Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg

Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

Sometimes I get it into my head to make a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t have a recipe because you don’t really need a recipe to make grilled cheese sandwiches. You just need desire, and a triangle in your head: salt; crunch; melting ooze. So I’ll slice some mild Cheddar. Get some decent bread, a sliced jalapeño, the tail end of a beefsteak tomato. Then, sizzle-sizzle-flip-flip in some unsalted butter, and top with a sunny-side-up egg. It’s the simplest kind of cooking, and on a weeknight that’s exactly what most of us need. Make grilled cheese!

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4 out of 5
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OMG! I was just going to write this recipe this way; then read yours! My mom used to make them this way (I’m going back to the 60’s, here) and called them toasted cheese! She put slices of bread, no butter, on aluminum foil in the broiler and put a slice of cheese and a slice of tomato on top of each; broiled until the tomato melted into the cheese and the cheese melted into the bread (a few minutes) and ‘presto! Enough sandwiches for the family! I think we ate them open-faced.

My family never used butter. Cut the fat and taste the cheese and jalapenos: lay an even number of bread slices in broiler, topped with a few slices of cheese and the additions. Broil till melted and maybe a touch bubbly and burnt, checking often. Then flip slices together and broil till top is toasted, then flip and toast bottoms. Crisp, easy, can be done for four or more sandwiches at once, and no butter. NB: I love butter, but prefer to enjoy it in essentials, like hollandaise

BTW, adding an egg, a la a Croque Monsieur, is a brilliant idea.

It’s been a long tine since I had these and will try them again with better bread (whole wheat, not white) and maybe some herbs! Thank you!

If you replace the jalapeno with a bit of the "sauce" part of a can of Chipotles in Adobo sauce, you can spread it (thinly!) over the whole piece of bread to get more uniform spiciness that has a richer flavor profile than the jalapeno.

Pam, OMG! Your comment brought back a memory from over 65 years ago. My mother made the same toasted cheese and tomato but with CHEESE WHIZ! Thanks for the memories!!

I love a fancy grilled cheese, so I expected this to be good. But wow, this exceeded expectations. Ford Farm Coastal Cheddar and Kerrygold Dubliner Cheddar, tomato and sliced jalapeños in between layers of cheese on sourdough: a new favorite.

I love grilled cheese best when cooked on a cast iron skillet.

Looks delicious but how do you eat a sandwich with a fried egg sitting on top of the sandwich?

I'd add some avocado slices to this! Love these "no recipe" recipes!

Would skip the pepper. Tried it and face was on fire and couldn’t taste much after that. Also I made this in a sandwich maker and topped with the egg fried separately with salt pepper and tasted great

So we weren't the only family who did them in the broiler :) And yes, the aluminum foil is essential because the cheese sometimes drips out. If you make them with rye bread, the cheese will definitely run out, so use less cheese - it's so good on rye... Neighbor kids loved them our way and pestered their mother's to make them the way we did. When you can feed four children all at once, it is a lifesaver.

My family never used butter. Cut the fat and taste the cheese and jalapenos: lay an even number of bread slices in broiler, topped with a few slices of cheese and the additions. Broil till melted and maybe a touch bubbly and burnt, checking often. Then flip slices together and broil till top is toasted, then flip and toast bottoms. Crisp, easy, can be done for four or more sandwiches at once, and no butter. NB: I love butter, but prefer to enjoy it in essentials, like hollandaise

OMG! I was just going to write this recipe this way; then read yours! My mom used to make them this way (I’m going back to the 60’s, here) and called them toasted cheese! She put slices of bread, no butter, on aluminum foil in the broiler and put a slice of cheese and a slice of tomato on top of each; broiled until the tomato melted into the cheese and the cheese melted into the bread (a few minutes) and ‘presto! Enough sandwiches for the family! I think we ate them open-faced.

It’s been a long tine since I had these and will try them again with better bread (whole wheat, not white) and maybe some herbs! Thank you!

BTW, adding an egg, a la a Croque Monsieur, is a brilliant idea.

Oh my Gosh, this was the best grilled cheese I ever had! Made it exactly as written.

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