Burger with Blue Cheese and Candied Bacon

Inspired by a traditional french hamburger, this one incorporates tang, spice, and sugar, yum!

Instead of traditional cheese, I’m using blue cheese and making a sauce with it to smother a perfectly toasted brioche bun!

The stinkyness of the blue cheese is offset with some delicious candied bacon, and caramelized onions!

These burgers require many steps, as most burgers do. So be sure to plan accordingly for each step below. The results will be well worth the labor put in!

Ingredients:

1.25 lbs ground beef (80/20% fat)

8 slices medium to thick cut bacon

2 cups arugula

3 oz blue cheese crumbles

3 oz mayonnaise

1 cup sliced onions (sliced into rings)

1 jalapeño

1.5 tsp worstershire sauce

1.5 tsp soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tbs brown sugar

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs butter (set aside to soften)

salt & pepper

4 brioche buns (4 tops, 4 bottoms)

For the patties…

In a mixing bowl, place the ground beef. Season with salt & pepper, the worstershire sauce, soy sauce, garlic and add the jalapeño. (If you don’t want your patties too spicy, add only half the jalapeño.). Mix and fold the meat together to incorporate all the ingredients.

Divide the meat into 4 equal sized balls. Only slightly flatten the meat balls. They should look like loosely compacted, swollen, hockey pucks. This will insure they stay super juicy!

For the sauce…

In a small bowl or ramekin, mix the blue cheese and mayo. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and mix well to smoosh the cheese into the mayo and combine as much as possible. Set aside in the fridge for now, until you are ready to add to your burgers.

Cooking the onions…

Heat a small or medium pan on low to medium heat. Once hot, drizzle a bit of olive oil onto pan. Add the chopped onion rings. You’ll want to cook these slow and low stirring occasionally. This should caramelize the onions while your bacon cooks in the oven. Turn off heat once you see the onions soft, and a little brown in the color. The natural sweetness of the caramelized onions will become more pronounced the longer they cook. So it’s up to you how sweet you’d like them to be!

For the bacon…

Preheat oven to 400*. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay bacon strips down on sheet. Make sure you leave about 1 inch between each strip. Sprinkle half the sugar, down on the top facing side of the bacon, and spread the sugar across the slices with your fingers. Working it into the bacon. Now add a bit of pepper on top of the sugar. Flip the bacon slices and repeat.

Place bacon in oven and cook for about 16 minutes in total, give or take depending on how thick or thin your bacon slices are.

Cooking the patties…

Heat a pan to high heat. I typically use a cast iron, for flavor and even cooking. Once pan is nice and hot, place patties on pan to cook. Do not flatten. This is drain the juice and cause them to be less tender and tasty.

Cook on the high heat for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Depending on if you like your patties more rare, or more medium.

Toast the buns…

Heat a pan to medium/high heat. Spread a little butter on top of the top bun, place buttered side directly on pan over heat. Spread a small amount of butter on the top facing side of the button bun and place buttered side directly on pan over heat. Toast for about 1-2 minutes. (I typically use the same pan I cooked the patties in to toast the buns, but you can use a separate pan if you want to keep them very clean.)

Dress the burger…

Once meat is cooked, and buns have been toasted, spread your blue cheese sauce on inside of top bun. On bottom bun, layer pattie, caramelized onions, arugula, two slices of bacon, then top it with the saucy top bun and serve!