Chrissy Teigen's Fiery Bread Upgrade For Spicy Grilled Cheese

Chrissy Teigen is a beloved jack-of-all-trades celebrity whose physical beauty is matched by a funny and relatable personality. From model to TV personality, Teigen's creativity has now expanded into the culinary world with three published cookbooks. In her cookbook "Cravings: Hungry For More: A Cookbook," Teigen shares a fiery bread upgrade for a grilled cheese sandwich that all spicy food lovers must try.

Teigen's recipe creates a cheesy peppery coating for the outside of the grilled cheese sandwich bread for both a flavor and texture upgrade. The grilled cheese sandwich bread prep starts out like a normal recipe, by spreading softened butter on the outside of each slice. But the buttered bread then transforms into an adhesive cushion onto which you'll forcefully press thinly sliced rings of raw jalapeño. Once the jalapeños have been stamped onto the sandwich bread, you'll then cover the remaining exposed buttery surface in shredded parmesan. You can also use this Happy Belly Grated Cheese for a finer dusting. Make sure the bread is soft enough for the jalapeños to make a permanent indentation. We like this soft sourdough sandwich bread from Rudolph's.

Once both bread slices have received the fiery jalapeño and parmesan treatment, then you'll assemble the sandwich, stuffing it with shredded cheddar cheese before placing it on a hot skillet. Grilling the sandwich on both sides for two or three minutes will create a crunchy, cheesy crust dotted with spicy roasted jalapeño rings for the ultimate texture and flavor upgrade.

Chrissy Teigen's recipe focuses on the bread upgrade while the sandwich itself is simply stuffed with cheddar cheese. The sharpness of the cheddar, salty nuttiness of the parmesan, and spicy heat from the jalapeños makes for a delicious flavor profile, but you can add even more complexity with additional ingredients. Jalapeños, like all chili peppers, are native Mexican crops, so you could bring more Mexican flavors to the mix with spices, herbs, meat, and dipping sauces. For example, you could swap cheddar for oaxaca cheese and add pickled red onions. You could also stir diced cilantro into the parmesan or swap the butter for McCormick's lime juice mayonnaise; after all, we've chosen mayonnaise over butter for the perfect browning on your grilled cheese sandwich before. For a twist on quesabirria, stuff this fiery grilled cheese with leftover crockpot birria beef and serve it with consomé for dipping.

Jalapeño rings will bring spice and heat to your grilled cheese, but you can also amp up heat on the inside of the sandwich with pepperjack cheese. You could also balance the heat from the jalapeños with a smokey cheese like smoked gouda or by blending smoked paprika in with the parmesan cheese coating. For an extra burst of umami, add sautéed mushroom slices or sun-dried tomatoes to the filling. A sweet ingredient like caramelized onions or this Divina fig spread jam would also balance the heat of the jalapeños and savoriness of the cheese.