Best Burger With Bleu Cheese Butter
Serves 4
- 1 pound ground chuck steak
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 slices bleu cheese butter, 1/2-inch each (see below)
- 4 sesame hamburger buns, halved
Combine ground steak with salt and pepper. Divide into 4 equal-sized pieces and gently shape into 4 burgers about 1-inch-thick. Grill burgers and warm buns according to instructions below. Top burgers with butter and serve hot in sesame buns.
Outdoor cooking: Grill over hot coals for 3 minutes per side for rare, 4 minutes per side for medium rare, or 5 minutes per side for well done. Place buns cut side down on grill until warm and lightly golden, 1 minute.
Indoor cooking: Preheat a ridged cast-iron grill pan over high heat. Cook for 3 minutes per side for rare, 4 minutes per side for medium rare, or 5 minutes per side for well done. Place buns cut side down on grill pan until warm and light golden, 1 minute.
Bleu-Cheese Butter
Makes 4 servings
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ounce (¼ cup crumbled) bleu cheese
- ½ tsp black pepper
Place ingredients in a food processor or blender; pulse until well blended. Wrap in foil. Place in the freezer until hard, about 45 minutes. To serve, roll back foil and cut into ½-inch slices. When slicing from frozen, warm the knife under hot water first. After slicing, always tightly re-wrap the unused flavored butter roll in the foil before returning to refrigerator or freezer.
Best Burger Variations
Herbed Burger: Add 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 crushed garlic clove and 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion to the ground steak.
Spicy Burger: Add ½ teaspoon Tabasco, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce and 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard to the ground steak.
Think ahead: Shape burgers up to 1 day in advance. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Cook’s Note: Overhandling the meat when shaping will result in a tough, dry burger. To guarantee a juicy burger, handle the meat as little as possible.
Barbecue Chipotle Burgers
- 1 pound ground beef (93 percent lean or leaner)
- ½ cup beer
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 4 slices frozen Texas Toast
- 2 spears pickled okra, dill pickle, or jalapeño peppers, sliced
Combine beer, brown sugar, ketchup, chipotle peppers, and Worcestershire sauce in saucepan; bring to a boil. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes until sauce thickens; set aside.
Lightly shape ground beef into four 1/2-inch thick patties. Place patties on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 8-10 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, covered, 7-9 minutes) until thermometer inserted horizontally into center registers 160° F, turning occasionally. (Cooking times are for fresh or thoroughly thawed ground beef. Ground beef should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160° F. Color is not a reliable indicator of ground beef doneness.)
Prepare Texas Toast according to package directions. Cut each piece of toast in half. Fresh Texas toast, buttered, may be used instead of frozen product. For each sandwich, spread 1 tablespoon barbecue sauce over one toast half. Top with burger, another tablespoon sauce and okra slices. Close sandwich.
Herb Cheese-Stuffed Garlic Burgers
Makes 6 servings
- 2 pounds ground beef chuck, 85 percent lean
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons herbed garlic cream cheese, such as Boursin
- 6 hamburger buns, split
- Oil for coating grill grate
- Gas: Direct heat, medium-high 425° F to 450° F; clean, oiled grate
Charcoal: Direct heat, light ash; 12-by-12-inch charcoal bed (about 3 dozen coals); clean, oiled grate on lowest setting
Wood: Direct heat, light ash; 12-by-12-inch bed, 3 to 4 inches deep; clean, oiled grate set 2 inches above the fire..
Heat the grill as directed.
Using your hands, mix the beef, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl until well blended; do not overmix. Using a light touch, form into 12 patties no more than 1½-inch thick.
Put a portion (about 1½ teaspoons) of cream cheese in the center of each of the patties; top with the remaining patties and press together, taking care to seal the edges well. Refrigerate the burgers until the grill is ready.
Brush the grill grate and coat it with oil. Put the burgers on the grill, cover and cook for 9 minutes, flipping after 5 minutes, for medium-done (150° F, slightly pink). Add a minute per side for well-done (160° F).
To toast the buns, put them cut-sides down directly over the fire for the last minute of cooking.
If serving the burgers directly from the grill, serve on the buns. If the burgers will sit, even for a few minutes, keep the buns and burgers separate until just before serving.
Lean & Green Dill Salmon Burgers With Creamy Cocktail Sauce
- 1¼ pounds wild Alaskan salmon, skinned, boned, cut into large chunks
- ¼ cup stemmed fresh dill (or 4 teaspoons dried dill)
- 1 scallion, cut into 4 pieces
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar or rice vinegar)
- 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 small garlic clove
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Expeller-pressed canola oil spray
- 4 whole-grain hamburger buns
- 1 avocado, thinly sliced
- sliced tomato
- leafy salad greens
- Lemon wedges
Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil mayonnaise
- 4 1/2 teaspoons cocktail sauce
Preheat grill on medium heat to 375° F. Add half the salmon, along with dill, scallion, mustard, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper, to a food processor and run until mixture becomes pasty. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add remaining salmon. Pulse a few times until chunks become bite-size pieces.
Gently form salmon into 4 patties, not overworking, to make a tender burger. Lightly coat the cut sides of buns with spray. Oil the grill and place burgers on grate; cook for 4 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the flip side. Place cut side of buns on the grill to toast, right after flipping the burgers. Remove patties and buns from grill.
If fresh dill isn’t available (dill season peaks in summer and early fall), substitute flat-leaf parsley.
You can make your own cocktail sauce with 1 tablespoon of natural ketchup, 1 teaspoon of horseradish, and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice.
If you don’t feel like grilling, saute the patties in 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.