Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Bacon

So, I’m watching The Menu on HBO this evening, and a cheeseburger is requested. And that gets me to thinking…it’s been a while since I did a burger. In fact, my last write-up of a burger was last June when I did a New Mexico Green Chili Burger. And I have all the ingredients for the burger on my mind.

So in honor of the State concept, tonight I give you an Oklahoma style burger, inspired by the movie.

This will be a double quarter pounder smash burger with cheese and bacon. I actually didn’t use a half pound of hamburger, that seemed pretty excessive, so I used a little less. On the good side, the fat from the grass-fed 80/20 burger and the fat from the bacon counter-act each other, so it’s a fairly healthy meal. Says science.

The movie didn’t have bacon, the condiments or the lettuce, that’s all me. I had some bacon left over from my last egg cup breakfast. And I like mayo and mustard on my burgers. The lettuce it make me feel that I actually had something green with my dinner. The rest follows the Chef’s recipe.

So I THIN slice a white onion with the grain and get 4 slices of medium cheddar (I simply couldn’t use American cheese, and Sargento Medium Cheddar melts much like American.

Using my cast iron skillet, I cook 3 cut-in-half slices of bacon. I will eat 3 of these halves of these while cooking the rest of the sandwich. This was planed out. I put the bacon on some paper towel to de-grease, I wiped out the pan and toasted the buns. I put these both under a pot lid to keep warm.

With a medium-high heat, I put a small amount of Kerrygold Butter into the skillet, and quickly pressed my two small meat spheres into the pan. While the bottom cooked, I quickly seasoned the top with a little kosher salt and a lot of fresh cracked black pepper. On to this I place the onions, and pressed them into the raw meat with my spatula.

This get immediately flipped and the onion/season side begins to sear. Without hesitation, the cheese gets placed on top of this. The key here is that this all happens hot and fast. The goal is to have a crispy, almost burnt exterior, and a warm, almost pink center. Over-cook it and you might as well go to Wendy’s.

Within a minute, the burger is seared on the bottom and the cheese is melting. The burgers get moved to a paper towel lined plate to rest.

Then construction begins. The bottom bun gets some mayo and mustard, the burgers get layered on top, then the bacon, then some lettuce. I used a Harvest Crunch mixed green. The top bun goes on, it is cut in half…and BINGO.

This may be one of the best burgers I have ever cooked for myself.

Now, time to finish watching the movie…