I made grilled cheese in an air fryer and it was better than ever

March 20, 2022

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Grilled cheese is without doubt one of the tastiest meals to bask in at lunch or dinner. The crisp exterior and pillowy delicate within bread together with the salty, oozing cheese…it truly is extraordinarily satisfying and the proper accompaniment to a bowl of thick tomato soup.

I do know grilled cheese isn’t some of the difficult dishes to make, however it does require fixed consideration. When frying the sandwich in a pan on the range, you need to monitor it like a hawk.

The temperature of the pan will get tougher to manage over time, which signifies that the primary aspect of the bread cooks evenly to an appetizing, golden brown, whereas the second aspect burns, leaving a bitter taste.

I do know that air fryers are nice for evenly browning and crisping meals as a result of they’ve a smaller cavity, which permits sizzling air to flow into shortly throughout the cooking course of.

Actually I had nice success with utilizing an air fryer to create golden French Toast, so might the identical be true for a grilled cheese?

Finest air fryer offers

Learn on to find what occurred once we tried to make grilled cheese in an air fryer – or, for those who’ve already determined you need to make investments on this useful kitchen equipment, take a look at the perfect costs on the perfect air fryers we like proper now:

Let’s get air frying

By way of a recipe, as grilled cheese is solely a sandwich – two slices of bread with grated cheese within the center – I didn’t suppose I wanted to depend on one.

Nonetheless, when selecting the substances to create your grilled cheese there are some issues to make.

The bread ought to be thickly sliced – as that ensures you continue to get a pillowy delicate middle. If the bread is just too skinny, it’ll be arduous and crispy all through. At all times unfold the edges of the bread that can face out of the sandwich with 1Tbsp butter too, as this helps create the golden, appetizing shade.

Lastly, in terms of cheese, you possibly can select no matter selection you favor – though the sandwich works finest with arduous cheeses. On this case, I opted for sharp cheddar. It doesn’t matter what kind you plump for, be sure that it is grated utilizing the biggest holes on a field grater to realize the stringiness while you chew into the sandwich.

Whereas I felt assured in my information of the right way to make grilled cheese, I wasn’t positive what timing and temperature to make use of.

I’ve beforehand used the equipment rather than cooking in a variety, for instance after I found cooking cinnamon rolls in an air fryer is better than my usual method – and the perfect outcomes are achieved when utilizing the identical temperature as you’ll when utilizing the normal cooking methodology.

Nonetheless, in terms of utilizing the equipment rather than a range – whether or not that’s for shallow frying in a pan or deep-frying comparable to making Krispy Kreme style donuts in an air fryer – there’s no clear comparable temperatures.

So I turned to the web for steering and settled on a cooking temperature of 385 F / 196 C levels and a period of eight minutes, which I dialed in on the Instant Vortex Plus (our present best air fryer)

The one factor left to do was to start out making ready the grilled cheese. After I make grilled cheese on the range, I often place each slices of bread butter-side down within the pan, then after a few minutes, I add the cheese to 1 slice, topping it with the second slice of bread so the buttered aspect is now dealing with up.

I then prepare dinner the sandwich for an extra couple of minutes permitting the cheese to soften and safe the sandwich earlier than flipping it within the pan and cooking for a remaining jiffy.

Nonetheless, this methodology wasn’t going to be viable within the air fryer, because the non-buttered sides of the bread would additionally crisp as a result of sizzling air flowing across the cavity, shedding the softness I so crave while you chew in. So as an alternative I opted to assemble the sandwich after which place it within the air fryer.

Mid-way via cooking, many fashions of air fryer – together with the Prompt Vortex Plus – will play an audible alert warning you that it’s time to show or shake the meals.

That is to make sure the recent air can attain each inch of the meals to make sure a crisp end. I typically ignore this alert – for instance, if the merchandise is especially delicate comparable to air fryer ice cream balls, or if I would like solely the highest to be extraordinarily crisp as with pork belly cooked in an air fryer.

Nonetheless, on condition that I wished either side of the grilled cheese to be crisp and golden, I made a decision to flip the sandwich half approach via cooking, however being extraordinarily light when doing so.

I additionally positioned the sandwich on a chunk of parchment paper to forestall my air fryer basket from turning into a sticky mess as a number of shreds of cheese at all times drop out of the sandwich throughout cooking.

The ingredients to make a grilled cheese stacked up on a bread board by the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in1 air fryer

(Picture credit score: TechRadar)

Verdict

As soon as the cooking time had elapsed, I used to be thrilled to see the aspect of the grilled cheese that was seen was an excellent golden brown shade.

I eliminated the sandwich from the air fryer basket and lower into it – one layer of bread was crisp and the cheese was the fitting stage of gooeyness. Nonetheless, the opposite layer of bread wasn’t as crisp as the primary and it actually wasn’t as evenly browned.

Not like with French Toast, the place there is only one layer of bread – the extra thickness of the 2 slices of bread within the grilled cheese meant the parchment paper has hampered the browning course of.

I thought-about utilizing a steel baking tin however the round 8-inch pan (one of many solely ones I personal that matches within the air fryer basket with sufficient house across the sides for air to move) wasn’t sufficiently big to accommodate the grilled cheese with out squashing the edges of the bread.

So as an alternative, I made a decision to put the grilled cheese instantly on the crisper plate. I knew it will make a large number however fortunately the Prompt Vortex Plus has each a dishwasher-safe crisper plate and frying basket, which might not less than make cleansing the mess far simpler.

I re-made the grilled cheese and positioned it within the air fryer to prepare dinner. When this model completed, it was clear I’d cracked it. Each slices of bread have been crisp and evenly brown to an appetizing golden shade, whereas the cheese was delicate and melting inside. There was a good bit of cheese, which had burnt onto the crisper plate. Nonetheless, one cycle within the dishwasher eliminated this utterly.

It’s far simpler making a grilled cheese in an air fryer than on the range because it doesn’t must be watched like a hawk. I’ll actually be making this my go-to methodology for cooking grilled cheese sooner or later and I might advocate you give it a go too.

A grilled cheese that was cooked in the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in1 air fryer