Viral TikTok recipe for an air fried grilled cheese is perfectly cheesy

Welcome to AirFryDay, where — you guessed it — every Friday Mashable covers the latest trends, dispenses advice, and reviews recipes for your air fryer.

We’re all trash sometimes. I guarantee even the fanciest Michelin-starred chef has gulped down a raw Kraft single. Sometimes you’re hungry and you want a quick, melty mess of cheese. That’s well and good, and boy, do I have the recipe for when you’re feeling that way.

It’s a simple, vaguely grotesque (in a good way) recipe for grilled cheese in an air fryer. It involves truly stupid amounts of butter, Kraft singles, white bread, and string cheese. The final result will be gloopy and, you know what, kind of tasty in spite of itself.

The recipe comes from @babychrismom on TikTok and has racked up nearly nine million views. Here’s what their process looked like.

A perfectly fine looking grilled cheese.
Credit: Screenshots: TikTok / @babychrismom

Here’s what you need to know to make it.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Slap down a piece of bread.

2. Place enough American cheese to cover the slice. For me this was 1.5 pieces.

3. Take the string cheese and pull it apart into small strings.

4. Lay those strings on top of the slice of bread.

5. Cover the bread to make a sandwich.

6. Cover the top piece of bread with pads of butter. Like a lot of butter.

7. Air fry at 400 degrees for five minutes.

8. Flip the sandwich and cover the new top side with pads of butter.

9. Air fry for five more minutes at 400 degrees. Enjoy.

The details

Let’s be clear: This is not gourmet stuff. It’s melty processed cheese and butter. But, in a pinch, I could see it being a great, fast lunch a parent might serve their picky child. Or it could be a great 1 a.m. drunk meal for an adult. Either way, this recipe has its uses.

I’m going to be honest, you do not need much direction here. It is a grilled cheese, except it’s air fried so you don’t even need to watch it on the stovetop. I did make my grilled cheese extra cheesy because if you’re in for a penny, you might as well be in for a pound. In total, I used three Kraft singles and one string cheese.

I did a cheese pull for a video accompanying this article and it was equal parts appalling and appealing. Processed cheese is specifically designed to melt so it pulled like crazy. I’m telling you the cheese freaking pulled. It went on forever. And then the weight of the congealed cheese made gravity do its thing and the gloop of cheese sort of…cradled. That was a bit unpleasant.

Here is a GIF of that moment. It’s, well, something you should eat drunk.

This was not a perfect grilled cheese. Far from it. The recipe called for way too much butter. If you make this recipe, just use mayo or nonstick spray and it’ll probably turn out better. The bread didn’t get as toasted as I’d like. And I’d most certainly prefer real cheddar cheese or something else besides processed, melty stuff. If you used real cheese and maybe add some thinly sliced onions for bite? I think you’ve got a decent thing going. But that’s not what this recipe is.

A reminder: We’re making a grilled cheese in an air fryer. It’s a recipe designed for maximum ease. I don’t think it’s a coincidence it came from a TikTokker looking to help parents. Parents are overworked and tired and sometimes you gotta just make the easiest sandwich your kid will eat.

I have no children. So, will I ever make it again? Probably not. That is, unless I drink about 8 beers and I see some Kraft singles in the fridge. Then…well…I might just see this recipe in my future.