Smash Burgers Recipe
Up Your Burger Game
Let’s make some smash burgers
I’ve been working on my burger for years at this point. I’ve messed with different cuts of meat, different seasonings, different sizes and different cooking methods. I no longer make burgers any other way. This method is simple, takes few ingredients and will make you the burger guy (or girl) of your group.
Ingredients
80/20 ground beef. But as much as you need to feed. 1 pound will make about 4 burgers. DO NOT BUY LEAN GROUND BEEF. You may be thinking it’s more healthy, well the fat cooks out. The small health benefit, if any, is not worth the trade off. Do a few extra reps and buy 80/20
Lettuce
Tomato
Onion
Burger buns
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil
Bacon
Cheese of your choice (I prefer white American from the deli. Don’t American cheese pre packaged, have some pride)
Equipment
Cast iron pan/flat top grill these are your two best bets for good results. At last resort you can use a regular frying pan, but go ahead and make a little investment on a cast iron. We will be using it for future recipes too. I’ll teach you how to season it and clean it as well
Metal spatula preferably a flat one (I actually don’t have a flat one at the house right now so I used a regular slotted metal spatula. It still worked
Recipe
Fry your bacon how ever you like it. If you don’t want bacon, skip this step and rethink your life
Toast your buns. You can butter them for perfection, but toasting is important to keep some structure
Take your ground beef and make around 1/4 pound balls out of them. Like a meat ball. Salt and pepper on all sides. Easiest to salt the top and bottom on a cutting board and then just roll it around a bit on the salt and pep that didn’t stick. You will season again so don’t get stuck on this step
Heat up your flat top grill or cast iron. You want your surface to be HOT when you put your burger on.
While your surface is heating up go ahead and slice your tomatoes, onion and lettuce.
Surface is nice and hot, so now you are ready to cook. Pour about a table spoon of vegetable oil on your surface. You can use canola oil if you want. They are basically interchangeable, but do not use olive oil. Olive oils burn temperature is too low. It will burn and smoke and fuck up your cook.
Surface is hot, oil is on, you are ready to smash some burgers. Make sure you have the salt and pepper near by. Take one ball of meat, put it on the grill and smash it down with your spatula. While your smashing you are also forming. Perfection is not the goal. Miss shaped burgers build character. Most important thing is to make sure they are nice and thin. Once Smashed season with salt and pepper one more time. Getting the seasoning right just takes time, but keep in mind most home cooks criminally under season their food.
You are probably wondering when to flip this burger. It takes about 2-3 min on each side, but depending on how hot obviously that changes. Best way to know is to watch. Watch the corners of the burgers, they should get nice and dark and crisp. The center of the burger will start to “sweat” once you see these signs you’re probably good to flip. But fuck we are home cooks, if you flipped to early just flip it back. Once you’ve flipped season the other side.
Cook the burger on the other side for about 30 seconds and put on your cheese. To speed things up you can take a lid from a pot and throw it over top. Will melt your cheese very nice
Once done take off and serve. Build your burger how you like it. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion for me. I don’t fuck with condiments on a burger. Luis lunch style (Google it). But feel free to use whatever you want
That’s it! Simple as pie (or burgers). Basically, don’t get fancy. Salt and pepper is the only seasoning a burger needs. I’ve tried it all. This is best. Also a little pro tip for your side dish. If you plan on doing French fries you can buy the cheapest frozen bag at the store and if you fry them in oil they will taste like they are from a restaurant. You can use a regular old frying pan to achieve this. Don’t burn your house down. Enjoy the burgers and the fights this weekend! Let’s win some money
