Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Burger

When I found this interesting take on a bacon and cheeseburger on bitten:sweet‘s food blog, I knew I had to try it. I chose this recipe for a number of reasons, the first one being: I had never pan fried a burger before (always grilled), I had never made a burger from scratch before, I had never had bacon and cheese stuffed into a burger before (always on top) and my favorite reason, I’m always up for experimenting in the kitchen…and I could have sworn I heard the beau salivating as we were reading the recipe together.

To be honest, I don’t usually crave or get hunger pangs for these thick meaty sandwiches but for some reason this burger looked like a real good idea at 8pm, Sunday night. I was compelled to make this happen even though I had two presentations to work on and a never-ending to do list beckoning me back to my desk and halt further procrastination. Those words of advice fell on deaf ears. Off to the store I went.

*The recipe off bitten:sweet is all you really need, but here’s what I did anyway (I might as well copy and paste, bahaha)

You will need this for one burger:

8oz ground beef (per burger)
a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese
2 strips roughly chopped turkey bacon (or regular bacon!!)
1 burger bun
a ring or two of red onion
a slice of tomato
a leaf of lettuce or whatever greens you like on your burg
mayo
ketchup

Step 1: Fry the turkey bacon and set aside for a few minutes. When they are cool enough, roughly cut the bacon and set aside in a bowl.

Step 2: Sprinkle out the amount of cheese you want for your burger from its original bag into a separate dish. This makes it easier to avoid contamination because you’ll be handling the raw meat already when stuffing with bacon and cheese.

Step 3: Get a lid to use as a patty template. (I used the lid of a yogurt container.) Put a sheet of saran wrap over the lid. Divide the 8 ounce beef patty in half. Place the first half on top of the saran wrap.

Step 4: Layer the chopped bacon and cheese on top. It kinda looks like a pizza, doesn’t it? Finally place the second half of your beef patty on top of the bacon and cheese. Make sure to seal the outer edges so that the inner filling doesn’t bubble out while you cook.

Step 5: In a frying pan, heat about 3-4 tbs of veggie oil on medium. Place the patties in the pan when the oil is hot and let them fry on each side for 5 minutes or until cooked through.

Step 6: While the burgers are doin their thang, toast the hamburger buns and mayo both sides. Slice the tomatoes and cut the onions into rings. I prefer my onions caramelized, so I sauteed these in a separate frying pan while the burgers cooked.

It took about 12-13 minutes to cook our burgers and we made sure the final internal temp reached the recommended 160 degrees F. If you don’t have a food thermometer, now is a good time to invest in one!

Step 6: When the burgers are cooked, place them on some paper towels to soak up the extra oil then sandwich them between the buns.

I must say this burger lets out a LOT of grease at it cooks. If you have a splatter protector, you will most definitely put it to good use with this recipe. As the burger cooks, the hot oil flies like no other. I was caught in the arm with hot oil bullets multiple times and once on the eyebrow (ouch!!).

But don’t let this deter you! Anyone who has ever fried anything (even a simple sunny side up egg) knows that minor oil casualties are a part of enjoying the end result heheh. Prime example right here:

This washes down well with a nice cold glass of lemonade but I imagine it would pair just as well with a nice chilled bottle of brew. I can’t wait to grill this when it gets warmer out – preferably for a barbecue, with a couple of lounge chairs, good company, and flip flops. Those days can’t be too far off. Until next time,

Happy cooking!