I'm not a big burger fan, in fact I would probably pick up a Ball Park hot dog before I grabbed a burger, even though I know what is probably in them.
But when I came across these blue cheese jalapeno burgers at a fancy grocery store, I decided that I would make them myself. I came up with this recipe on my own so I will not have any references for you just good advice and amazing burgers!
Ingredients:
2 lbs of ground beef (I like to use a higher fat beef but you can use lean if you like)
(If you want to invest the time you can buy a meat cut of your choice and use a meat grinder.)
6-8 slices (or more) of Mezzetta deli sliced tamed jalapenos (I have a picture down below)
2 oz give or take depending on your taste buds of crumbled blue cheese
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 small onion minced
3tsp Worcestershire
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
3 or more slices of bacon cooked then chopped into a fine crumble
1 large egg
burger buns
Extras if you like:
red onion
lettuce cheddar cheese
pickles
mustard
ketchup
mayo (yeah I'm weird)
tomato
Tools you will need:
A BBQ :-) or if you can't BBQ you can pan fry them
charcoal or propane and starter fluid
spatula
mixing bowl
chef knife
cutting board
saute pan
tongs
aluminum foil or parchment paper
if you like you can buy rubber gloves. I use them when handling the raw meat that way I don't have to fuss around with washing my hands.
First you want to get your bacon cooking. I like to cut mine up before I cook it but you can cook it in whole slices. You want to make sure you get your bacon crispy but not burnt. Take the bacon out of the pan, discard the grease and chop it up into fairly small pieces.
You can go ahead and set the bacon aside and get out the onion, garlic and jalapeno. I want to say that you should get the pieces very small. I minced everything fairly small.
Sorry I don't have a picture of the onions but they were very fine.
Get out the ground beef and put it in a bowl with the bacon, onion, jalapeno, garlic and egg into the bowl. Now you can measure out your salt, pepper and Cayenne to taste and add the Worcestershire sauce.
Sorry my picture is blurry.
Mix these ingredients together well and add the blue cheese.
Now we're ready to make the patty's. So depending on how big you want your burgers you can get about 8 1/4lb burgers or you can do 1/2 lb or 1/3 pounders.
Go ahead and take your desired meat size and for it into a ball. I like to pass the meat back and forth between my hands with a little firmness. Almost like you are passing a baseball between your hands and rotating it. (Not sure if that's a good set up on imagery)
Place the meat on the parchment and flatten them out till they are still in a circle but about 1/4 inch thick or so. I put an indent into the center of the patties so when they cook the don't puff up in the center from shrinking.
Now your grill should be good and hot. You want to be able to keep your hand over the heat for only 4 seconds and it should be hot enough to cook with.
Since all homemade burger are different sizes I would suggest using a meat thermometer and checking the meat for doneness. 160 degrees is how hot you want ground beef to be. If you made your own ground beef you can actually cook it like a steak and can cook them medium or medium rare.
After about 10-15 minutes your burgers should be nice and done and ready to eat!
I'm also sorry for the lack of a picture of a completed burger but they were to good and I was completely caught up in eating them that I forgot.
You can serve a wide variety of things with your burgers here are some ideas:
Pasta salad
Potatoe salad
Macaroni and cheese
Tator tots
French fries
Salad
Chips
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