But I'm getting ahead of myself with this sneak preview-- let's rewind and start from the beginning.
Ingredients:
* Pepper Jack
* Cheddar
* Red Onion
* BBQ Sauce of choice
* Pepperidge Farm sourdough
* Butter
If you tune in every week then by now you know that I have a thing for caramelized onions. Something about being able to enjoy that sweet but tangy onion flavor without worrying about super stinky raw onion breath puts a smile on my face (and a growl in my tummy). So step one was, of course, to thinly slice my red onion and plop it in a pan with about 2 Tbsp of butter.
I alternated stirring a bit and cooking covered for a bit and in about 10 minutes we were all set.
That was pretty much all of the advance prep we needed! Well, aside from grating half of each brick of cheese. I love quick and easy prep work because it means I'd actually be likely to make this sandwich again on an average week night. Anyway, on to sandwich assembly. First I put about 1 Tbsp of barbeque sauce on each of two slices of bread.
Looks sort of like jelly, am I right? Next came a few handfuls of cheese. I had pre-mixed the cheddar and pepper jack together so I got a nice even application of both cheeses over the entirety of the sandwich.
Next up were the caramelized onions:
Followed by the remaining cheese:
From there it was the usual sandwiching the pieces together, buttering the outside of the bread, and grilling (covered) until browned nice and evenly on each side. In a few short minutes-- voila!
Seeing that perfectly charred Pepperidge Farm bread just never gets old for me!
Taste Review:
We could smell the onions and cheese before taking a bite, which I think is a somewhat natural side effect of cooked onions on the sandwich. The purple onions combined with the BBQ sauce gave the sandwich a dark overall appearance that was pretty unique (save for a similar look to the not well liked Dutch Grilled Cheese). The BBQ sauce was the main player in my first bite-- probably because that's the only ingredient I had applied all the way to the very edge of the bread. The first thing we both observed about the sandwich was how creamy it was. The BBQ sauce, soft onions, and melted cheese make for a very creamy and smooth sandwich. But it's not as if it's so creamy it's soft-- the onions and bread give a subtle crunch that helps to counterbalance the gooier elements of the sandwich.
Surprisingly we didn't taste a lot of spice from the pepper jack cheese. Usually for someone like me (who is extra sensitive to spicy food) even a little bit of spice does not go unnoticed, but in this case sweetness of the BBQ sauce and onions really overrode the spice. So in reality, the BBQ sauce was the dominant flavor-- the onions didn't have a distinct taste, they just gave a subtle sweetness to enhance the sandwich. So if you make this sandwich, be sure you choose a BBQ sauce that you LOVE because it will dictate the flavor of the rest of the sandwich.
FINAL
RESULTS:
|
Sandwich:
|
Barbeque Sauce Grilled Cheese
|
|
Gooey-ness:
|
3.5
|
|
Aroma:
|
2.5
|
|
Appearance:
|
Uniquely dark filling.
|
|
Taste:
|
B |
|
Gooey Scale
|
Aroma
Scale
|
| 1
= still cold/hard |
1 = can’t smell a thing
|
| 2
= slightly melted but still firm |
2 = tender waft
|
| 3
= melted evenly |
3 = makes
your stomach growl
|
| 4
= melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your
sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite) |
4 = strong scent
|
| 5
= runny |
5 =
overpoweringly pungent
|
| 6
= sloppy mess! |
We found the sandwich above average, but not by a wide margin. It was good, and I'd make it again, but it wouldn't be my first (or second or third) choice.
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