Chopped Cheese Is The Toddler Cheeseburger You Can Make Anytime

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 5 mins

Total Time 10 mins

Cooking Method: Sauteing

Cuisine: American

Meal(s): Dinner, Lunch

Difficulty: Beginner

Description

For all the lunches and dinners where you truly don’t want to know the answer to the question “what would you like to eat?,” there is this: a chopped cheese. A staple of New York bodegas, it’s something like a burger as a sandwich: same ingredients, different presentation. You wouldn’t be wrong in comparing it to a Philly cheesesteak, albeit with burger flavors.

Added bonus: it’s ridiculously easy to make and something like a guilty pleasure for you (and sheer pleasure for your child). This isn’t science, and it’s barely cooking: just the simple but magical alchemy of cheese, mayo, and grease. It’s just the sort of genius you’d crave at 12am—just now serving at 12pm. (Note: at a bodega, a chopped cheese would contain the tomato, lettuce, and pickles you’d typically find on a fast food burger; we’ve not included them here because of the likelihood of confusion and/or disgust from a young child. Feel free to chop up any of the above and place on the sandwich if your kid—or you!—enjoys them. (Also also: Check out our other great toddler ground beef recipes!

Ingredients

1 Hoagie/sub roll (or hot dog roll)
Mayonnaise
1/2 Shallot
1/3 pound Ground Beef (can sub in other ground meats)
2 slices Cheese of your choosing (American is standard; cheddar or provolone also work)

Instructions

Prep

1
Toast both sides of the roll until crisp. Spread mayo on both sides.
2
Dice your shallot into small pieces.

Cook

3
Heat a small pan at Medium heat When the pan is hot, drop in a pat of butter and swirl around pan; add in shallots. Cook onions until they start becoming translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
4
Add in clumps/chunks of your ground meat to the pan; with a spatula, smash down on the meat to sear it. Cook for two minutes.
5
Wielding your spatula like a chopper, smash up the meat into small pieces; blend the meat and the onions. Continue cooking for another minute or so.
6
Drape the meat-onion mixture with the cheese slices. As soon as they melt, chop and toss everything so that every morsel of meat is coated in cheese. Remove from heat.
7
Stuff the cheese-meat mixture into the roll, then squeeze or smash the two sides of the roll together to bind. Chop in half (and keep it for yourself).

Serve

8
Assuming your roll isn’t overly crusty or bready, a toddler comfortable holding, say, a quarter or half of a burger should have no issues holding and nibbling from his/her half without having to cut it further. If further cuts are needed, be sure and really smash down the sandwich before cutting so contents don’t spill out. Serve with condiments on the side, for dipping.

Adapt

9
When you think about it, this is really just a mayo-slicked grilled cheese sandwich on a different kind of bread. So if your kiddo isn’t in love with the delivery mechanism, or just really likes grilled cheese, just do the following: make the meat-cheese mix as described; mayo or butter up two slices of sandwich bread; toss the meat into between the bread and place in a panini and waffle maker until crisp.

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