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kimchi grilled cheese

August 22, 2013

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kimchi grilled cheese

Did you just gasp with horror? I realize that this is a highly polarizing statement, but I love kimchi and cheese. I can’t imagine budae jjigae without cheese. I made kimchi chicken quesadillas once and thought I’d died and gone to heaven. And this kimchi grilled cheese might be my very favorite grilled cheese sandwich, ever.

To me, kimchi adds a welcome liveliness to the heavy grease of the cheese, while the cheese also helps to cut the piercing acidity of the kimchi. But, much to my disappointment, Bowl #2 and his mother were both horrified by the thought of kimchi grilled cheese. (His reaction was “Kimchi WHAT?” while his mom just looked at me in amazement when I suggested it.) It looks like some people, like the folks at Serious Eats, are partially on board — they did articles on kimchi quesadillas here and kimchi grilled cheese here. But these have met with some resistance too, particularly to the kimchi quesadilla. Bowl #2’s objection is that the cheese drowns out the pungent taste of the kimchi, which I can understand. Others just seem to abhor the thought of the combination. From my perspective, kimchi and cheese are just meant to be together, like a particularly awesome, sassy PB&J. To quote the articles by Serious Eats, it would never occur to me that it might “blow up with pure evil,” and it’s not even that it “doesn’t sound appealing” to me but turns out to be. It just sounds super duper appealing! But I guess I’m just weird like that.

sliced overhead

Anyway, here’s the seriously simple recipe for kimchi grilled cheese, just in case you’re crazy like me. 🙂 And if you’re not, just take out the kimchi and make a regular ol’ grilled cheese. Because that’s something worth having in any arsenal.

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Kimchi grilled cheese

Print Recipe

serves 2.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 slices of your favorite bread (I used wheat)
  • 2 tbsp butter, softened (or enough to thinly butter one side of each slice)
  • 4 slices American cheese (or your favorite meltable cheese — I think pepperjack, cheddar, Colby, provolone, etc. would all work well. Also, of course you can add more cheese! I support the right to limitless cheese.)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup kimchi, drained, patted dry, and chopped

Instructions

  1. Butter one side of each slice of bread, taking care to spread the butter to the very edges. (The very first time I tried to make a grilled cheese, sometime way back in high school, I didn’t do this and left a very clean black outline of a piece of toast in our frying pan. I’m not sure my mom ever got it off.) Note: You can also melt the butter directly into the skillet and then fry the bread in it, which is handy especially if you’re like me and tend to forget to soften the butter beforehand.
  2. Heat a skillet over medium-low heat, then place two slices of bread butter-side down. (If you’d like to go the melted-butter route, add about 1 tbsp of the butter, swirl it until melted, then add the bread.)  Next, add one slice of cheese to each slice of bread. Layer kimchi over the cheese, then add a second slice to each.
  3. Let the bread fry on the skillet until golden-brown and the cheese begins to melt on top. Depending on your skillet, you may want to lower the heat to low to prevent burning (is there anything as sad as a burned grilled cheese?) Add the uncooked slices of bread, buttered-side up, to complete the sandwiches, then gently flip the sandwiches to their uncooked sides. (If they’re not buttered, add the uncooked slices, remove from the pan, add the remaining 1 tbsp of butter to the pan to melt, then add the sandwiches back to the pan, uncooked side down.)
  4. Continue to let cook in the pan for a minute or so longer, until the uncooked sides are golden-brown. I like to press down gently on the sandwich to get the cheese to really squish together. Remove and let cool, then slice and serve!

Notes

Some people recommend panfrying the kimchi on its own to get it warmed up and add some crispy bits, as well as avoiding sogginess — I love this if I have a little extra time. If you’re feeling really decadent you can pan-fry in butter and then your mind will be really blown.

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buttered bread

frying kimchi grilled cheese

sliced halves overhead

stack overhead
Stacking optional.

kimchi grilled cheese stack2

Thank you for reading and sorry if I disgusted you! 😉

PS Anyone notice a pattern here lately? Blueberries, then kimchi. Then blueberries. Then kimchi. Maybe I should rename this blog “Blueberries & Kimchi.” (That sounds definitely more disgusting than kimchi and cheese. But I kinda like the sound of it.)

So that was a little weird. Instead, you might like these more traditional kimchi recipes:

kimchi fried rice overhead
Kimchi fried rice — our ideal comfort food.
half bowl 2
For those of you in warmer climes, this cold kimchi mixed noodle bowl is one of my favorite summer lunches.
Mak ("Easy") Kimchi
And to try your hand at making your own kimchi (not as hard as it sounds!) check out this easier method.

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view more: korean· lunch

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  1. Jody and Ken

    August 22, 2013 at 11:09 am

    Ha! This is great! And we thought we were the only people doing this… 🙂 By the way, have you tried baked potatoes with sour cream/yogurt and kimchee – incredibly good. Ken

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 22, 2013 at 3:33 pm

      No!! But that sounds absolutely incredible! Sounds like that will be my next oddball suggestion (followed by me enjoying it heartily by myself). Glad to know that I’m not alone, though! Thank you so much for commenting.

      Reply
  2. Big Sis Little Dish

    August 25, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    Well I never would have thought of this but it actually sounds delicious!

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 25, 2013 at 4:17 pm

      Haha yay, so happy you think so too! If you ever try it, let me know what you think 🙂

      Reply
  3. Rebecca

    August 26, 2013 at 9:37 pm

    I love to chop up kimchi and put it on a cheese burger.

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 26, 2013 at 11:41 pm

      Oh, that sounds fantastic. I need to try it myself sometime!

      Reply
  4. Ev

    August 27, 2013 at 7:33 am

    Sounds interesting – I’ve never done it before but I can imagine it being quite tasty. Have to get kimchi first though which is the struggle. I’m the sort who struggles to drag myself into an Asian grocery store because it’s mildly inconvenient lol.

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 27, 2013 at 2:53 pm

      I’m the same way! It’s so far from where I live back home — plus we can never find good kimchi. I’ve been lucky to have Hawaii’s excellent Asian grocery stores and Asian food at my disposal lately. At some point I need to learn how to make kimchi myself… gulp. Thanks for commenting, Evelyn! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Sharon

    August 27, 2013 at 10:52 am

    I’m intrigued, and passing this on to another kimchi & cheese lover.

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 27, 2013 at 2:53 pm

      Thank you so much!!!

      Reply
  6. Rebecca

    August 27, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    Kimchi is easy to make. You just have to get the right kind of chili pepper flakes. It’s easy yet time consuming and if you like it real sour like I do then it’s mostly a waiting game. I made some stuffed cucumber kimchi yesterday. For regular napa cabbage kimchi I use closetcooking.com’s recipe he has a couple recipes but I use the less complicated one and it is always really good. Just beware…it doesn’t make your fridge smell very good. Haha

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 27, 2013 at 4:20 pm

      Good to know! Thanks for the tips. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Kendra

    August 29, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    This looks amazing! First, though, I need to find a good recipe for kimchi. I’m adopted Korean so, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to learn this from my family. And recommendations?

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 29, 2013 at 2:50 pm

      Thank you so much! I rely on Maangchi’s website and my boyfriend’s mother for all Korean recipes, pretty much, so I’d recommend Maangchi’s “easy kimchi” recipe that I’ve been planning to try out once I get back. It’s here: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi (I think I’m going to omit the squid, just for convenience’s sake, but stick to the rice flour porridge method.) My boyfriend’s mother is actually trying to learn how to make kimchi too (and she is very much born and raised Korean, so maybe you and I aren’t missing out on too much by not knowing how either!) The other day we tried another recipe in Korean, but I won’t link to it since I can’t read it hahaha. It was more or less the same as Maangchi’s, though, without the rice porridge step and pureed onion. You can also add a bit of preserved shrimp instead of squid or oysters. It turned out okay, but a bit salty, so we’re still in experimentation. Let me know how yours turns out — I’d love to compare notes! 🙂

      Reply
  8. Anonymous

    August 29, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    It sounds great! Can’t wait to try it 🙂

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 29, 2013 at 10:04 pm

      So glad you’re on my side! 😉 Hope you like it.

      Reply
  9. WYC

    August 29, 2013 at 10:13 pm

    Just tried with everything in mouth (not exactly like in the picture), but it is good….

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      August 29, 2013 at 10:49 pm

      Haha, I’m glad it still worked out! 🙂

      Reply
  10. Sara

    September 5, 2013 at 9:49 am

    I’ve been meaning to ask this since I saw this post, but where did you get your kimchi? I’m so used to having my grandma’s homemade kimchi and most store-bought ones pale in comparison 🙁

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      September 5, 2013 at 2:52 pm

      You are so lucky to get your grandma’s! I’m with you on storebought, unfortunately 🙁 Right now, I’m in Hawaii with my boyfriend’s parents (so I’m not sure the recommendations will be of any help, though I can definitely email them to you if you like!) and the kimchi is MUCH better than what I’ve been able to find on the East Coast. The best luck I’ve had is just looking for kimchi that is made by the owners and not a particular brand, but it’s still usually so-so. 🙁 Bowl #2’s mom and I recently tried making our own, though, and it seems very doable! It seems like it’ll be my only hope when I get back to NY.

      Reply
      • Sara

        September 6, 2013 at 10:18 am

        You would think that the kimchi selection here wouldn’t be so terrible seeing as how there’s such a large population of Koreans here, sigh.

        But oh, I’m going to have to wait for that post. I tried following my grandma as she made kimchi but..just like my mom, she refuses to explain things to me. Watch and learn, they say. Watch and forget, I do.

        Reply
      • tworedbowls

        September 6, 2013 at 2:52 pm

        HAHA you crack me up every time. I know, I still can’t believe there’s only one Korean supermarket in all of Manhattan (? that I know of?) My feeling is that the gold mine must be out in Queens. The distant land of promise.

        Reply
  11. Allison (Spontaneous Tomato)

    October 19, 2013 at 7:07 pm

    1. Kimchi + cheese = correct!
    2. This is a genius idea! I’ve sprinkled/melted cheese onto kimchi fried rice before, but I never thought of putting *kimchi* into *cheese’s* native habitat like you’ve done. YUM.

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      October 20, 2013 at 10:46 am

      Oh my goodness, I LOVE cheese in kimchi fried rice! I like your style 🙂 Thanks so much for your comment, Allison!

      Reply
  12. Big Sis Little Dish

    November 22, 2013 at 3:16 pm

    I just ate my first kim chee grilled cheese! It was excellent! Thank you for the idea and the clear instructions. I will eat this again.

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      November 23, 2013 at 3:23 pm

      Yay!!!! So happy to hear that and so glad you liked it! 🙂

      Reply
  13. Anonymous

    December 28, 2013 at 1:13 am

    I can’t eat a Big Mac without kimchee! Try tuna melt kimchee too!

    Reply
    • tworedbowls

      December 28, 2013 at 10:36 am

      Ha, I love the idea of BOTH of those!! Genius.

      Reply
  14. debbielee76

    February 21, 2015 at 11:28 pm

    ok. i know this sounds weird, but toasted bagel with cream cheese and kimchi is amazing too. 🙂

    Reply
  15. Jess Doo

    March 5, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    hi! a friend recommended your site. love everything and have to try something soon. for this recipe, have you tried frying the kimchee in sesame oil first? fried kimchee grilled cheese….ever better, promise!

    Reply
  16. Anonymous

    June 5, 2015 at 9:36 pm

    Just tried this because we happened to have kimchi in our fridge. Made it on my husband’s homemade french bread. Delicious!

    Reply
  17. Ed Barden

    July 6, 2015 at 10:10 pm

    Wow! I only had shredded cheddar in the house, and had to try this, so I chopped the kimchi pretty small and mixed it with the cheddar in a bowl, with a little mayo to keep it sticking together for the sandwich. Otherwise, I pretty much stuck with your proportions. Just amazing! Next time, I’ll make it more heavy on the kimchi, but it was still spectacular! Thanks for the idea!

    Reply
  18. J

    May 18, 2017 at 1:16 pm

    Just seeing this recipe and have been making kimchi quesadillas for years! I agree, people love them or question your judgement! I’m definitely in the love camp. Cheers!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Kimchi fried rice, and a new Facebook page. | Two Red Bowls says:
    November 11, 2013 at 8:02 am

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  2. THE WANG POST | The Internet Newspaper Bridging the East and the West says:
    December 1, 2013 at 11:40 am

    […] (Recipe can be found at: here.) […]

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  3. Homemade mak (“easy”) kimchi. | Two Red Bowls says:
    December 4, 2013 at 7:04 am

    […] this Korean staple (again, all about the blog staples!) because it’s so essential in some of the recipes I’ve posted, and because I’ve already been talking to so many of you about it in comments. So […]

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  4. Croque Monsieur Biscuits (gluten-free or not) | Big Sis Little Dish says:
    December 7, 2013 at 6:55 pm

    […] and their marvelous variations, I would like to point everyone toward this amazing recipe for kim chee grilled cheese from the newish and excellent blog Two Red Bowls.  I have been eating this a lot, and I really […]

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  5. Got A Kimchi Craving? - 3 guilty pleasures says:
    May 7, 2014 at 11:42 pm

    […] Kimchi Grilled Cheese Two Red Bowls Get the Kimchi Grilled Cheese recipe from Two Red […]

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  6. Two Red Bowls | Blogeats says:
    September 4, 2014 at 4:18 pm

    […] Kimchi Grilled Cheese: My kids often debate, as, I imagine, generations of children before them did, the profound question, “Is there anything you can’t put ketchup on?” A surprising number of people think the answer is no. Melted cheese is like that: There’s a portion of the population that thinks it goes with anything. So, while Cynthia reports that some friends were horrified by the kimchi X melted cheese idea, I thought it was a natural. […]

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  7. 10 Health Benefits Of Kimchi According To Science | 10 Magazine Korea says:
    February 27, 2018 at 1:35 am

    […] Grilled cheese with Kimchi sounds really interesting, but to spoil it for you, IT’S PERFECT! The acidity of the Kimchi compliments the saltiness of the cheese creating a fireworks of flavors in your mouth! […]

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  8. The Best Kimchi Recipe - dailyeye.site says:
    February 2, 2019 at 8:04 am

    […] Grilled cheese with Kimchi sounds really interesting, but to spoil it for you, IT’S PERFECT! The acidity of the Kimchi compliments the saltiness of the cheese creating a fireworks of flavors in your mouth! […]

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Hi! I’m Cynthia

An avid eater and dabbling food-maker living in California with my husband, “Bowl #2,” and our baby bowls, Luke, Clara, and Fiona.

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