The Bread Swap You Need For A Loaded Potato-Style Grilled Cheese

The fundamental ingredients for grilled cheese are cheese and bread. So, if you're going to swap the bread, it better be for something more extravagant. Potato pancakes are the decadent bread swap you'll be glad you tried. They're crispy on the outside, tender and fluffy on the inside, and offer a complex earthy and aromatic flavor profile that'll pair perfectly with cheese.

If you don't want to make potato pancakes from scratch, pick up some pre-made potato pancakes from a local deli or grocery store. This convenient gluten-free potato pancake mix from Manischewitz will save you the trouble of peeling, shredding, and draining potatoes.

Making a potato pancake grilled cheese follows the same steps as its classic counterpart. You can spread mayonnaise on the outside of each potato pancake or fry them in a buttery skillet to ensure a browned, crispy crust. You can top the bottom potato pancake with shredded cheese for the quickest melt. If you're using slices of cheese, take a drinking glass or round cookie cutters to stamp rounds out of the squares, stacking them onto the potato pancake before topping with the other pancake. Fry the potato pancake for a minute or two on the first side until the cheese begins to melt, flipping it over and frying for another minute or two. If you want to speed up the melting process, you can cover your skillet with a top once you've flipped the sandwich to steam the cheese for around 30 seconds.

If you decide to make your potato pancakes from scratch, we have numerous recipes with unique flavors that'll pair well with cheese. For example, these aromatic scallion pancake latkes would pair well with cheddar and American cheese. Despite potato pancakes and latkes being different in composition, the end result in using them is virtually the same. Moreover, this sweet potato, apple, and sage potato latke would work well with a rich gruyere and a piquant-yet-creamy Danish blue cheese.

Stuff these classic latkes with chive sour cream, shredded cheddar, and bits of chopped bacon to make it a true loaded potato-style grilled cheese. These creamy Irish potato pancakes would taste delicious with sauerkraut and a buttery Muenster cheese. And just as french fries taste great with ketchup, potato pancake grilled cheeses will also work well dipped in tomato soup.

If you're planning on making sandwiches for a crowd, you can turn to your oven. Baking grilled cheeses is a less messy way to make them because they don't require flipping. So, you can stack more fillings into them. Assemble the latkes on a baking sheet or in this deep rectangular baking dish, adding slices of mozzarella cheese, cooked spinach, ham, and more mozzarella before topping them with another potato pancake and baking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes.