BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Grilled Cheese

BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Grilled Cheese is the perfect ooey-gooey Hawaiian style grilled cheese sandwich. Delicious!

I was reading an article last week that mentioned that if you add any ingredients to a grilled cheese, other than cheese, than it’s not really a grilled cheese.  I didn’t really get it. If you add stuff, but still have cheese, and still ‘grill’ it, why isn’t it grilled cheese?  I have a feeling this is a widely debated topic, however, I will still refer to any cheesy sandwich as grilled cheese, and also mention the additions, such as this BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Grilled Cheese. Serve this with Easy Air Fryer Baked Potatoes for the perfect meal!

Not too long ago I was making a similar dish, only inside a quesadilla. I thought that this combination would be delicious piled into a sandwich and grilled to perfection.  Moist white meat shredded chicken, coated in savory sweet BBQ sauce, delicious juicy pineapple slices, and rich extra sharp cheddar cheese….so perfect.  While we don’t eat chicken, one of my friends was happy to be the guinea pig and try this out for me.  Not only did she say this was the best grilled cheese she had ever eaten, but she also said that she would love to try this combination of ingredients every way possible…on a quesadilla, on a bun, on a bagel…you know, the usual.  If you are scared of bread (not me, I love carbs), then you could also just take all these ingredients and throw them on top of some lettuce…actually, I am going to do that…stay tuned for that blog post.

As with any grilled cheese sandwich, make sure you use a delicious pure cheese…not of this fake shredded cheese with tons of additives. Sure, it’s okay to use in other recipes, but when the cheese is really standing out in the recipe, you need it to taste great and also melt really well. pre-shredded cheeses have additives so that they don’t clump together in the bag, but you need the cheese to melt together so pre-shredded cheese really isn’t ideal for melting. Do yourself a favor and buy some good cheese!

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BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Grilled Cheese

Ingredients

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup sweet and spicy BBQ sauce divided
• 8 slices good quality bread such as sourdough
• 2 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese grated on the largest setting
• 12 thinly sliced pineapple strips you could also use canned pineapple, sliced thinly
• butter
• nonstick spray

Instructions

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place chicken breasts into an oven safe baking dish, spread ½ cup BBQ sauce over chicken; Coat chicken with sauce. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
2. 2.Remove from oven and shred chicken with 2 forks. In a large bowl combine shredded chicken and ½ cup BBQ sauce; mix until evenly coated.
3. 3. Taking 8 slices of bread, butter one side of each slice (only one side). Place bread butter side down, and lay all slices out in front of you. Spread ¼ cup of cheese onto 4 slices of bread. On top of that cheese, spread one fourth of the chicken mixture onto each slice. Add 3 pineapple slices on top of the chicken, then top with the remaining cheese (should be about ¼ cup on top of each slice). Taking the slices that have only been buttered, place them on top of the cheese layer, butter facing out. Press down with hand or spatula.
4. 4. Heat a skillet or grill pan over medium heat and spray with non stick spray. Place 2 sandwiches butter side down on the pan, and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until browned. Flip and cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes or until browned. *Careful, they tend to cook fast on the second side. Repeat these steps until all sandwiches are cooked.
5. 5. Cut sandwiches in half and serve immediately.
6. Note: These can also be made in the crock pot: Spray crock pot, add chicken, BBQ sauce (1 cup), and pineapple. Cook for 4 hours on high. Remove chicken, shred. Follow directions above from step #3.

Thanks for visiting!

- Allyson