Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich

It’s time for the Crazy Cooking Challenge and this month the challenge was to find another blogger’s recipe for Grilled Cheese and make it and blog about, posting it TODAY! I was so sad because I forgot … until Tina said I have all night to make one and get it posted! So yes, I’m in a bit of a scramble to make my sandwich, but I found the PERFECT recipe …

It’s one of my favorite favorite soups … but in a sandwich! Ooh yes! Beer & cheese! What could be better? and OMG this is some serious goodness on a sandwich. Heaven on bread …

I should have known, but wasn’t quite prepared for the sweetness of the onion, which, since I didn’t have any beer bread, I caramelized in dark beer. The combination of that sweetness with the spicy garlic peppercorn mustard I used & the sharp cheddar cheese and then that crunch factor from the toasted bread. I just wasn’t ready for this taste explosion, even after sampling quite a few of the onions as I cooked. I grabbed a Leinenkugel Creamy Dark for this … one of my favorites from Leinenkugel.

Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich

Adapted from Honest Fare

• Thinly sliced yellow onion (I cut up the whole onion, since I know how much they cook down when you caramelize them)
• 1/2 cup dark beer
• Olive oil and/or butter
• Worcestershire sauce
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Some fresh oregano (I used several sprigs from my little plant)

• Beer bread … but I don’t have any beer bread! So I used French …
• Sharp cheddar cheese
• Garlic Peppercorn (or Dijon) mustard

Directions:

1. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil and swirl around to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and cover to cook for a minute or two.
2. Uncover the pan and stir, stir, stir. When the onions start to brown and stick to the pan, add a splash of beer, cover for a minute, then uncover and stir until the beer is evaporated. Add another splash of beer and do that whole thing again. I did this four times.
3. Once the beer is gone, add a splash of worcestershire sauce and continue to cook and stir those onions until they are totally limp and caramelized. Season with a little sprinkle of salt and some freshly ground pepper and fresh oregano leaves.
4. Spread one side of bread with a thin layer of mustard, cover with sliced cheese, a healthy pile of onions, then more cheese and the other side of bread.
5. Heat a clean pan over medium-low heat and add about a teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
6. Set the sandwiches in the pan, cover and cook for just a few minutes till brown on the bottom, then flip, cover and cook for a few minutes till brown on the other side and the cheese is melted.
7. Enjoy! It’s best with a cold, dark beer, of course!

This post is part of the Crazy Cooking Challenge, Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to see all the other great Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in the Cooking Challenge!

This recipe was also shared at Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesday Talent Show,  Cast Party Wednesdays, Tastetastic Thursday and Newlyweds Recipe Linky.