Stuffed Burgers Tonight!

[PaynTrain]

So, below is the plan for tonight's cook. Center out a divot with a beer can, and filler up. 3 varieties: Classic, Cuban, and French. Take a look, will let you know how it went (with pictures) tomorrow!

• Needed ingredients
  • Pam cooking spray
  • 6 pounds ground beef 80%
  • 8 slices thick cut premium bacon
  • 8 oz. Portobello or baby Portobello, cleaned, trimmed to ½â€ chunks
  • 1 red bell pepper, cleaned, diced
  • ½ cup diced sweet onion
  • 2 large sweet onions, quartered lengthwise, very thinly sliced
  • Provolone cheese slices
  • Provolone cheese shredded
  • Swiss cheese slices
  • Swiss cheese shredded
  • A1 steak sauce
  • 12 hamburger buns
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • Pickle slices
  • Finely pulled BBQ pork
  • Yellow mustard
  • Flour
  • ¼ dry white wine
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • ½ tsp thyme
  • 1 ¼ cup good croutons
  • Olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp. Butter

Preparations needing completed, please have all ingredients staged and ready to roll by 5:30:

• Classic burger assembly station:
  • 4, ½ pound round burger balls on non-stick surface
  • Prepared burger filling
    • Sautéed (in olive oil) mushrooms, red bell pepper, and ½ cup diced sweet onion
  • Other ingredients
    • 8 slices bacon uncooked
    • Salt and pepper
    • Provolone cheeses
    • A1

• Cubano burger assembly station:
  • 4, ½ pound round burger balls on non-stick surface
  • Other ingredients
    • Salt and pepper
    • Finely pulled BBQ pork
    • Yellow mustard
    • Pickle slices
    • Swiss cheeses

• Frenchie burger assembly station:
  • 4, ½ pound round burger balls on non-stick surface
  • Prepared burger filling
    • Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the 2 large sliced onions and thyme. Cook slowly, stirring often, until the onions are soft and golden-brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle the onions with the flour and continue to cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Add the wine and beef broth. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency of gravy, adding more broth by the tablespoon if the mixture is too thick
  • Other ingredients
    • Salt and pepper
    • Croutons
    • Swiss cheeses

[MBMorgan]

Dang! Pass the ketchup ......

[DWCowles]

Let's see that bad boy in action....pics please

[PaynTrain]

You got it, eyes open tomorrow!

[fuzzydaddy]

All 3 varieties sound delicious and I saw bacon and cheese. Can't wait for the pictures!

[Mr. Bones]

Sounds wonderful X 3!!! Looking forward to the cook, and thanks for sharing recipes/techniques!

[FireMan]

Man, I was just thinking, that is a lot of typing for one cook. Look forward to the pics, that will be less time consuming.

[Nate]

Sounds delicious. Enjoy.

[PaynTrain]

These turned out fantastic! I wish you all could have come over for dinner last night, and to have Bourbon and celebrate an Indians victory! What a night, and go Tribe!!

A few things I learned with this 1st run:

1 - The sauces (A1 on American, mustard on Cuban) cook away pretty good. Use a bit more sauce next time
2 - The sauce for the Frenchie turns out more like a gravy with the flour and broth, and held awesome. Gravy the others somehow?
3 - I played it safe, and went well done on the burger. Was great, but back it down a little to see on the next cook
4 - Played it safe loading them. Next time, pile on more!
5 - Come up with an "outside compression ring", as holding the meat's expansion in with hands not uniform enough
6 - ***IMPORTANT*** - Measure 1/2 pounders to be exact. A little over here, and a little under here made a HUGE difference in the taste impact of the goodies!!

Man I tell you, these were some tasty SOBs! Even with the above mentioned tweaks, I would say they were 92% there!

Favorites in order, even though they were all damn close!

1 - Frenchie - If you dig french onion soup, this is top of the list. This burger was exactly like it sounds, and was creamy, cheesy, meaty, bready goodness. It was my favorite.
2 - Cuban - Just a hint more mustard taste, and it may have taken #1. But the combo of BBQ pulled pork, mustard, meat, pickles, and melty Swiss was pretty freakin wicked! Maybe toss a slice of thin ham under the pickles next run??
3 - American - There was not a damn thing wrong with this burger, but it was just that, a damn good regular burger. The sauteed portabello, peppers, and A1 were awesome. Combine that with bacon wrapped around the outside and provolone? Winner winner burger dinner

All in all, this was a home run with the Wife, her friend, my friend, our son, and our daughter. Ditch the bun for these mini meat loafs of heaven, they are some big bad MOFOs! I recommend you try this ASAP!!!

[Kevin Fuess]

I'm still somewhat new to this, so you'll have to excuse me for dumb questions but I would like to know more about the cooking process.
Obviously you can't flip these burgers, and from the pictures you are cooking indirect. Are you completely assembling the burgers, including the cheese on top before putting on grill? (The ones pictured on your off-set grill look to be stuffed but with no cheese) Grill temperature? Anything you can tell me about the cooking would be appreciated - I would live to try these!

[PaynTrain]

So I rolled indirect @350 for about 45 minutes to an hour. The thought was more along a bake than a smoke, but the oak smoke did take them to another level!! All the stuffings went with them the whole time. About the last 15 minutes of the cook, I added croutons to the Frenchie, and pickle slices to the Cuban, then covered all of them in 1 cheese slice. About 10 minutes remaining in the cook, I added shredded cheese to all of them as well. The only two things that need prepared before the burgers go on is the sauteed mushrooms and onions for the American, and cooking the sauce for the Frenchie.

Any other questions, feel free! This is a live and learn place, with the goal of making everything better for all!!

[Thunder77]

Wow, I think I just shorted out my keyboard by drooling all over it!

[PaynTrain]

Hahaha! I have now made myself very hungry, that's for sure!

[smokinfatties]

Nicely done!

[Kevin Fuess]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply. I know this is going to spoil the kids - but oh well. Dad behind the grill is the place to be.

[SmokinBBQ]

Those all look amazing paynTrain.👍
Thanks for the great description.
Cheers 🍻

[Atalanta]

I have GOT to stop looking at these sorts of pictures when I haven't had lunch!

When we do stuffed burgers, we sandwich the stuffing between two burger patties. Open face would give much more room for stuffing goodness.

[PaynTrain]

That is what I was thinking. I have the 2 patty stuffer too, and it always seemed like there was not enough. You can make these things 4" high easily!

[Powersmoke_80]

PaynTrain Those look awesome! I have done stuffed mushroom onion and swiss and if you put a pat of butter inside with the raw ingredients between the two patties it cooks the onion and mushrooms perfectly inside.