Food
Grilled Cheese with Caramelized Onions (Optional)
By Ryan Hurd · Published Sep 14, 2026
Servings
Serves 4
Prep
10 min
Cook
35 min
Difficulty
Easy
Grilled cheese doesn't need to be complicated to be great, but a few small choices make a big difference. We used Runway Farm's (of Warsaw, IN) cheddar bread as the base — already flecked with cheese before you even add more — and stacked a slice each of American, Provolone, and Swiss for a melt that's gooey, sharp, and a little nutty all at once. Buttering both sides of the bread (not just the pan) is what gets that deep golden crust every time. The caramelized onions were the fun part — half the household wanted them, half didn't, so we just made a batch and let everyone build their own sandwich. If you've got the time to let onions slowly turn sweet and jammy, it's worth it, but this sandwich holds up completely fine without them too. Our 20-month-old had already had dinner about half an hour earlier, but that didn't stop him from spotting the cheese pulls the moment I took my first bite. He managed to swipe two of them right off my plate before I could react — apparently a full meal doesn't count for much when someone else's food looks better.
Ingredients
- • 8 slices Runway Farm's Cheddar bread
- • 4 slices American cheese
- • 4 slices Provolone cheese
- • 4 slices Swiss cheese
- • Butter, softened, for spreading
- • Optional: 1-2 sweet or yellow onions, thinly sliced, for caramelizing
- • Optional: 1 Tbsp butter, for cooking the onions
Steps
- 1.If making caramelized onions, start those first: melt butter in a skillet over medium-low heat, add the sliced onions with a pinch of salt, and cook low and slow, stirring occasionally, until deeply golden and soft. Set aside.
- 2.Butter one side of each slice of bread.
- 3.Assemble each sandwich butter-side down: one slice each of American, Provolone, and Swiss, plus a spoonful of caramelized onions if using, then the second slice of bread, butter-side up.
- 4.Grill in a skillet over medium heat, a few minutes per side, until golden brown and the cheese is fully melted.
- 5.Serve immediately.
Notes
- • Only 2 of the 4 of us wanted onions on ours — easy to make half the batch with and half without.
- • The three-cheese mix (American for meltiness, Provolone for flavor, Swiss for a little nutty bite) gives more depth than a single cheese would.
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