Wingin’ It: Cheater Weck on Grilled Cheese for Bills-Patriots

Can you believe it? Season 5 of Wingin’ It. Where has the time gone? For any newcomers, here’s the premise: It’s hungry work being a fan of the Buffalo Bills. Every week of the regular season and postseason, Buffalo Rumblings brings you a recipe to try out with a “Buffalo” twist.

With the good news regarding Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin this week, I feel like we can go back to roughly normal for my usual weekend article. The recipe was likely happening regardless, so “normal” in this case is making fun of the cheater New England Patriots.

This is an easy way to get the full beef on weck flavor without needing to worry about meat carving, which requires a more precise roast and cutting technique. For good measure, I toss it on a weck “roll” made from a grilled cheese sandwich.

Cheater Weck on Grilled Cheese

Serves: A lot
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 8 hours or so

Ingredients

1 lb (or greater) roast (top round or chuck recommended)
Salt
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
¹⁄₂ can of Guinness or other stout beer (about 8 oz)
1 cup water
2.2 oz package of Onion soup mix
Grilled cheese sammiches
Caraway seeds
Coarse salt
Prepared horseradish

You’ll need: A slow cooker

1. Coat entire roast well with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Set aside to allow seasoning profiles to be absorbed.
2. Add oil to large unheated fry pan; warm oil in pan on MED-HIGH heat.
3. Place roast in pan, being careful to avoid splattering hot oil; sear all sides, about 3-5 min per side.
4. Transfer seared roast carefully to slow cooker on LOW.
5. Add beer, water, and soup mix packet to slow cooker; gently stir.
6. Cover with lid; cook until roast can be shredded using only a fork, about 6-8 hours.
7. After shredding beef, begin preparing grilled cheese sandwiches; cook enough for however many people you’re feeding. (It’s cheater week, so if you’re looking for me to tell you how to make a danged grilled cheese, here you go. I’m taking the easy way out — though I do have a tip below.)
8. Add caraway seeds and coarse salt to one side of each grilled cheese sandwich, as if preparing a weck roll. (To further clarify: If you’re using two sandwiches to make a big sandwich, that means the top of one grilled cheese. If you’re doing halves like I did, then the top of one half.)
9. Assemble like a regular beef on weck and serve.

Wingin’ It Tips and Prep Gallery

Grid View

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Why no pictures of the roast? Well, it’s cheater week. We made beef stew, and the meat comes out basically the same (no beer though), but I didn’t technically even make a roast to take pictures of. And my wife made the stew, for the record. I’ve done roasts for cheater weck like this before, though, and will confirm the recipe is good to go.

On to the pictures I did take. The first is a top-secret technique. Don’t tell anyone or, God forbid, post it on the internet or something. You can do this technique with the edges, but since I went with half sandwiches, I wanted to show it as clear as possible — which was with the flat plane from the middle.

Why are my sandwich halves standing up in the pan? I cook these on MED heat with a slight drift toward HIGH. That’s enough heat to caramelize/crisp the cheese like we did for the Green Bay Packers game earlier this season (this one). I know for photography, everyone likes the melty cheese oozing from the sandwich. Picture two shows that to prove I did actually melt the cheddar in the sandwich.

Picture three (also the main one above) show the edges that I reference. Notice the crisped cheese. This locks in the sandwich contents while you’re eating, and also gives an added layer of flavor and texture. A truly delicious meal to enjoy while the Bills dismantle the New England Patriots.