Queso Fresco Grilled Cheese

Queso Fresco Grilled Cheese Sandwich is a delightful combination of creamy melted Queso Fresco cheese with bacon, mild green chiles and crispy buttered bread; delicious!

Several years ago, my daughter Lauren discovered a wonderful new place to eat at one of our favorite locations in Denver on South Pearl Street. It’s a small shopping district comprised of a couple of blocks in an area south of Denver proper that has unique restaurants and shops and it’s always fun to go there and discover something new, like this Queso Fresco Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

She had previously visited The Crushery and knew that I would enjoy it so we made a date to meet there for lunch. Despite being raised in the ‘burbs’ Lauren loved everything downtown. I’m not as crazy as she is about heading into the concrete jungle where parking is not a given so Pearl Street shopping has always been a great compromise because we both love it and it’s got great charm…so unlike heading to the local mall.

Like some other great dishes that I posted about a long time ago, the original post I made for this Queso Fresco Grilled Cheese Sandwich was languishing in never never land; like no one EVER looked at it. Including me! I happened on it last week and wanted that sandwich again, NOW, and thought I would offer it to my readers again too with new photos…it is so dang delicious!

I remember that our meeting for lunch as somewhat momentous as it was my very first venture out of the house for something other than a doctor’s visit after breaking my leg; and my best bud Barb came with us too. It was casual and the garage door front facade was open on an especially nice day in April and we spent two hours there gabbing and sharing a variety of their sandwiches and desserts.

This Queso Fresco Grilled Cheese Sandwich was our hands down favorite! Sadly, I’ve discovered that The Crushery is long gone and has been replaced with another boring pizza joint.

That’s a real shame. It was nothing fancy, there was one big room and a counter for ordering food with several tables, a fireplace and a charming patio in the back (with parking). Nice, friendly wait staff rounded out what was a totally wonderful experience. Owner/Chef John Davidson provided a great place for food lovers by serving homemade breads, bagels, pannini, salads; they even make their own decadent desserts! How it didn’t survive is beyond me…don’t we have enough pizza?

I loved everything but was (still am) most crazy about their Shredded Pork, Green Chile, and Queso Fresco with Chipotle Aioli sandwich. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it!

The biggest difference in this sandwich compared to most I’ve made over the years is the Queso Fresco cheese. It’s a mild, fresh, soft, and slightly tangy white cheese that typically crumbles and it melts nicely. I’ve found it in all of the markets where I shop.

Since getting out at that time was so difficult, I decided to mimic my own version of this deliciousness at home with a simpler Queso Fresco Grilled Cheese Sandwich. It was an easier version because I still was not going to be cooking a pork shoulder anytime soon.

My first go around I did it without any meat so it was more of a standard grilled cheese, just the cheese and chiles and a fantastic Chipotle mayo.

But for this time I wanted to go back closer to those original roots. Still no pork shoulder on my horizon; but I did include bacon…everything is better with bacon right? It was stunning, if a sandwich can be stunning. So glad I was inspired to try again; I like this much better than the first attempt…and yes, it’s true. It is better with bacon!

What else did I do differently a dozen years later? Well, the original recipe called for a can of green chiles. OK, you can do that but in the interim years I’ve quit using canned green chiles and I chose to use some Hatch green chiles that I got last year and roasted before I froze several batches. So I want to recommend that you roast some fresh chiles too; it’s really pretty easy.

Simply rub them with a little bit of olive oil, and either roast directly on top of the grates on your gas stove, or on a sheet put under the broiler. You want the skin to blacken and the chiles to get softened. When they are black enough, take them from the heat and put them into a plastic ziploc bag, close it, and let them steam and cool for about 15 minutes. Remove them from the baggie and slide off the blackened skin, remove the center, and use whole or rough chop. SO much better than canned and lots of uses beyond this sandwich. Scrambled eggs for instance!

Proof positive you can go home again and sometimes it’s even better than the first time!

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