Cheesy Brats With Celery-Pickle Relish

There are hundreds of weeknights in a year. That’s a lot of dinner! Test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin is here to help. In her series Speedy Does It, she shares whoa-worthy meals you can get on the table like *snaps fingers* that.

I come from a hot-dog-loving family and jump at any opportunity to throw a few on the grill. While I’m more than happy to stick to a classic all-beef-with-just-mustard situation, sometimes the occasion calls for a bun stuffed with a bit more flair. That’s where these gussied-up sausages come in. They are butterflied (i.e., cut down the length and split open like a book) to create two flat sides for even cooking and maximized char. One side gets topped with cheese—which, when tucked into a bun, encases the sausage in meltiness—and the other side forms a perfect crevice for stuffing with a bright and crunchy celery relish. If you’re not into butterflying the sausages, feel free to grill them whole and melt the cheese directly onto the buns.

Hot-dog-style sausages—that is, those that have “fully cooked” on their label—work best here. Fresh sausages, meaning the style made from raw ground meat stuffed inside a casing, don’t slice and split as neatly, and make the butterflying and grilling method much more difficult. Compare these fully cooked beer brats with these fresh bratwurst from the same brand; for this recipe, you’ll want to seek out the former variety.