Copycat Sizzler's Cheese Toast Recipe

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Sizzler's popular cheese toast is crispy, cheesy, and buttery, and just spells comforting indulgence. It's served as an unlimited appetizer at Sizzler, a steakhouse with many locations in the Western U.S. and Puerto Rico. Whether you're already a fan of this legendary cheese toast or you don't live near a location and are curious to know what it's all about, the good news is that it's really easy to make a copycat version at home.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a copycat Sizzler's cheese toast recipe that whips up in under 15 minutes. The secret is a flavored compound butter that's spread over the bread before it's toasted in a pan. It only takes a moment to mix together, but it adds so much flavor you'd think you were enjoying a more complicated recipe. While Sizzler actually uses margarine, this recipe calls for butter for flavor enhancement. While many copycat recipes call for Parmesan, Sizzler uses Pecorino, and so does this recipe, and the Pecorino is freshly grated at the beginning of the recipe for the best flavor. Garlic powder and optional fresh garlic add heaps of flavor to the compound butter, rounding out the bold taste.

Only one side of the bread is buttered and toasted, just like it's made at Sizzler, so each bite delivers crunchy, cheesy goodness on one side and a soft bite on the other. Try this recipe to see for yourself how simple it is to create rich, flavorful, and decadent cheese toast without an expensive trip to the restaurant.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

For this recipe, you will need a small chunk of Pecorino Romano cheese, salted butter, and garlic powder in order to make the compound butter. You can add optional freshly crushed garlic for extra garlic flavor if desired. Make sure to soften the butter beforehand, or it will be very difficult to mix. You'll also need thick, square slices of white bread. Sizzler uses pullman style loaves, which are baked in special pans to achieve a flat top and square shape. Any soft white bread will work in case only rounded top loaves are available.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Finely grate the Pecorino until you have ¼ cup of freshly grated cheese.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Place the butter, garlic powder, and grated cheese in a small bowl and mix with a fork until well combined. For extra garlic flavor, add an optional half clove of freshly crushed garlic if desired.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Spread ¼ of the flavored butter on each of the 4 slices of bread.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Heat a dry skillet on medium. For best results, use a nonstick or seasoned cast-iron pan.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Place 2 slices of bread, buttered side down, in the skillet and cook for 3-5 minutes until crispy and browned. Do not flip and cook the second side of the bread.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Remove the bread from the skillet and set aside.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Remove any crumbs or bits of cheese from the skillet and repeat the previous 2 steps to cook the remaining 2 slices of bread.

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

Cheese toast doesn't need much for buttery, cheesy perfection, but there are ways to play around with the ingredients to make it your own. The Sizzler's original uses margarine, and you can use that instead of butter if desired. This recipe keeps the stronger Pecorino cheese of the original, and if you'd like to dial the flavor up even more, mix it with ground black pepper. The flavors go well together. You can also dial up the garlic by adding crushed raw garlic in addition to the garlic powder. For a more subtle flavor, choose Parmesan over Pecorino. Don't hesitate to add your favorite spices to the mix. Onion powder, paprika, cumin, chili powder, or dried herbs like oregano or rosemary are all great choices.

Sizzler's uses thick, soft, white sandwich bread, but consider switching to sourdough bread for a more robust taste and texture, or brioche for a sweeter treat. While one side of the bread is meant to be kept soft and uncooked, you can toast both sides if you prefer added crunch.

You can even make cheese toast vegan. Instead of the butter and cheese, use vegan spread and a flavored grated cheese alternative. You can easily make one yourself by blending raw cashews, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and nutritional yeast (a popular vegan Parmesan alternative) until crumbly. 

Michelle Bottalico/Mashed

When the butter, garlic, and cheese are mixed together at the beginning of this recipe, a garlic butter is formed. Garlic butter is a form of compound butter, known as beurre composé in French, first created in France to flavor foods, and there are many ways to customize it to your preferences. Roasting the garlic cloves will amp up the garlic flavor and add subtly sweet and nutty tones. You can even leave the garlic out and use raw or roasted shallot for a delicious variation.

A simple compound butter can be made with garlic, butter, and fresh herbs. Including the grated cheese is up to you. Simply using fresh parsley is lovely, but feel free to mix and match other choices like basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and chives as well. If fresh herbs aren't available, sprinkle in smaller quantities of dried herbs.

If you're a fan of heat, mix in minced fresh chile peppers or dried chile powder, red pepper flakes, chile oil, hot sauce, or minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. To add spice without heat, minced or ground ginger, smoked paprika, garlic salt, or ground white, green, pink, or black peppercorns will get the job done. Finally, although this recipe is for cheese toast, you can create a fun breakfast twist on the recipe by leaving out the cheese and creating a compound butter with cinnamon and maple syrup or honey and citrus zest instead.