A gooey, filling grilled cheese sandwich (toastie) full of garlicky mushrooms and a drizzle of sweet, spicy hot honey! This is one of my favorite ways to use hot honey to elevate a simple recipe into something fun and unexpected!
👩🍳 Christine’s Notes
Today I bring you another fun way to use hot honey! If you’ve never tried it, hot honey is honey that’s been infused with chili so it has a little spicy kick to it. If you like sweet / savory combos, it’s a star ingredient.
Today I am using it in a mushroom grilled cheese (aka a mushroom toastie), where the kick of sweetness is quite unexpected but a nice contrast against the very salty umami-laden cheesy mushroom filling.
I’m toasting these sandwiches in a frying pan, but you can use a sandwich press or even an air fryer, whatever works best for you.
Ingredient Notes
- Let’s start with the hot honey! This is a fairly trendy ingredient and you’ll likely be able to find it without too much trouble. Some of the main UK brands of honey now offer chili versions, while in the US I know it’s available at Trader Joe’s and probably elsewhere. Some hot honey (like mine) looks completely normal, whereas some might have flecks of chili in it, it doesn’t matter too much either way. If you can’t get any hot honey, use regular honey and add some chili slices or flakes to the mushrooms while they’re cooking, and your sandwich will arrive at a similar place.
- The mushrooms can be any variety, I’ve tried chestnut and portobello, but I bet oyster mushrooms would turn out great too. We cook them in garlic and balsamic vinegar so they take on a lovely flavor before being added to the sandwich.
- Cheese! I love to use gouda or another swiss cheese for this recipe. It’s melty and it’s not too strong so the flavors can shine through. You can use what you’ve got.
- Fresh bread (I’m using a fresh boule loaf) is ideal, and sourdough is my personal favorite, but you can use normal sandwich bread too.
Scaling the recipe
The recipe is written to make ONE toasted sandwich but it’s easy to scale up! You can cook a double batch of mushrooms in the frying pan, and cook two sandwiches in a large frying pan at the same time. But if you need to make more than two, you will need to do it in batches.
More Tasty Ideas for your Mushroom Grilled Cheese
I kept this pretty basic, with the hot honey being the main “extra” but you could keep going!
- Add some fresh herbs (parsley or chives are particularly good here) if they’re available.
- Consider adding some soft goat cheese into the sandwich (not instead of the melty cheese, just a few little dollops or crumbles alongside).
- A couple drops of truffle oil added to your mushrooms would elevate this even more.
More Easy Recipes for Mushroom Lovers
Hot Honey Mushroom Grilled Cheese
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup (65 g) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup (60 g) grated cheese, swiss cheeses like gouda, gruyere or Jarlsberg work well
- 2 tsp hot honey
- 2 slices bread
- 1 tbsp butter, for cooking
Instructions
- First, cook the mushrooms. Heat a little olive oil or butter in the pan, add the mushroom slices and cook over a medium-high heat until the mushrooms start to release their juices. Drizzle the balsamic over the top and add the garlic to the pan, then cook until the liquid is all evaporated from the pan and the mushrooms are reduced and browning.
- Butter a slice of bread and place it down on a plate, butter side down. Pile on half the cheese, then the mushrooms. Drizzle the hot honey over the mushrooms. I usually use around 2-3 teaspoons of hot honey – don't hold back too much or the flavor will get lost!
- Now add the remaining cheese on top of the mushrooms, and then put the other slice of bread on top. Butter the outside of that slice too.
- Wipe out of your frying pan and bring it back to a medium heat. Place the sandwich in the frying pan and allow it to cook while gently pressing down with a spatula.
- Once you see cheese melting on the lower side, flip it over, and continue to cook until the cheese has melted throughout and the bread has turned crispy brown.
- Slice in half and serve immediately.
Great grilled sandwich. I had some leftover sautéed mushrooms and thought a grilled cheese would be a good use of them. I found your recipe and knew I’d like it. I didn’t have capers so I substituted chopped green olives.