No More Greasy Stovetops: Here's the Best Way to Make a Crispy Grilled Cheese
I used to swear by making the simple sandwiches in a skillet, and there's still a place for that technique -- especially if you're craving a little grease. But the air fryer delivers a crusty, crunchy exterior without drowning the bread in butter or oil. As a bonus, it'll keep your kitchen cooler during summer months since air fryers barely raise the ambient temperature the way using your oven or stovetop can.
If you don't own an air fryer, I recommend Ninja's new glass-bowl model. It's the best we've tested and makes a mean grilled cheese. Making an air fryer grilled cheese is fast and easy and leaves almost no mess. Here's why your next grilled cheese should start and end in the air fryer.
Why an air fryer grilled cheese works so well
As you can plainly see, the air fryer grilled cheese leaves little mess to contend with after preparing.
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An air fryer is basically a small convection oven with nonstick surfaces, circulating hot air around whatever you put in its basket. Unlike your saute pan or skillet, it cooks from all directions at once and typically in less time. Unlike your oven, it is compact and efficient, heats up quickly and may not even require preheating.
Your toaster oven could never do this. While toasted cheese is a possibility (and reheated toaster oven pizza is a revelation), grilled cheese is not. Your toaster oven is not designed to support fat on the underside of whatever you're cooking and you'll end up with a mess too complicated to clean.
For your grilled cheese, the air fryer is working on both of the bread surfaces and the cheese all at once, resulting in a quicker melt, which adheres the cheese to the bread slices together making for a much easier flip. (Flipping is still recommended but with far less drama.)
The air circulation provides deep crunchiness, not only to the surfaces that received the butter or mayo treatment but to the entire crust. Any inclusions beyond cheese in the interior of the sandwich are also transforming because of the ambient heat. Simply placing a lid on your saute pan or skillet can't achieve the same results, as the components will become steamed and potentially soggy.
How I make a grilled cheese in the air fryer
Humble ingredients are transformed into something great inside an air fryer.
Pamela Vachon/CNET
Assemble a grilled cheese as you would otherwise
Sliced bread
Sliced or shredded cheese (I like American cheese for a basic grilled cheese and a combo of gruyere and cheddar for an upgrade.)
Butter or mayonnaise for the outside of the bread slices (dealer's choice)
For a basic grilled cheese, you can assemble the sandwich in the basket of your air fryer: bread with buttered side down, followed by sliced or shredded cheese, then topped with the final slice with buttered side up.
Be it a simple sandwich or a fancier combination of cheese, bread and fixings, the air fryer makes a crispy, gooey grilled cheese in minutes.
Pamela Vachon/CNET
Set the heat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 3 to 6 minutes on each side, flipping halfway through. The already melted cheese will keep your sandwich nicely together during the flip. You can get a lightly golden grilled cheese in less time but I recommend hanging on for 5 to 6 minutes for a deeply crunchy sandwich.
Another perk of the air fryer is that you can more easily peek to see where you are without adversely affecting the outcome.
The air fryer is even better for a stacked grilled cheese
Add a fruit element and cured meats for a fancier air fryer sammy.
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This is where the air fryer really shines in the grilled cheese realm. Every element of an upgraded grilled cheese adds a degree of difficulty when trying to cook in a skillet, much of which is mitigated in the safe confines of an air fryer. Thicker bread. Thicker cheese, like hunks of camembert or brie.
And think of all the great grilled cheese ingredients that can be slippery: apple slices, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, pickles, etc. Any grilled cheese with more than two components can be challenging to flip gracefully in a skillet, even for trained cooks.
Bag a loaf of good bread and stuff your sandwich with upmarket cheese.
Pamela Vachon/CNET
To prove a point, I assembled a fancy grilled cheese with camembert, prosciutto and apple slices. (Plus mayonnaise on the exterior, because I was being fancy, and mayo gives your sandwich a little extra tang.) Because of its height, I assembled it fully outside of the air fryer and then carefully placed it in the drawer.
Et voila!
Pamela Vachon/CNET
After 6 minutes of air fryer cooking, the flip was seamless and the sophisticated outcome belies the fact that you spent all of one minute assembling the masterpiece. The exterior of the ham even got a little bonus crisping. So the air fryer invites you to go to town with whatever you can dream up for your grilled cheese: cured or cooked ground meats, grilled veggies, various sauces and relishes -- you name it. An epic grilled cheese variation is limited only by the confines of your imagination.
Do I need to preheat an air fryer for grilled cheese?
A grilled cheese is a quick-cooking sandwich no matter how you do it so you don't want to add on minutes of additional time for something that only takes minutes to accomplish. That said, while preheating your air fryer may be a waste of time for certain preparations, I think putting it on for just a minute to heat up the nonstick surface that the sandwich sits on is worthwhile to get that golden crust working right away.
Are there drawbacks to making air fryer grilled cheese?
Depending on your model and size of air fryer, and the shape of bread you choose, it can be tricky to make more than two sandwiches at once, so it might not be the most family-friendly method for making grilled cheese. But for a solo meal or date night, your air fryer is the grilled cheese hack you didn't know you needed.
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