The Best Grilled Cheese Is Inspired By One Game Day Classic

For plenty of sports fans, game day is as sentimental as Christmas morning. But for those who could take or leave the actual field, football-adjacent cuisine is a whole comfort food genre unto itself. Nachos, wings, yard-long subs, grinders, and hoagies all signal friends, fun, and a little healthy competition. But one food is so synonymous with the sport that it conjures those Sunday vibes any day of the week: Buffalo chicken dip.

Though folks will happily Buffalo a chicken in all kinds of ways, a crowd-pleasing dip is the obvious MVP for game day. A classic recipe turns shredded chicken into a tangy, orange-tinted, spicy dish that you can eat with chips, use as a spread, or serve as a full-on sandwich filling. But quite possibly the greatest way to use up leftover Buffalo chicken dip just might be stuffing it inside a perfectly gooey grilled cheese sandwich. 

One of the things that makes grilled cheese so great is its versatility. You can sandwich it with classic fillings like tomatoes and bacon, brighten it up with sliced pear, or create a soup-inspired mashup with caramelized onions. The Chocobar Cortés restaurant in Puerto Rico and the Bronx even makes a grilled cheese with chocolate butter. The key is ensuring that your cheese completely melts, even with the additional density of extra ingredients. But this is easy to accomplish by first heating the two sides of the sandwich separately.

Choose a nice, hearty bread like sliced sourdough that can stand up to the addition of the Buffalo chicken dip. Lightly coat what will be the outside of two slices in mayo. Because mayo has a higher smoke point than butter, you can grill the bread longer to allow for more melting time. Layer no more than two slices of cheese on each side. A mild provolone lets the zippy dip sing, while pepper jack amplifies its flavor. Heat the separate slices in a skillet over medium until the cheese has melted to your liking, add a thin layer of Buffalo dip, and press the two halves together. The bread should now be golden brown on each side. Gently compress with a spatula and flip a few times, slice your sandwich on the diagonal, and give a nod to the celery that always comes with Buffalo wings for that extra point.