Monday, January 30, 2012

BBQ Baby Burgers

I have a few blogs that I follow that post very yummy recipes, my favorites being The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Kayotic Kitchen.  I love the way that they display their recipes step by step, with great color photos and descriptions.  I tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman that we all LOVED and I tweaked it a little, and wanted to share my version of the recipe here.  (If you want to see the original recipe, click here.)

BBQ Baby Burgers

First of all, I prefer the term baby burgers, as the term "slider" always meant to me that the burgers are so greasy they slide right out of the buns.  So, that is not what I wanted to call these delicious, succulent burgers!!  So, baby burgers they are!!

We begin with the ingredients:


Ground meat, yellow onion, butter, Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce, Tabasco Jalapeño sauce, rolls and salt and pepper.

Start with ground beef (or any other kind of ground meat, like turkey).  I use the ground beef chubs from Costco (only 9% fat) and cut them into slices while they are still frozen.  Then I let them thaw in perfectly shaped patties.

Dice the yellow onion into small pieces.


I like the Colombo Potato Rolls, as they are the perfectly round size for the burgers, but you could use Hawaiian rolls, dinner rolls, etc.  Cut them in half.


Spread butter each of the roll halves and set them aside for later.


Season the meat well on both sides with salt and pepper.


Place butter in a large skillet and let it melt.


Add the patties and cook them until they are done in the middle, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.  I had never cooked meat in butter before this, but it is absolutely delicious!!



Remove the patties from the skillet and set aside.  If there is more than 2 tablespoons of grease in the skillet, drain off all but those 2 tablespoons.  With the 9% beef I use, there is barely any grease at all.  Put the diced onions in the skillet and saute them until they are soft and golden and lovely.  I love onions sauteed in butter.  Such a wonderful smell!!  Breathe it in!!


Now add in the BBQ sauce to the skillet and stir it up with the sauteed onion.  I use the Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce because the original recipe calls for whiskey and BBQ sauce (if at this point you are more interested in the original recipe, click here.  Haha!!).  With the BBQ sauce you get the flavor, but not the alcohol.


Add in some of the Tabasco Jalapeño sauce (the original recipe calls for actual jalapeños, but that is too much for my kids.  Kevin would love it though!) to give it a little kick.  Or a lot of sauce if you want a big kick!


Reduce the heat to low and then add the burgers back into the BBQ mixture and coat them on both sides.  Let the patties simmer until everything is hot and beautifully bubbly.  Isn't that gorgeous?!!


Place the buttered rolls in a skillet and grill them until they are slightly browned and crispy.


Now take one of the deliciously yummy burgers out of the sauce and place it on the bottom bun.  Goop a little bit of extra BBQ mixture onto the patty and finish with the top bun.  Enjoy!!  These burgers are a little piece of heaven!  So very good!!!!


Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground meat
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1 whole large onion, diced
1 bottle of Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce
Tabasco Jalapeño sauce 
12 whole dinner rolls, split