Skip to main content

Caramelized Onion Barbecue Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese sandwiches packed with caramelized onions, pepper jack and cheddar cheeses and BBQ sauce.

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,838 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep15 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt about half the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the sliced red onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes until deep golden and very soft.

  2. While the onions cook, toss the shredded sharp cheddar and pepper jack together in a bowl.

  3. Spread the remaining room-temperature butter evenly over one side of each of the 8 bread slices.

  4. Spread barbecue sauce on the unbuttered side of 4 bread slices. Top each with caramelized onion and the cheese mixture, then close with the remaining slices, buttered side out.

  5. Wipe the skillet clean and heat it over medium-low heat. Cook the sandwiches 3 to 4 minutes per side, pressing gently, until golden and the cheese has melted.

  6. Cut the sandwiches in half and serve warm.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cheddar cheese + cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together984 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Bread + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + cheddar cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,434 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs