If you’re only using your panini maker to make sandwiches, then you’re missing out. A panini maker is basically an indoor grill and a Panini Burger Recipe is a great way to prove it.
A patty melt is a hamburger with fried onions and Swiss cheese on sliced bread (usually rye) that’s cooked grilled cheese style. Anything that’s cooked grilled cheese style makes a great panini sandwich.
Do you have to cook the onions and the hamburgers on the stove and then make move everything to the panini grill for the final press? The answer is no. You can fry up your onions and also cook the hamburger patties directly on your panini grill. It is a grill after all.
And timing wise, it’s a lot easier too. You don’t have to worry about cooking everything at once like you would usually do to ensure that nothing gets cold before you serve it. When you cook panini style, everything heats up during the final press, so it’s actually less important to worry about timing.
To Fry Onions in a Panini Press
Cut up the onions into slices and place them in the pre-heated panini press. Add a tablespoon of butter and then you wait. You can stir the onions and little once the butter is melted to make sure they’re all covered. It’ll take about 5-10 minutes depending on how caramelized you like your onions. When you’re nice and brown and delicious looking then they’re done.
I usually like to cook my onions first and put them aside. Then grill the hamburger patties. Grilling hamburgers creates a lot of grease so you may want to wipe down the grill before the next step. But remember to always be careful when handling a hot grill. A big wad of damp paper towels held in your hand while you’re wearing an oven mitt is a good way to wipe down your grill safely.
Once you have your fried onions fried and your hamburger patties grilled, you’re ready to put it all together. Like I said before, most people will make a Patty Melt with sliced rye bread but since I’m not a big fan of rye and this is a Panini Burger Recipe, I like to use a hearty sliced Italian loaf or sliced sour dough bread. Add a generous helping a fried onions and Swiss cheese to the bread then add the hamburger and put it back in the panini maker to grill it all together.
Making a Panini Burger could make a huge mess in your kitchen unless you cook all the ingredients in your panini grill. It’s a good recipe that will help you get the most out of your panini maker.
Panini Burger (Patty Melt) Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 sliced onion
- 1 hamburger patty
- 2 slices Swiss cheese
- 2 slices Rye bread or sliced Italian bread
Instructions
- Add sliced onion to the pre-heated panini press and close lid. Cook for 3 - 5 minutes and set aside.
- Cook hamburger patty on panini press for 2 - 4 minutes and set aside.
- Add grilled onions, Swiss cheese and cooked hamburger patty to bread.
- Close sandwich and place in panini press for an additional 2 - 3 minutes or until bread is is nice and crispy and the cheese is melted.