Celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day on April 12 with Junior’s Restaurant’s take on the classic sandwich. Junior’s shares their recipe for grilled cheese on thick-cut challah, with options to customize to your taste.
Junior’s Restaurant’s Grilled Cheese
Ingredients
• Two ¾ inch-thick slices challah, white, rye, or other bread of your choice
• 4 to 6 tablespoons (½ to ¾ stick) softened unsalted butter
• Two 1-once slices American or yellow Cheddar cheese
Instructions
1. Spread one side of both slices of bread with a little butter.
2. On 1 piece of bread stack all the cheese, alternating types of cheese. Top with the second slice of bread.
3. Preheat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat (no hotter!). Add a large pat of butter. After it has melted, add the sandwich, weigh it down with a grill press if you have one, and grill until golden brown, about 5 minutes. (If you don’t have a grill press, push down on the sandwich with a large metal spatula a few times while it is cooking, as the grill master does at Junior’s.)
4. Add a second pat of butter to the griddle or skillet, turn over the sandwich, and cook until the other side is golden brown and the cheeses are hot and melty inside, about 5 minutes more. Remove to a cutting board, cut in half on the diagonal, and serve immediately. At Junior’s, you get French fries, too!
The Junior’s Way
• Check the weight of the cheese slices you’re using; they can vary between ½ once per slice for packaged sliced cheese to 1 once a slice for deli slices. This cheese sandwich typically uses 5 ounces of cheese.
• Junior’s grilled cheese is served on thickly sliced challah but feel free to try other breads- sourdough, country white, seedless rye, pumpernickel or seven grain. Junior’s cuts ¾-inch-thick slices of challah. These thick slices resemble Texas Toast, a white bread popular in Texas that is normally sliced 1-inch thick—twice the thickness of a normal slice of bread. You can also make this sandwich your way by using a different combination of cheeses—try Cheddar, smoked Gouda, and Gruyere or Monterey Jack with jalapeno, mozzarella and Fontina.
• Try adding bacon or ham to your sandwich.
