in there and because all the lids I have are glass.

Why use a lid? The lid will keep in the heat and moisture, which means the entire under-lid area (i.e. not just the bread-pan interface) will get pretty hot and humid and stay that way while you cook. Why is this good? The cheese will melt faster and more evenly. The bread won't dry out as much, so you'll be more likely to get the fried-on-the-outside, fresh-on-the-inside bread texture that is so good. In other words, it makes both parts of the grilled cheese sandwich (the bread and the cheese) even better. So just do it, unless you like dry, crispy grilled cheese sandwiches with chewy cheese in the middle.

Now that we're both believers in the lid method, here's how to make it work for you. Watch the sandwich and peek at the down-side of the bread every couple minutes. During one of the times you're peeking (before it's done!), smear some butter on that top piece of bread. It's okay if it's in chunks or pats or whatever. Just put some on there and cover the pan with the lid again. Let that butter soften, then lift the lid and smear it around the top piece of bread with a knife or spatula. Make sure it gets near the edges so they don't crisp too quickly.

Once you've got a good golden/golden brown thing going on with the bottom piece of bread, flip it and do the same wait-and-peek thing on the other side. The second side will not take as long to cook. THE SECOND SIDE WILL NOT TAKE AS LONG TO COOK. Really. It won't. Unless you turn the heat down, that is. But don't. Just leave the heat the same. It's low, right? Right. The cheese inside should already be melty and you're just trying to toast the outside of that second piece of bread and push the cheese into gooey territory. So keep an eye on it. I can't tell you how many potentially perfect grilled cheese sandwiches I've screwed up by near-burning the second side because I forgot it'd cook faster than the first side (okay it's probably like four sandwiches), but each failed sandwich attempt was pretty disheartening.

You probably already knew that the second side will not take as long to cook, so let's conclude. The whole point of this post was the use a lid part.  So as long as you got that part down, you're golden. Enjoy!