Ten-year-old Jordyn Boyer's love for cooking recently paid off — $25,000 worth, that is.

Jordyn, the daughter of Troy and Dianne Boyer of Lebanon, was named the winner of the Seventh Annual Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest and awarded a $25,000 scholarship from the company. In addition, Jordyn has demonstrated her cooking skills during two appearances on the "Today" show in New York City and Fox 43's "Morning Show."

The busy South Lebanon Elementary School fifth-grader has been helping her mother in the kitchen for years and "likes to cook for her family and friends."

"I have been cooking since I was probably 8," Jordyn said. "My favorite thing to cook is macaroni and cheese."

Branching off a little from the family mac and cheese recipe, Jordyn thought it would be fun to enter the contest with her recipe.

The inspiration for Jordyn's Po' Boy Peanut Butter Chicken Cheesesteak came from a trip her father took to Louisiana recently.

"When he got back, he told me he had a Po' Boy sandwich," Jordyn said. "I didn't know what one was, and he told me it was like a sub, and I like subs."

Creating the sandwich for the contest was not hard for Jordyn. She found the contest online one day and brainstormed for a little as to what she wanted to combine, she said.

"We didn't have a lot of time," Dianne said. "She only found the ad about a week before the deadline, came up with a list of ingredients, and I went out and bought them on a free night. She worked on it that night."

After test-driving the recipe on her family — including her brother, Brock, and sister, Taylor — Jordyn felt she had the winning combination and sent off her entry.

This spin on a traditional cheesesteak sandwich includes the contest's required ingredient of peanut butter in its sauce, which can also be used as a dipping sauce for the sandwich. The peanut butter is combined with Worcestershire sauce, honey and honey mustard.

"I really like to experiment when cooking and like all of these flavors together," Jordyn said.

Jordyn said she knew she had her recipe right the first time she made it, but prepared it about a dozen times for family before submitting it.

During the development stage, Dianne said she just offered advice on how long the ingredients should be cooked and the recipe itself "was all Jordyn."

"I helped her figure out the heating settings, the things that you don't really think about when cooking," Dianne said.

After being contacted that she was among the top five finalists, Jordyn traveled to The Culinary Loft in New York City on March 20 with her mother to compete in the finals.

During the finals, a food stylist actually cooked the food for the contestants, Dianne said. However, it was up to the contestants to make sure the ingredients were cooked to their liking.

"At first they had too many peppers and not enough chicken," Jordyn said. "And the vegetables were still a little too crisp."

After some tweaking, the contestants were then responsible for assembling their recipes and plating them for the judges. The recipes were judged on creativity, nutritional balance, taste, appearance and ease of preparation, according to a press release from Jif.

Since winning the contest, Jordyn has been busy making appearances to cook the winning recipe. The TV appearances and instant fame has not seemed to phase Jordyn, according to her mom.

"She wasn't nervous at all during the 'Today' show," Dianne said. "She just cooked her recipe with ease."

Recipe

Po' Boy Peanut Butter Chicken Cheesesteak

E-mail: cesbenshade@lnpnews.com