The Always-Trendy Ingredient That Adds A Kick To Grilled Cheese

The very best grilled cheese is simple yet entirely comforting — warm and melty on the inside, crisp and buttery on the outside. You can use Alton Brown's winning combination of Gruyère and extra-sharp cheddar, or make it like Mom used to when you were a kid, with Kraft American singles. However you like it, if you enjoy a hint of spice, try making your next grilled cheese sandwich with chili crisp — that rightfully trendy Asian condiment.

You can incorporate it in a couple of ways: mix it into the butter you'll spread on the bread before toasting, or add it directly to the cheese itself. For the first method, blend chili crisp to taste into softened butter (it helps if you've  used the chili crisp before and are already familiar with its spice level). Once mixed, slather it onto one side of each slice of bread.

To add it directly to the cheese, arrange your cheese however you like on one slice of bread, then drizzle the chili crisp over the top. Cover with the second slice of bread and carefully transfer the sandwich to a buttered pan. Whichever method you choose, the end result is something really special, with the added heat and texture of the chili crisp elevating the sandwich.

Now that chili crisp grilled cheese is your new favorite sandwich, why not add even more dimension and flavor by incorporating ingredients that complement the spice, saltiness, and tang (if you used a sharp cheese)? One great option is sweet, gooey honey — or, if you can stand the heat, upgrade your grilled cheese with sweet and spicy hot honey. Drizzle some onto the cheese before closing the sandwich and crisping it up in the pan, and your taste buds will be sent into orbit as the richness of the honey and cheese is cut by the mouth-warming spice of the chili crisp. If you love a salty-sweet combination, you've got to try this.

For a more savory addition, you can also add a fried egg, cooked however you like (though over-easy or over-medium is best, as long as the yolk is still a little runny). You can make the egg ahead of time — maybe with a few drizzles of extra chili crisp — and then toast the bread separately, placing the egg on top of the cheese-and-chili-crisp half before closing the sandwich in the pan. The bites where you get creamy yolk, spicy, crunchy 'crisp, and velvety cheese will taste and feel like mouth magic.