Jalapeño cheddar cheese grits are the perfect base for a flavorful savory breakfast with eggs and sourdough toast. In the south, grits are typically a breakfast food, but these cheesy spicy grits also make a great side dish. I make these grits with fresh grated grass-fed cheddar and fermented jalapenos for the best flavor.

Jalapeño Cheese Grits

Jalapeño and cheddar cheese is my favorite flavor combination when I cook grits. I use fermented jalapenos to get the best umami flavor, and it is divine. You can get my fermented jalapeño recipe by clicking here.

I always have a quart of fermented jalapeños on my counter or in my fridge. The ones I used in this recipe were fermented for 6 months at room temperature before I moved them to cold storage.

What is the difference between white and yellow grits?

Both white and yellow grits come from corn; white corn makes white grits and yellow corn makes yellow grits. The white variety is mild, takes a longer time to cook, and is a blank canvas for flavor. The yellow variety is also known as polenta, and has a slightly sweet flavor. Yellow grits also cook

Eggs and Cheddar Cheese Grits

Eggs and grits are a classic breakfast combination in the south. I grew up eating grits and eggs on early country mornings, and It’s one of my favorite comfort foods.

While growing up, I usually only ate fried eggs, which was the first style of egg I learned how to cook. Eggs cooked any way go great with grits, but my favorite is soft boiled eggs. Poached eggs are great too, but I think it’s easier to make a jammy, soft boiled egg.

You can learn more details about how to soft boil an egg in our jammy eggs with yogurt blog post.

Cheddar Cheese Grits, a Healthy Breakfast

This is such a healthy grits recipe, perfect for a balanced breakfast. Here’s all the ingredients you need:

Grits: White corn grits work best in this recipe, but you can use yellow grits (polenta). Yellow grits may impart a lightly sweet flavor.
Salt: You usually need to add quite a bit of salt to grits to get the flavor right. In this recipe, we use a little bit of salt; the rest comes from the cheese and the fermented jalapeño brine.
Fermented Jalapeños: the most important ingredient, making these grits divine. I use the brine from the fermented jalapeños to cook the grits. Some of you may not have fermented jalapeños ready for use, so you can substitute them with store-bought pickled jalapeño juice.
Cheese: I use organic grass-fed New Zealand cheddar cheese for this recipe. It is a white color, rich in flavor, and wonderfully savory. You can use whatever cheddar is your favorite or substitute another cheese type. We also used sheep’s milk feta cheese as a topping.
Eggs: I am very picky about my eggs. I need them to be free-range pasture-raised, and the yolks should be a deep orange color, or I don’t want them. The best store-bought eggs are from Vital Farms. I also suggest getting eggs from the farmer’s market for the most health benefits.
Toppings: For toppings, I used some fermented jalapeno slices, fresh chopped scallions, feta cheese, and chili butter.

Cheddar Cheese Grits

Any sharp-flavored cheese can be used for these grits, but there’s something special about the jalapeño and cheddar combination. Cheddar cheese has a sharp, pungent, earthy flavor that pairs perfectly with the heat from the jalapenos.

Pepper jack cheese, goat cheese, and parmesan cheese have similar flavor profiles and would also pair well.

Grits with Goat Cheese

Goat cheese in another great cheese option for this recipe. It’s one of my favorite rich and flavorful cheeses to use in grits. Simply sub the cheddar for goat cheese in the recipe below to change it up. .

cheddar cheese grits in a white bowl topped with jammy boiled eggs, feta cheese, red pepper, and butter

Cheesy Vegan Grits Options

To make this recipe vegan you can sub the eggs for some sort of plant-based protein. For some vegan cheesy flavor, use tahini & nutritional Yeast.

This combination gives grits a nice cheese-like flavor! It’s important to add these ingredients once the grits are completely cooked. If you try to cook your grits with these cheesy ingredients, they will end up clumping together.