This is our patty melt recipe. I love cooking chicken and experimenting with recipes using chicken. Hubby does not. He loves burger. We have come to an understanding: I cook the chicken, he cooks the burger. But we worked together on this meal, which in reality happens often here.

Classic Patty Melt Recipe
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We’ve had these in restaurants, but had never attempted to make them at home, something about a classic patty melt had always said “restaurant” to me. I’m really happy that I tried these at home…
What you need:
- 1 pound fresh ground beef
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 8 slices deli-counter American cheese
- 8 thick slices white sandwich bread
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1/2 cup thousand island dressing, plus more for dipping

How to make A Patty Melt
Mix spices into the ground beef and divide into four patties.
Cook until the crust that forms on the bottom of the burger releases it from the pan or grate — about 2 minutes. Gently test, but don’t flip it until it gets to this point.
Believe me, once you do this, you’ll cook all your burgers this way. After flipping continue to cook until to fully cooked.
While the burgers were cooking I fried some onions in a (very) small amount of butter. I made some thousand island dressing, though you can use store bought as well.
Fry a little bit of onion in a small pan with butter if you like onions on your burger. I’m trying really hard to eat more vegetables, including onions.
There is one place that we differed in making our melts from all the recipes I came across, and maybe, I don’t know, because we made them this way they aren’t a “classic” but they are delicious and just a little healthier too.
Instead of grilling the sandwich in a lot of melted butter I make them like a grilled cheese. I butter a slice of bread, drop it in the hot pan, slap some dressing over the side up, drop a slice of cheese, a patty and then another slice of bread on top. The top slice also has dressing on one slice and butter on the other.
Do not push down on the burger while grilling it. This will cause it to stick to your frying pan and you don’t want to do that.
Making them this way the bread is picking up the stuck on burger flavor from the pan as well. Talk about flavor overload.

Classic Patty Melt (and a Twist Too)
Ingredients
- 1 pound freshly ground beef
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 8 slices deli-counter American cheese
- 8 thick slices white sandwich bread
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1/2 cup thousand island dressing, plus more for dipping
Instructions
- Mix the ground beef, onion powder, salt, and black pepper together. Form into four patties.
- Cook until the crust that forms on the bottom of the burger releases it from the pan or grate — about 2 minutes.
- While cooking burger fry some onion until tender an brown.
- Gently test, but don't flip it until it gets to this point.
- Butter a slice of bread, drop it in the hot pan, slap some dressing over the side up, drop a slice of cheese, a patty and then another slice of bread on top. The top slice also has dressing on one slice and butter on the other.
- Cook like a grilled cheese, golden brown and crispy.
- Serve with Thousand Island dressing for dipping.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
These have become a favorite here. Austin thought that the bread was because we forgot to buy hamburger buns. We had a side of sweet potatoes and white potatoes cut into bite size pieces, baked with a little salt, chili powder, garlic powder and diced onion. The diced onion adds a much needed flavor that onion powder or salt just doesn’t do.
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