Patty Melt
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Make the best Patty Melt at home with this easy recipe! A classic American sandwich, the patty melt combines a ground beef burger patty with caramelized onions, burger sauce, and Swiss cheese, served on rye bread. This delicious combination makes for a super tasty hot sandwich that’s easy to make anytime!
Table of contents
Inspired by the popularity of this Reuben sandwich recipe, I set out to create the best patty melt. It’s similar to a reuben in that they’re both hot, grilled sandwiches, made with swiss cheese and rye bread. But on a patty melt, you have a ground beef patty, whereas a reuben you have corned beef.
They’re both really delicious classic sandwiches, and easy to make at home. For the patty melt, the “longest pole in the tent” (as my husband would say), are the caramelized onions. Basically meaning, they’re the part of this sandwich that takes the longest to make.
Luckily, you can make them up to 7 days in advance and store them in the fridge until you’re ready to make the sandwiches. Once the caramelized onions are prepared, it only takes 20 minutes to make these delicious patty melts for an easy meal!
While you’ll find some classic patty melts without sauce, most commonly they were made with just mayonnaise. Nowadays, you’ll see them made with creamy pepper sauce, thousand island dressing, Russian dressing, or burger sauce.
For this recipe, I used my homemade burger sauce that’s really easy to make with only 4 ingredients! I love the flavor this sauce adds to the sandwich, and highly recommend giving it a try.
Ingredients
- Caramelized onions – while caramelizing onions does take a little time, it’s super easy! You can start caramelizing the onions before starting this recipe, and it will take about 30-45 minutes to caramelize diced onions. You can also make them ahead of time and store them in the fridge for up to one week, or the freezer for 3 months. Click the link above for my easy step-by-step guide to caramelizing onions.
- Rye bread – we like to use Jewish rye, but feel free to use dark rye bread, marble rye, or your favorite variety of rye bread. You can also make these sandwiches with sourdough bread, like Steak ‘n Shake, or Texas toast, like Whataburger.
- Butter – I recommend unsalted butter, as the burger patty and sauce already adds enough salty flavor to the sandwich.
- Burger sauce – a simple combination of mayonnaise, ketchup, chopped pickles and dijon mustard, this sauce is a delicious, creamy and tangy addition to the patty melts. Click the link for the full recipe and ingredient amounts. You can also use thousand island, or Russian dressing.
- Swiss cheese – you’ll need thin slices of Swiss cheese to melt over the burger patty in the sandwich.
- Ground beef – I recommend a ground beef that’s 80/20, meaning 80% lean and 20% fat. This will give you the perfect amount of fat to make tender, juicy burger patties.
- Hamburger seasoning – this easy blend of 5 spices, includes salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. It adds a great flavor to the burger patties in this patty melt recipe, and it’s easy to mix up in 5 minutes or less. Click the link for the recipe, mix up a big batch and store it in your pantry for anytime you want to make burgers or patty melts! If you don’t want to make the hamburger seasoning, simply swap in 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper.
- Worcestershire sauce – my secret ingredient for adding a wonderful umami flavor to burger patties. If you don’t have any Worcestershire sauce in the kitchen, you can use soy sauce instead.
Instructions
I’ve included step by step photos below to make this recipe super easy to follow at home. For the full detailed recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
If you don’t already have caramelized onions prepared, be sure to caramelize the onions before starting this recipe. You’ll also want to prepare the burger sauce before making the sandwiches
- Make the burger patties. Combine ground beef, hamburger seasoning, and Worcestershire sauce in a medium bowl. Form the mixture into four equal portions, and make sure that each patty is ¼ inch thick. The patties have to be thin to make a true patty melt.
- Grill the burger patties. Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill, or cast iron skillet on the stove, over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the burger patties and cook for 3 minutes per side. Remove from the heat and set the cooked burger patties aside on a clean cutting board, or plate.
- Spread softened butter on one side of each slice of bread.
- Spread burger sauce on the other side of each slice of bread, then top with sliced swiss cheese.
- Add caramelized onions on top of half of the pieces of bread topped with sauce and cheese.
- Add the cooked burger patties on top of the caramelized onions. Sandwich the other slices of cheese topped bread on top of the burger patties.
- Heat a large skillet, or griddle pan on the stove over medium heat. Once hot, add the sandwiches and cook for 3-4 minutes, flip with a spatula and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
- Remove from the heat, slice in half and serve immediately.
What to serve with it
This classic patty melt sandwich recipe is delicious on it’s own, or served with a simple side of potato chips. You can also step up your side dish game and serve the sandwich with any of these delicious side dish recipes.
Recipe variations
This patty melt recipe is made using traditional ingredients, with the addition of burger sauce. If you’d like to make a patty melt just like your favorite restaurant, or fast food joint, try any of these variations on the sandwich.
- Make it like Whataburger. Instead of rye bread, use Texas toast, and replace the swiss cheese with Monterey Jack cheese. Also, replace the burger sauce with Whataburger creamy pepper sauce, available online and in some national grocery retailers.
- Make it like Steak ‘n Shake. Use one slice of swiss cheese and one slice of American cheese on each slice of bread, instead of two slices of swiss cheese. Use the burger sauce as instructed, or look for their Frisco sauce is stores. From what the Internet says, you can make it at home with ¾ cup Thousand Island dressing and ¼ cup French dressing.
- Make it like IHOP. Replace the swiss cheese with pepper jack cheese, and add ½ cup pickled jalapenos on top of the caramelized onions.
- Make it like Jack In The Box. Use one slice of swiss cheese and one slice of American cheese on each slice of bread, instead of two slices of swiss cheese. Add two slices of cooked bacon to each patty melt, and use sourdough bread, instead of rye bread.
- Make it like Waffle House. Instead of rye bread, use Texas toast, and replace the swiss cheese with American cheese.
More easy beef recipes
Keep these other beef recipes in your back pocket for anytime you’re looking for an easy meal!
Patty Melt
Ingredients
- 1 cup caramelized onions, click link for recipe
- 8 slices rye bread, sourdough bread, or Texas toast
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- ½ cup burger sauce, click link for recipe, or use Thousand Island dressing
- 16 slices swiss cheese
- 1 pound ground beef, 80/20
- 1 tablespoon hamburger seasoning, click link for recipe, or use 1 teaspoon salt + 1 teaspoon black pepper instead
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Start by preparing the caramelized onions, up to 1 week in advance.
- Spread one side of each piece of bread with butter and the other side with burger sauce.
- Place two slices of Swiss cheese on top of the burger sauce on each piece of bread.
- Add caramelized onions on top of half of the bread slices. Set the prepared bread aside.
- Combine the ground beef, hamburger seasoning and worcestershire sauce in a medium bowl. Form the mixture into four hamburger patties that are ¼ inch thick. Make sure they’re thin to make a true patty melt.
- Heat a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat.
- Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill, or cast iron skillet on the stove, over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the burger patties and cook for 3 minutes per side.
- Remove from the heat and place the patties on top of the caramelized onions, then sandwich the other half of the bread slices topped with sauce and cheese over the burger patties.
- Heat a large skillet, or griddle pan, on the stove over medium heat. Once hot, add the patty melts, and grill for 3-4 minutes, flip with a spatula and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is melted. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.
Notes
- You can make the caramelized onions ahead of time and store them in the fridge for up to one week, or the freezer for 3 months. This way, the recipe comes together in just 20 minutes.
- To make this recipe gluten free, use gluten-free bread.
Nutrition Facts
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One Comment on “Patty Melt”
I love the petty melt because itis delicious. You know what you are doing. Follow this recipe and enjoy an awesome sandwich.