Recipe: Bacon-Cheese Mix-In Burgers

One night a few years ago, my son Jeremy questioned the wisdom of cooking a burger patty and then slapping a slice of cheese onto it, only to have the cheese melt and ooze everywhere, and he also wondered why bacon slices were placed on top of cheeseburgers, only to slide off along with the melting cheese. So we cooked and crumbled bacon, chopped some Swiss cheese, and mixed everything up with the ground beef before cooking up the burgers. The result turned out to be a thing of absolute beauty, with the bits of bacon on the surface becoming slightly caramelized as they cooked and the tidbits of cheese starting to melt. The flavors of the mix-ins infuse the entire burger.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 pounds ground chuck
• 6 strips applewood-smoked bacon, chopped fine
• 1-1/2 ounces Swiss cheese, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small red onion, halved, sliced
• 4 onion rolls, lightly toasted
• Dijon mustard, or other condiments to taste
• Tomato slices, lettuce, etc. to taste

Direction

Combine ground chuck, bacon, Swiss, salt, garlic powder and pepper; form into 4 burger patties 5 inches across. Cook the burgers over medium-high heat in a large skillet until well-browned on both sides but still squishy when pressed in the middle.

Add the onion to the skillet and cook until the onion is softened and starting to caramelize; the burgers should still be not quite firm in the center. (If you have a grill, which I sadly don't, by all means use it for the burgers, then just saute the onions in a skillet.)

Place 1 onion roll onto each of 4 serving plates; spread rolls with Dijon mustard and top with onions, tomato and burger patties.

Serves 4.

This recipe was written by Mary Bilyeu and originally posted on AnnArbor.com on July 28, 2011.