Tomato & Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese

Amp up your average grilled cheese with these easy tricks. Caramelized onions, sliced tomatoes and some serious amounts of cheese make this one of the tastiest grilled cheese sandwiches I've eaten. I also have a secret my grandmother taught me to making the best grilled cheese every time.... use mayonnaise! It sounds strange, but using mayonnaise on the outside of the bread instead of butter, gives the sandwich a crispier toast and much better flavor. Using great ingredients will also yield a better product so don't skimp on the good stuff. Good quality bread and cheeses will take this sandwich over the top with flavor.

Ingredients - MAKES 2 SANDWICHES

4 slices Egg Challah Bread (I used a Shoprite brand and sliced it myself)

1/2 White Onion (sliced)

1 Tomato (sliced)

2 TBS butter

Swiss Cheese

Provolone Cheese

Mayonnaise

Stone Ground Dijon Mustard

The egg challah bread is a lot like brioche but made with eggs instead of milk. It is also just a little richer and sweeter than brioche. Any bread you like will work, but something nice and thick will be needed to hold in all that cheese.

Start by caramelizing the onion in couple tablespoons of butter.

Slice the cheeses and the tomato while the onion is cooking.

The cheese will have a chance to get room temp, allowing it to melt a little faster in the pan.

Add the mayo to the 2 slices of bread that will go into the pan first.

These will be the bottom slices of your sandwich.

You want the mayo to be pretty liberal and make sure it reaches to the edges of your bread so everything gets an even browning.

IMPORTANT: Put your pan over medium to medium high heat and allow it to get hot first.

If your pan isn't hot your bread will not brown! But if it's too hot it will burn, so easy with the heat if your using a gas cook top.

Wait a minute or two then add the bread mayonnaise side down. You should hear a nice sizzle.

Add lots of cheese (but not all of it just yet), then the caramelized onions.

Add the sliced tomatoes

and the rest of the cheese.

Give the bread some time to toast. Use a spatula to take a peek at the underside to make sure it's not burning .

The mayo has a higher burning temperature than butter so it allows the bread to get browner without burning.

In the meantime, grab the two slices of bread for the tops and coat one side with a good stone ground mustard and the other with mayonnaise.

Now for the tricky part, place the bread mustard side down onto the cheese, press down a little so the cheese will act like a glue, and flip.

You may have to do a little reassembling after you flip to get everything back in between the bread.

Place on a lid and let the cheese get all melty.

Get in my belly...

#grilledcheese #caramelizedonions #melt #tomato