A Patty Melt is the classier diner version of a cheeseburger, and you can find recipes galore. Rather then using a standard hamburger bun, the Patty Melt used bread, usually rye, and they generally use Swiss Cheese and top the burger with caramelized onions. The version published by The Seasoned Mom even suggests adding Russian dressing and sharp cheddar.

The Food Network version from Ree Drummond adds Worcestershire sauce and Simply Recipes adds apple cider vinegar and suggests mustard.

But the one I really liked the best is the Serious Eats version by Kenji Lopez-Alt. In his version, he adds American Cheese as well as Swiss, both made up of a number of torn up slices of cheese.

Our recipe is a small variation on Lopez-Alt’s recipe, where we speed things up by using our electric griddle. Lopez-Alt suggest just using a cast-iron frying pan, but this limits you to one sandwich at a time, where on a griddle you could make 4,6 or even 8 sandwiches at a time! And making the caramelized onions is way easier on the griddle.

Ingredients for 2 sandwiches

• 2 hamburger patties (about 4.5 oz)
• 6 Tb butter
• 4 slices rye bread (swirled)
• 3-4 slices Swiss cheese torn into pieces
• 3-4 slices American cheese torn into pieces
• 1 medium to large yellow onion, sliced
• 4 oz water

The whole trick to making these sandwiches is grilling the inside of the bread on the griddle to keep the bread from becoming soggy.

1. Heat the griddle to hot (375˚ F)
2. Melt 1-2 Tb of butter and place the 4 slices face down in the butter until they are brown, Don’t toast the other side yet. Remove the bread to a warm plate.
3. Make two somewhat oblong patties, weighing bit more than 4 oz. (This is  a great use for a little kitchen scale.)
4. Melt 2 oz of butter, and cook the patties until they are brown. Add more butter and flip the burgers and let them brown until the patties are at about 140˚ F inside. Remove the patties and keep them warm. Leave and meet juices or residue on the griddle.
5. Add 2 more oz of butter and add the sliced onion. Cook the onions until they soften. Add an ounce or two of water and cook them down. This will aid  in browning, and incorporate any meat residue with the onions.
6. When that water cooks down, add another ounce or two and cook the onions down again, until the are soft, brown and caramelized.

1. Lay out the 4 bread slices, browned side up, and add pieces of torn up Swiss cheese to two of the slices, and pieces of torn up American cheese to the other two

1. Place the burger on the American cheese and the browned onions on the Swiss cheese.
2. Carefully close the sandwiches, and add about 1 Tb butter to the griddle. Toast the sandwiches on that side, and remove them.
3. Add another Tb of butter and toast the other side of  the sandwiches on the griddle in this new butters.
4. Remove, cut each sandwich in half and serve at once.

You will have melty American cheese and softly melted Swiss surrounding your delicious burger. Serve with French fries.