Grilled Hamburgers w/Sausage and Bacon

I like to experiment with food and a couple of weeks ago I had an idea. I combined the flavor of sausage with traditional charcoal grilled hamburger for something a little different. I liked it so much the first time I tried it, I wanted to share it on the bbq blog. I hope you like it.

Grilled Hamburgers w/Sausage and Bacon

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. ground CAB 80% lean / 20% fat hamburger
• 1 lb. ground pork sausage
• 1 large onion
• 6 slices of bacon
• Pepper jack cheese (or Swiss if you prefer)
• French’s original mustard

Directions: 

• Chop the onion.
• Combine the hamburger, sausage and finely chopped onion in a medium sized mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.
• Form meat into patties that are the size of half-a-fist
• Cook on medium hot (350-400 degrees) grill to medium-well (160-165 degrees internal temperature).
• Resist the temptation to "smash" or "flatten" the patties (you'll release all the juicy goodness) :-)
• Add a slice of pepper jack or Swiss cheese for each burger.
• Top with ½ slice of fried bacon.
• Serve with mustard on a plain hamburger bun.

Grilled hamburger, medium well

You could use almost any type of sausage, but I prefer something with a little heat and heavy sage seasoning. We used Jimmy Dean's for these, but Italian or Polish style sausage would also work. If you prefer to leave out the sausage, you could even use turkey and add some chopped onions to the mix.

Hamburger, pepper jack cheese, topped with bacon and French's mustard

Some of you may be wondering, "where's the lettuce and tomato?" I prepare mine without the "garden" items, but I don't hold it against anyone the prefers a "deluxe" burger. (That's what we called them when I used to flip burgers at the DQ in high school.)

We served our grilled hamburgers with zucchini fries

Here's a link to the zucchini recipe from Health.com. Basically we cut the zucchini into 3 inch strips; prepared an egg and milk mixture; dipped the sticks into the egg wash; rolled in bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese; and cooked at 425 degrees on baking rack on top of a baking sheet. The baking rack helps keep them from getting "mushy" and sticking to the baking sheet.

A Weekend of Grilling and Graduation Parties

Besides delivering the main course for Saturday afternoon's graduation party for my nephew Gus, who graduated from Kennessaw Mountain High School this weekend, I was also called upon for some impromptu grilling on my brother-in-law's propane grill (a definite rarity for me).


Bubba's Burgers almost finished



A little Kosher salt, black pepper, and Dale's marinade made these hamburgers pretty tasty.



When all else fails, marinade your pork loin chops in some Dale's Marinade for a couple hours prior to grilling. 

Smoked Hamburgers via Indirect Grilling Technique

It's week two of the NFL regular season and I finished my second "tailgate grilling session" of the year. Last time I cooked ABTs. This time I stuck to the tried and true backyard bbq favorite....hamburgers. But, I put my own twist on grilled hamburgers.

Smoke & Spice introduced me to smoked hamburgers a couple of years ago.  If you've never tried low and slow hamburgers, you might want to give it a try sometime.

Here's how I made them today for lunch:

2 lbs hamburger

7 tablespooons vinegar

7 tablespoons water

3 oz Miner's Mix (TM) Carne Asada Marinade & Chorizo Mix

Combine hamburger, vinegar, water, and chorizo mix.  Mix thoroughly with hands and refrigerate. When grill is pre-heated, form hamburgers by hand and cook on smoker or grill with indirect heat at 275-300 degrees.  Cook to 160 degrees (medium) or 170 degrees (well done). Serve on hamburger bun or eat plain.  I prefer to add Blues Hog Original BBQ Sauce instead of ketchup and mustard. 

I didn't really follow the directions on the Miner's Mix (TM) package.  Half the fun of bbq for me is the trial and error experimentation that goes along with it.

I cooked these on my Weber Platinum charcoal kettle grill using the charcoal "triangles" on either side of the cooking chamber.  This provides reliable and controllable indirect heat in your kettle grill.

Close-up of the final results 60 minutes later just in time for kick-off of the Tampa Bay vs. Carolina game.

FTC Disclosure:  I received the Miner's Mix (TM) as a gift directly from the company as a "trial".  If I was not happy with the results of the spice mixture, I would not have posted this article.

Slow Cooked BBQ Hamburgers

In my house, the celebration of Memorial Day weekend always includes an afternoon watching the Indianapolis 500 at the Brickyad and an evening watching the Charlotte 600 from Lowe's Motor Speedway. Between the races I cook a little bbq. This year I'm preparing some hamburgers for smoking.

Here's my recipe:

• Start with 2 lbs. of hamburger.
• Dice half an onion.
• Dice a roasted jalenpeno pepper.
• Mix together and form five or six hamburger patties.

Prepare a simple rub of paprika, garlic powder, Turbinado sugar, onion powder, kosher salt, black pepper, and chili powder.

Sprinkle the rub on both sides of the patties and refrigerate until ready for cooking.

Pre-heat a bbq smoker to 250 degrees. Slow cook the hamburgers until desired level of doneness.

For a step by step recipe, refer to Humdinger Hamburgers in the Smoke & Spice bbq book by Cheryl and Bill Jamison.

Humdinger Hamburgers on WSM

Smoke & Spice, a barbecue cookbook by Cheryl and Bill Jamison, has some delicious recipes.

Their recipe for Humdinger Hamburgers on page 133 is a nice example of some of the book's basic smoker recipes that have been "spiced" up a little to make them all the better to eat.

We started by making the spice mixture. It's called Wild Willy's Number One-Derful Rub in the book and contains paprika, black pepper, kosher salt, sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and a small amount of cayenne.

Next we prepared the Basic Beef Mop, which included beer, vinegar, vegetable oil, a chopped onion, a minced garlic clove, Worcestershire sauce, and an additional small amount of the Wild Willy's rub.

I prepared the Weber Smokey Mountain for smoking at 225 degrees, removed the water pan, and put the hamburgers on the top grate for cooking.

You don't have to use the beef mop, but I decided to try it out and basted the burgers every 15 minutes until the internal temperature reached 165 degrees.

I have never "smoked" a hamburger before, but they were delicious. I am not sure I'll ever "grill" my hamburgers again.