Make The Gooiest Grilled Cheese Ever With This Clever Last-Minute Move

A basic grilled cheese is one of the easiest foods to make, but the ultimate grilled cheese is a work of art that requires careful technique and timing. One of the biggest struggles is achieving a super gooey, perfectly melted filling without burning the bread as it sits in the sizzling pan. To put an end to fussy guesswork and blackened bread, all you need to do is finish your sandwich in the oven.

At first glance, it seems like a hot skillet would melt cheese more effectively, but the oven cooks food much more evenly by hitting it with heat from all sides, not just underneath, as a pan does. This is the key to a grilled cheese that's hot and gooey from center to edge, with a glorious cheese pull. The less direct heat of an oven also saves the bread from burning towards the end of cooking. This trick doesn't make your recipe much more time-consuming, either. Your sandwich should require no more than four minutes of baking before it's finished.

To try this hybrid cooking method, preheat your oven to between 350 to 375 degrees Fahrenheit – higher temperatures may burn the sandwich. Pan-fry your grilled cheese until both sides are lightly browned and the cheese has begun to melt. Transfer it to a baking pan, or just stick your skillet in the oven if it's oven-safe. Once the sandwich looks super oozy and nicely crisped, take it out and enjoy. This is one grilled cheese hack you'll wish you knew sooner.

You may now be wondering if it's more efficient to just bake your grilled cheese in the oven from start to finish. While baked grilled cheese is an easy method, it's most useful when making sandwiches for a crowd, and may not create the traditional texture and flavor you're used to. When comparing bread baked in an oven or toaster versus bread pan-fried in fat like butter, the latter winds up more flavorful and rich, while the former may be drier and crunchier. The hybrid stove-and-oven method gives your sandwich the best of both worlds: An evenly-melted, ultra-gooey interior with a buttery, crispy exterior.

If you try this trick and your bread still winds up a bit overdone, consider making your sandwich with pre-frozen bread, which slows down the rate at which it cooks. On the other hand, if the inside isn't as gooey as you'd like, you may have to switch up the type of cheese.

Out of the best cheeses for your grilled cheese sandwich, ones with firm to hard consistencies should be used in smaller amounts as flavor enhancers, not as the main body of the sandwich. Choices like mozzarella and Swiss melt well, but are arguably more stringy than gooey. For an almost flowing interior, American cheese is easily the gooiest choice around. Prefer a stronger flavor or more upscale touch? Other great melting cheeses like Taleggio, fontina, or Brie turn delightfully creamy and oozy when heated.