I Tried Pizza Grilled Cheese and It’s a Clever Spin on Two Nostalgic Favorites

I love a good grilled cheese and, to be honest, I love pretty much any kind of pizza. I mean, think about it — they’re both crispy, cheesy, and deliciously good. Why wouldn’t I love them both? So I was intrigued when I saw @arimonika’s recipe for pizza grilled cheese on TikTok. Would a mash-up of two dishes be even greater than the sum of its parts, or fall short? Only one way to find out!

Get the recipe: Pizza Grilled Cheese

One of the most unique (and, if you read the comments, controversial) parts of this sandwich is the bread. Skip the sandwich bread and grab a sub roll. Slice it in half horizontally, leaving a hinge. Open the bread up like a book, lay it cut-side down, and use a rolling pin to flatten it. Layer pepperoni and mozzarella on top of the bread (yes, on the outer crust side!), and close the sandwich so what was originally the inside of the bread is now on the outside.

After the sandwich is assembled, make the garlic butter. Melt salted butter and mix in garlic powder, dried parsley, and Parmesan cheese. Spread it over the outside of the bread with a pastry brush. 

Add the sandwich to a nonstick pan and cook until golden-brown, three minutes per side. As an optional topping, add a layer of grated mozzarella and pepperoni to the empty side of the pan while the second side is cooking. When the cheese is browned, roll the sandwich into the layer of cheese, and remove the whole thing from the pan. You can rip the whole thing in half to show the cheesy innards like they do on TikTok, or you can just cut it in half.

This sandwich was pretty simple to make. The only part I had any trouble with was trying to evenly spread the melted butter over the bread. I was making these for my family, so for the next sandwich I mixed the seasonings into softened butter and just spread it onto the bread with a butter knife. It was a lot easier, and I didn’t even use half of the butter mixture, leaving me enough for another sandwich.

The thing that intrigued me most about this sandwich was the use of the sandwich roll. Turning the bread inside out was a pretty neat idea — the flavor and texture really was just like garlic bread. And the cheesy pepperoni frico topping was really good! It got browned and bubbly just like an actual pizza. 

A lot of the comments asked where the sauce was, and after a few bites (with all the butter and cheese, the sandwich wasn’t dry) I thought I’d see if adding sauce would improve the sandwich experience. I opened a jar and poured a little in a dish on the side for dipping. I found that it definitely wasn’t necessary, but I liked having some sauce for dipping. It amplified the overall “pizza” vibes. 

Overall, though, I probably wouldn’t repeat this sandwich. It was a little too over-the-top. Not even my 6’3″ 15-year-old could finish his. When I typically use sub rolls for sandwiches, I pull out a lot of the interior bread. (It provides more room for fillings and makes it a little lighter.) But I don’t think you could really do that here and get the same sort of garlic bread result. Ultimately, I think it ends up being a lot of bread for one sandwich!

I also didn’t care for the pepperoni in the middle. They were just kind of chewy and didn’t add much to the overall sandwich. I’d skip them and just stick to the browned and crispy ones on top.

I probably won’t repeat this sandwich as is, but there were definitely elements of it that I liked. The sandwich roll trick is really clever and I can see myself trying this again with different filling options. If you do decide to try this sandwich, here are a few tips.

1. Use softened butter instead of melted butter. The instructions have you mix the flavorings into melted butter, but softened butter works better. Spread it on with a butter knife instead of a pastry brush.
2. Less is better in the middle. Consider skipping the pepperoni in the middle. It ended up being super chewy for me and didn’t add anything extra to the final product.
3. Cover the pan when griddling. Because the bread is so much thicker than sandwich bread, you need to trap the heat to ensure the cheese melts before the bread starts to burn. The cheese didn’t melt all the way in the first sandwich that I made.
4. Pile it on at the end. Don’t skip the “optional” topping layer of cheese and pepperoni. Trust me on this one.