Friday night - Burger Bar

Apr 4

Apr 4 Friday night - Burger Bar

We started doing Burger Bars when my kids were little and we would go out to Fire Island with our family friends, Wendy & Eddy. Since then it’s long been a favorite casual meal. My middle, affectionately nick-named “Benny Buns” likes to think he has perfected the art of making burgers so I handed the kitchen duties over to he and his girlfriend last night. His secret is cooking the burgers with the onions sliced incredibly thin on the burger and flipping them onto the onions. I thought it was slightly reminiscent of Friendly’s Swiss Patty Melt but oh so much better given our options for toppings. In my house, we put out the following:

Sliced Tomato

Grilled Onions

Sauteed mushrooms

Bacon (crispy!)

Greens

Jalapenos

Your choice of cheese melted on top - I went with Swiss and Ben & Alexa went with the traditional American cheese.

Ketchup, Dijon Mustard, Mayonnaise & Siracha

At the store they only had Kobe beef sliders and buns (we were lucky and got the Martin’s Potato Buns) so I went with that - actually better for people like me who like to eat halves of everything. It allowed Ben to get the benefit of Alexa’s and my smaller appetites (I did need to save room for my Ben & Jerry’s later - a Corona staple now). Yummy Friday night.

Directions

Prepare Bacon - I like to saute the onions in the same pan as the bacon is done. I take out most of the fat but use just a little bit, add butter and diced shallot & garlic. We just chopped up the mushrooms but it’s probably better if you slice them.

In the meantime, Slice onions as thin as you can - if you have a food processor use the slicer on the thinnest size you can.

Prepare the rest of your sides / toppings and set them out on the table or bar. We didn’t have pickles but those would be a good addition

Using a cast iron griddle or pan, put the patties on, give them a quick dusting of Kosher Salt & Pepper, Layer the onions on top and let cook for a few minutes. You’ll have to be the judge of time - depends how you like your burgers cooked - but flip them with the onion mixture on top, letting the onions cook, caramelize and seep all that sweet goodness into the meat. Flip again before your meat is fully cooked as you want to let the cheese get nice and gooey on top. Layer your burger with the cheese and let melt. Sometimes its’s helpful to put a bowl on the top. In the meantime, toast your buns. Get the burgers off, place on buns, scrape all the oniony goodness and divide evenly on top and serve.

The rest is up to you & your diners!

Chowbella :).