Patty Melt Recipe

In my last post about the Krups Panini Maker, I mentioned how a panini grill wasn’t just for making panini sandwiches.  And a Patty Melt Recipe is a great way to prove it.

A patty melt is a hamburger with fried onions and swiss cheese on sliced bread (usually rye) that’s cooked grilled cheese style.  Anything that’s cooked grilled cheese style makes a great panini sandwich.

Do you have to cook the onions and the hamburgers on the stove and then make move everything to the panini grill for the final press?  The answer is no.  You can fry up your onions and also cook the hamburger patties directly on your panini grill.  It is a grill after all.

And timing wise, it’s a lot easier too.  You don’t have to worry about cooking everything at once like you would usually do to ensure that nothing gets cold before you serve it.  When you cook panini style, everything heats up during the final press, so it’s actually less important to worry about timing.

I usually like to cook my onions first and put them aside.  Then grill the hamburger patties.  Grilling hamburgers creates a lot of grease so you may want to wipe down the grill before the next step.  But remember to always be careful when handling a hot grill.  A big wad of damp paper towels held in your hand while you’re wearing an oven mitt is a good way to wipe down your grill safely.

Once you have your fried onions fried and your hamburger patties grilled, you’re ready to put it all together.  Like I said before, most people will make a Patty Melt with sliced rye bread but since I’m not a big fan of rye, I like a hearty sliced Italian loaf or sliced sour dough bread.  Add a generous helping a fried onions and swiss cheese to the bread then add the hamburger and put it back in the panini maker to grill it all together.

Making a Patty Melt could make a huge mess in your kitchen unless you cook all the ingredients in your panini grill.  It’s a good recipe that will help you get the most out of your panini maker.