I tried grilled-cheese recipes from Ina Garten, Ree Drummond, and Roy Choi. The best one didn't have fancy add-ins

Meredith SchneiderJul 16, 2024, 00:23 IST

I love grilled cheese, so I wanted to try out a few popular recipes.Meredith Schneider

I tried grilled-cheese recipes from Roy Choi, Ree Drummond, and Ina Garten to try to find the best.
Garten's sandwich melted beautifully, and the smoky bacon added a nice contrasting flavor.

Grilled cheese is the ultimate comfort food. It can be made with almost anything in your kitchen (vegetables, fruit, herbs) as long as cheese and bread are involved.

Plus, a well-made grilled cheese can keep a person on a budget fed like a king — which is great when most grocery prices are still so high.

On a mission to find the best grilled cheese out there, I tried recipes from celebrity chefs Roy Choi, Ree Drummond, and Ina Garten.

Here's how it went.

Choi's grilled cheese had the shortest ingredient list.

Roy Choi keeps things basic with bread, cheese, and butter. Meredith Schneider

Building the sandwich was simple.

I layered the cheeses one on top of the other. Meredith Schneider

The finished sandwich was so cheesy and not at all stringy.

I prefer a little bit of a cheese pull. Meredith Schneider

Garten adds protein to her recipe.

Ina Garten uses bacon and a special sauce to jazz up her grilled cheese. Meredith Schneider

I started by whipping up a sauce to spread across the bread.

The sauce was mostly mustard and mayo. Meredith Schneider

With my bread prepped and my bacon cooked, I got to building my sandwich.

Bacon went on one slice of bread, and cheese went on the other. Meredith Schneider

Garten’s sandwich had stringy cheese and a smoky flavor.

I was pleased by the added flavor of the smoky bacon.Meredith Schneider

Drummond’s grilled cheese called for extra produce.

Ree Drummond adds veggies to her sandwich. Meredith Schneider

Toasting the pepper gave it a great texture.

I only needed one chile for my grilled cheese. Meredith Schneider

I soaked my sliced onions in some vinegar to mellow out the flavor.

I didn't want the onions to overpower the sandwich. Meredith Schneider

Drummond's sauce was similar to Garten's.

Ree Drummond also adds a sauce to her grilled cheese. Meredith Schneider

There were more layers in this sandwich.

I started with the sauce and then piled on the cheese and veggies. Meredith Schneider

The texture was the star of Drummond's sandwich.

I liked the extra bite from the veggies. Meredith Schneider

You can't go wrong with a basic recipe, and Choi nailed it.

From left to right: Ree Drummond's, Roy Choi's, and Ina Garten's grilled cheeses. Meredith Schneider

Even though I'm single, I love shopping in bulk at Costco. Here are 8 items I like to buy.

Cookies on the Business Insider India website