Patty Melt
Smashed beef, jammy onions, and cheese griddled between buttered bread — the diner's dark horse.
Ingredients
- 300 g Ground beef
- 4 slices Bread
- 80 g Melting cheese
- 1 Onion
- 30 g Butter
- ¾ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
- ½ tsp Black pepper (optional)
Method
- Thinly slice the onion.
- In a skillet over medium-low, melt half the butter, then cook the onion with a pinch of the salt until soft and golden, about 12 minutes.
- Shape the ground beef into two thin bread-shaped patties and season hard with the remaining salt and the black pepper.
- Sear the patties in a hot skillet until crusted, about 3 minutes a side, then set aside.
- Spread the dijon mustard on the bread slices.
- Build each sandwich: bread, cheese, patty, onions, cheese, bread, then butter the outsides.
- Griddle the sandwiches until the bread is mahogany and the cheese fully melts, about 3 minutes a side.
- Halve each sandwich diagonally and serve immediately.
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About Patty Melt
The patty melt is a great American diner sandwich, a hybrid that lives somewhere between a cheeseburger and a grilled cheese. Instead of a bun, a thin beef patty goes between slices of bread with melting cheese and a heap of slow-cooked onions, then the whole thing is griddled in butter until the outside turns deep and crisp. It's often called the diner's dark horse because it's overshadowed by the burger yet quietly better in some ways — the bread crisps where a bun would go soft, and every bite delivers beef, cheese, and sweet onion at once.
The two moves that make this version sing are patience with the onions and heat with the patty. The onions cook low and slow for a good twelve minutes until they turn soft and golden and almost jammy, which builds the deep savory-sweet backbone of the sandwich. The beef, meanwhile, is shaped thin and bread-shaped and seared hard so it develops a real crust rather than steaming. A swipe of Dijon adds a sharp counterpoint to all that richness. Griddle it until the bread is mahogany and the cheese fully molten, then eat it hot, ideally with fries or a pickle, as the ultimate quick, high-protein comfort lunch.
Patty Melt: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Patty Melt?
A serving has about 719 calories — 42.7g protein, 33.4g carbs, 45.5g fat, 2.7g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 42.7g of protein, roughly 24% of its calories.
Is Patty Melt gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Bread. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
Is Patty Melt dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Butter. Swapping it for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
Do I need every ingredient to make Patty Melt?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out dijon mustard, black pepper — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Patty Melt make?
This recipe makes 2 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.