What’s a Chaffle? It’s the new craze sweeping the keto community and all the hep cats are doing the Chaffle! You’ll need a mini waffle iron (I got a 4″ waffle iron on Amazon for ~$10), and a sense of desire for a damn good grilled cheese! I’ll do this in two parts, first the Chaffle, then the grilled cheese.

Ingredients you’ll need for the Chaffle:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 Cup shredded cheese (I used “Mexican blend”)
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of baking powder

Getting your Chaffle on:

1. Heat up your waffle iron.
2. Crack your egg into a small mixing bowl and beat it.
3. Add in the rest of the stuff and mix it together really well.
4. Put half the mixture in the waffle iron, spread it out and cook for about 3 minutes (you can go longer if you want them crispier, shorter if you want them softer)
5. Pop out that one and repeat with the rest of the batter.

So, now you have these Chaffles, what should you do with them? You can use them as a great bread/bun replacement, store them in the fridge for a few days, just eat them like they are. For both of them, you’re looking at 236 calories, 2g of carbs, 18.3g of fat, and 15.3g of protein.

But, if you want to take things to the next level, you should make a grilled cheese out of them… Oh yeah, you wanna see what that involves? Read on.

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 2 chaffles
• 2 slices of melty cheese (I used pepperjack)
• Some add-in meat, like ham, bacon, or chopped up salami
• Butter (you should try this with Kerry Gold Irish butter)
• Bacon grease (you save your bacon grease, right?)

Let’s do this:

1. Cut two pats of butter, about 1/8″ thick. Then cut them into quarters and place them evenly around each of the chaffles, basically so there is a small blob of butter in each quadrant of the chaffle (this is a critical step in the best grilled cheese. Don’t spread the butter, don’t use mayo, do what I tell you, damn it!).
2. Now, prepare your sandwich guts. Layer a slice of cheese, meat, and another slice of cheese. If your meat is really cold, you might want to preheat it a bit in the microwave.
3. Get your skillet with a lid and put it over medium heat. Let the pan preheat a bit then put in a good dollop of bacon grease. Let that melt and heat up a bit.
4. Place your first chaffle, butter down, in the pan. Give it a couple turns to even out the butter distribution, then put your cheese/meat on it, then your second chaffle, butter up. Put the lid on the pan and let things cook for a bit, like a minute and a half.
5. Remove the lid and flip the sandwich. Spin it a time or two and then, and this is important, compress the sandwich a bit with your spatula and then put the lid on the pan again. Let it cook for another minute and a half, or so.
6. Remove the lid, flip the sandwich again and check if it’s done enough. If not, just keep cooking it, uncovered, flipping occasionally, until it’s done to your liking.

Oh yeah… It’s good.