Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese

This is another amazing food fusion! There is something spectacular about a gooey and cheesy grilled cheese. The sandwich consists of crispy toasted bread filled with warm melty cheese, grilled to perfection. But why not switch it up a bit. One of my favorite appetizers has to be jalapeño poppers. They are spicy and cheesy, so it only makes sense to but it in between two pieces of toasted sourdough.

For this recipe, I wanted to capture the best of both worlds. For my filling, I decided to use the filling I would stuff inside my poppers. I used cream cheese, crispy bacon, diced jalapeño, shredded cheddar cheese, and cajun seasoning. I made sure my cream cheese was room temperature, because you want it to easily spread when putting it in between the bread.

You can leave your cream cheese out of the fridge for 30 minutes-1 hour to soften, or you can gently microwave for 20 seconds to help move it along.

I really wanted a cheddar jalapeño taste, so I added more to my bread. Normally, I would butter my bread, but in this case, I want the exterior to stick to the cheese. For this, I lightly buttered my skillet. I added very thinly sliced jalapeños to my skillet and sprinkled a little cheddar cheese on it.

I then took my sandwich and laid it over the melted cheese in the pan. This will let the cheese stick to the bread and start to toast. The most important part to all of this is making sure your pan is NONSTICK. Then I let it cook until the cheese and the bread release from the nonstick skillet. You will notice it is easy to slide your sandwich around. This took about 2 minutes on medium heat to accomplish.

I then removed my sandwich from the skillet and repeated the same steps with the other side. I placed my jalapeños and cheddar in the skillet and flipped the sandwich. Toast until the outside is golden brown and the cheese is melty in the middle!