Give Your Grilled Cheese A Mexican-Inspired Upgrade With Leftover Taco Meat

Throughout the United States, Taco Tuesday is a time-honored tradition featuring Tex Mex cuisine, bringing families together over a smorgasbord of warm taco shells, salsa, zesty cheese, and well-seasoned taco meat. While one of the best things about taco night is the leftovers (which are often tastier the next day) using leftover taco meat to upgrade homemade soups can only take you so far. Fortunately, spicy ground beef, pulled chicken, or shredded pork is a mouthwateringly meaty addition for a next-level grilled cheese sandwich. 

The method for making a taco-style grilled cheese is also ridiculously simple with an almost guaranteed deliciously satisfying payoff. All you have to do is spoon a little of the taco meat evenly across the sandwich, making sure to position it between two slices of cheese or nestle it firmly in a nest of the shredded stuff. Next, all you have to do is assemble and grill it as you normally would, remembering to swap butter for mayo on your bread for a shatteringly crispy grilled cheese.

The result is essentially a warm, gooey quesadilla with bread in place of tortillas, but just as easy to dip in salsa or taco sauce. The best part of this hack is that you can also use up other leftover parts of the meal either inside the sandwich or as accompaniments. For instance, the aforementioned shredded cheese can (and perhaps should) be the same stuff you tucked into your tacos the night before.

Depending on how hefty you like your sandwiches, this zesty style of grilled cheese also benefits from the addition of things like pico de gallo or minced red onion tossed with lime zest and cilantro. It may seem odd to tuck fresh ingredients like this into a hot sandwich, but keep in mind that sliced tomato on grilled cheese is a fairly common (and pretty tasty) variation on this childhood classic. You might also go for broke with a schmear of guacamole inside — just use a light hand to avoid making the inside of your sandwich soggy.

Similarly, it may be best to avoid putting sour cream or wet salsa inside your grilled cheese, as it may make the sandwich difficult to eat and interfere with getting a crispy texture on the outside. Instead, serve the sandwich with little cups of these condiments to dip or spoon onto each bite. You might also blend up an easy gazpacho, which is not only a great way to use up extra tomatoes and cucumbers from your garden, but also an appropriate nod to the traditional pairing of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Though shredded lettuce will wilt if you put it inside the sandwich, you can easily pair it with some of the leftover veg and salsa to make a quick taco-inspired salad that goes perfectly with this grilled cheese. That way, every Taco Tuesday easily becomes a Leftovers Wednesday you can always look forward to.