You may have had a grilled cheese sandwich before, but I guarantee that you’ve never had one quite like this Emmentaler Grilled Cheese Sandwich!
A few weeks ago, I went to the Nuremberg Food Truck Round-up and had the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich called “The Swiss” from the Gorilla Food food truck. It was seriously so good that we actually ate two of them and decided we needed to immediately recreate this sandwich at home!
This sandwich starts with thick sliced white bread covered in butter then placed on a lake of bacon grease. Yah, you read that correctly… butter and bacon grease. The butter is to help the bread toast to a golden brown and the bacon grease, well that’s just for flavor.
Mmmmm bacon grease.
After you put the first piece of bread down onto the hot skillet it’s time to build your sandwich. This is the fun part!
Emmentaler cheese is a mild white cheese that’s popular here in Germany and although the sandwich we had at the round-up was called “The Swiss”, we really prefer the Emmentaler to Swiss.
After the cheese comes the unusual mix of toppings that make this sandwich so amazing.
Bacon. A little crispy but still chewy is my favorite way to cook the bacon, but whatever you prefer is how you should cook it.
Fried potatoes. We used sliced canned new potatoes and fried them in a pan before adding them to the sandwich. Soft in the middle and crisp on the outside, these potatoes add a unique flavor to the sandwich.
Caramelized onions. The sweetness of these onions adds the perfect flavor to this sandwich. Plus, who doesn’t love caramelized onions? Seriously.
Honey bbq sauce. Now, you could probably use any flavor of bbq sauce you wanted but the tang and sweet flavor of the honey bbq sauce really brings the entire sandwich together. Each bite that has a bit of this sauce in it is pure perfection.
More cheese. Because duh, cheese.
Finally, another slice of buttered bread goes on top to complete the sandwich.
Now we wait… wait until the bottom is golden brown and the first layer of cheese is soft and gooey. The ingredients will already be slightly warm because you probably cooked them right before you assembled the sandwich so they don’t need any cooking.
Flip the sandwich over and cook the second side until golden brown and the cheese is melted.
Cut the sandwich in half and enjoy the most epically delicious grilled cheese sandwich you’ve ever had!
A big thanks to the Gorilla Food food truck for the inspiration for this sandwich! We had a nice chat with the owner of the truck and gave him a few tips on how we make our grilled cheese sandwiches at home. I’ve eaten grilled cheese my entire life, but never quite like this!
Enjoy!
Emmentaler Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Ingredients
- 2 slices of thick white bread
- 2 slices of Emmentaler cheese
- 2-3 pieces of thick sliced bacon, cooked (reserve the bacon grease for later)
- 9 slices of canned new potatoes, fried until slightly crispy
- 1 heaping tablespoon of grilled onions
- 1 Tbsp honey bbq sauce
- bacon grease
- butter
Instructions
- Cook the bacon, grilled onions and fried potatoes to your personal preference of doneness. Be sure to reserve the bacon grease for cooking the sandwich.
- Heat a skillet to 350F degrees.
- Butter one side of each piece of bread. Place 1 Tbsp of reserved bacon grease onto the hot skilled and spread around the size of your bread. Place the bread, butter side down, onto the bacon grease.
- Trim the cheese so it is just smaller than the bread. Place one slice of cheese on the bread.
- On top of the cheese, arrange the bacon in three rows. Trim the bacon so it does not go over the edges.
- Place 9 slices of fried potato in three rows across the top of the bacon.
- Spread the gilled onions evenly over the top of the potatoes.
- Dab the bbq sauce over the entire sandwich so that each bite will get a bit of sauce.
- Place the second piece of cheese on top.
- Put the second piece of bread, buttered side up onto the sandwich.
- Flip the sandwich over when the bottom of the first piece of bread is golden brown and the first piece of cheese has started to get melty.
- Once you flip the sandwich, cook that side until it's golden brown and the cheese is soft and melty. You don't want the cheese or ingredients to ooze out the sides.
- Remove the sandwich from the griddle and allow it to cool for about 1 minute before cutting and serving.
Oh my goodness, this sandwich looks so good!
I am absolutely giving this one a try. Looks amazing!
I see MANY of these sandwiches in my future!! simply amazing
Oh man! This grilled cheese sandwich looks beyond amazing. The addition of potatoes is genius!