Gouda, Pear & Chicken Grilled Cheese
with Fig Jam plus Lemony Arugula & Pecan Salad
- Tree Nuts
- Milk
- Soy
- Wheat
Upgrade your run-of-the-mill grilled cheese by adding sweet pear and nutty gouda to the mix. You’ll cook the pear until lightly softened, then layer it onto sourdough slices along with sweet fig jam, gouda, and cheddar. Toast in a buttery pan until golden and melty, and serve with a lemony arugula salad studded with dried cranberries and pecans.
Ingredients
2 ounce
Arugula
½ ounce
Pecans
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
½ cup
White Cheddar Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
1 unit
Pear
1 unit
Lemon
1 unit
Fig Jam
4 slice
Sourdough Bread
(Contains: Soy, Wheat)
1 ounce
Dried Cranberries
2 teaspoon
Honey
2 slice
Gouda Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
12 ounce
Chicken Cutlets
½ unit
Shallot
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
Wash and dry produce.
Quarter, core, and thinly slice pear. Halve, peel, and finely chop half the shallot (whole shallot for 4 servings). Quarter lemon.
Heat a drizzle of oil and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) in a large pan over medium heat. Add pear, chopped shallot, honey, juice from one lemon wedge, ½ tsp sugar (1 tsp for 4), and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until pear has softened, 5-7 minutes.
Turn off heat; transfer to a small bowl. Stir in juice from one lemon wedge. Wash out pan.
Evenly layer half the sourdough slices with gouda and as much pear as you like. Top with cheddar. Spread remaining sourdough slices with fig jam. Close, jam sides down, to form sandwiches.
Melt 1 TBSP butter in pan used for pear over medium heat. Once hot, add sandwiches and push around in pan until butter has absorbed. (For 4 servings, work in batches or use a second pan, using 1 TBSP butter for each batch.) Cook until bread is golden brown and cheese is slightly melted, 4-6 minutes.
Add another 1 TBSP butter to pan, then flip sandwiches and push around again until butter has absorbed. Cook until bread is golden brown and cheese is fully melted, 4-6 minutes.
While sandwiches are toasting, in a large bowl, whisk together juice from one lemon wedge, 2 TBSP olive oil, ¼ tsp salt, and pepper. (For 4 servings, use juice from two wedges, 4 TBSP olive oil, and ½ tsp salt.)
Add arugula, pecans, and cranberries. Toss to thoroughly coat arugula.
Halve sandwiches on a diagonal. Divide sandwiches and salad between plates. Serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Mar 2026- Flavor: Many loved the unique sweet-savory combo of pear, fig jam, and cheese, though some found it overly sweet 🍐
- Ease of prep: Quick and simple to make, though a few noted it was more involved than a typical grilled cheese
- Suggestions: Consider adding bacon or chicken for extra savory flavor; some preferred more cheese to balance the sweetness
- Leftovers: Doesn't keep well as leftovers; best enjoyed fresh off the grill
- Portions: Several mentioned wanting more cheese to fully cover the large bread slices
Reviews from our home cooks
I adapted this recipe for the air fryer and it worked really well. I cooked the pear and shallot in the air fryer in a silicone basket with the honey and lemon juice-omitting the sugar since it was sweet enough without. I assembled the sandwiches and toasted on a rack in the air fryer, which crisped the bread evenly and melted the cheese to gooey perfection. All the flavors were excellent, and the lemony arugula salad was a great side-cranberries added a wonderful sweetness and pecans gave it a nice crunch. Easy and satisfying!
Everyone in my family liked these sandwiches, which is a win! The pears did not need extra sugar added, when you're adding honey and jam. One slice of Gouda per sandwich was not even enough to cover the bottom piece of bread, so please include more. The salad dressing was honestly pretty bad - sour and bitter. I added honey to it to make it palatable. I also put the dressed arugula directly into the sandwiches before cooking them, which allowed for a nice fresh addition to a rich sandwich, and also helped further mellow the bitterness of the dressing.
I think pear in grilled cheese is ingenious. I would never make it if I saw the recipe online - but HelloFresh has always impressed me with the simplicity and flavor of the recipes. I didn't add the sugar to the sauteing pears-shallots-honey. I don't think it needed it. There was nothing acidic in there that needed mellowing - the honey did it & was brilliant because it added honey aromatics.
I really like this sandwich and the version with the bacon. We get this regularly but rarely use the fig jam as we feel it is just too much sweetness and overpowers some of the other flavors. The honey gives it a great sweetness without overpowering the pear and Gouda.
Tasty. It is involved for a lunch if you're thinking it'll be quick. It is absolutely with the little bit of effort. I wouldn't be sad for 2x the fig jam... Hint hint.
Delicious. I omitted the shallots and added the pear to the salad and combined the lemon juice, honey and olive oil as a dressing to the salad.
If you add a little extra oil or butter to the shallots and pears you will have leftover a delicious sauce that can be drizzled onto the salad 😋
Absolutely delicious, love the sweetness of the fig jam with the sauté pear. Cheeses perfectly complement.
Arugula is bitter, and the dressing made it even more so. If we're going to balance out with a salad I would prefer normal lettuce. Really disliked the salad. It's a large stretch to call this a grilled cheese when you don't even have enough cheese to cover the sourdough in a single layer. Both the cheese and fig jam were extremely skimpy for how large the sourdough pieces were. Would've needed double of those ingredients.
Sandwich was good, but the pear was not ripe so there wasn't much flavor. I know that is a difficult factor to work into your business - especially with pears. We intend to make this again at home and pear pears that are really ripe. We thought the sandwich could become one of our favorites.
