Taco Grilled Cheese

written by: Cory Q

Sandwiches are my favorite format of food. What is there to not love about the utterly utilitarian arrangement of meat and cheese on bread? Sometimes when I am making a sandwich, I don't have one of the needed components. This is generally only problematic when the missing component is the bread. In fact, often if the middle parts of the sandwich are missing, a sort of refrigerator scavenger hunt occurs with surprising results. The sandwich, which I call the Taco Grilled Cheese (let's all admit that name could use some work), is just such a scavenger hunt concoction. A concoction that I am very happy to have stumbled into inventing!

What you will need:
Bread.
Potato crowns (Ore-Ida brand works well) Taco meat Two slices of American cheese.
Handful of shredded 'taco' cheese.
Butter (and knife to spread said butter).
A Pan in which to 'grill' the sandwich.
Turner (or, as is commonly called, a spatula).

Making a standard grilled cheese is simple. This particular sandwich however requires more tact in assembly or else it will collapse into a mish mash quickly. The order of assembly, from bottom up, should go as follows: Buttered bread, cheese slice, taco meat, shredded 'taco' cheese, potato crowns, slice of cheese, buttered bread. Furthermore, this assembly should be done in the grilling pan before it gets hot. One should also make sure to compact the sandwich when you put it in the pan so that the meat and potato rounds coalesce with the cheese slices.

The Taco Grilled Cheese in assembly phase.

In terms of actual cooking, the heat should be lower and the cook time a little longer than a normal grilled cheese. The potato crowns are the most likely to come out tepid if not careful. It would be easier to heat up the meat and potato crowns in the microwave to a warm temp before making the sandwich, but I keep forgetting to do that, and my directions are written as such. Learn from my foolishness.

As far as the eating experience goes, there is a lot of cheese involved. It is gooey, in a good way. Being gooey, it is a little hard to eat. Watch out for drippings. This combination takes the tastiness of a taco lunch and mixes it with the crunchiness of a grilled cheese and what is there to not enjoy about that? Like a taco that doesn't crunch to pieces when you bit into it!