Fried Spam Kimchi Grilled Cheese
A creative fusion sandwich featuring fried Spam, tangy kimchi, and melted cheese. This unique grilled cheese combines the salty, crispy fried Spam with fermented kimchi's complex flavors, creamy American cheese, and a spicy mayo-sriracha dip. The sandwich is finished with a perfectly golden, crusty bread exterior.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Slice the Spam into 4 steaks. Drain the kimchi and chop it up so you don't pull kimchi out of your mouth and get shaped with a hot piece of cabbage. Make sure you pull out as much liquid as possible by draining the liquid off and pressing a lot of the juice out.
- 2
In a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, add the oil and sear the Spam until it's a nice golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Set that aside and wipe out the pan.
Timer: 3m - 3
Using margarine or butter, butter one side of each slice of bread. Use margarine if you are a margarine person like I am because I never have room-temp butter.
- 4
Preheat your oven to 350°F. The key to a grilled cheese is to also put it in the oven.
- 5
In the same pan you used to cook the Spam, put 2 slices of your bread, buttered-side down. Top one bread with 2 slices of the marbled cheddar and the other with 2 slices of Spam on the American cheese side by side, and kimchi on the marbled cheese side. Add a single layer of pickles on top of the kimchi. Flip your Spam side onto the kimchi.
- 6
Put the sandwich on a baking sheet and into the oven. Get it nice and hot. Flip it and every 2 to 3 minutes for about 10 minutes. Flip flip flip, it's oozy, it's cheesy, and every 2 to 3 minutes for about 10 minutes. Flip flip flip, it's oozy, it's cheesy, and the bread is nice and crusty.
Timer: 3m - 7
Repeat by putting the remaining slices of bread into the pan and building your second sandwich. Do this only if you want to share this sandwich with someone. Or, if you want to crush two sandwiches on your own, this will be our secret. No one will know. This is a good one, though, so I hope you share. Put the second one will know. This is a good one. Repeat the cook-and-flip process. sandwich on the baking sheet and into the oven.
- 8
Take it out, and in the meantime, let's make a little dipper, shall we? In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, sriracha, hoisin, gochugaru, garlic powder, lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste. There's your dip.
- 9
Cut each grilled cheese in half, right down the middle. No diagonal fancy-pants stuff here. You want to have a piece of Spam in each half. Get a couple of bites in and then eat the other half dipped. Or dip it from the first bite. If I dip, we dip. dip.