I love Sundays. I love LAZY Sundays. No agenda... no stress... no drama. Nothing but potential. These kinds of days are the best!
One could surmise that I would take advantage of the time and sleep in. NONSENSE! There's not a moment to spare with a head full of food ideas ready to burst out! However, I'll admit that I wasn't the FIRST one up this past week (my kids had that honor). Go figure. A full week of school, and they STILL want to get up early on the weekend.
Nonetheless, I used my enthusiasm to make this an all-day project. What can I say? I was excited! I mean... it's sunny, it's Sunday, and it's the all-American burger!
This doesn't have to be and all-day project, either. Half of my perfect burger preparation is my homemade bread, but if you already have a day-old dinner roll to grind, or have store-bought bread crumbs, and fresh rolls or the finished burgers, you can cinch up your prep time significantly.
Onion & Breadcrumb Burgers
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef
- 1/4 cup of finely chopped onion
- 1/2 onion of an onion cut in slices
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
- 1 stale/day-old bread roll, grated, -or- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 6 slices of 1/8 inch thick cheddar cheese (optional for those who want cheese)
- 1 small, sliced, tomato (optional)
- 3 stalks/leaves of Romaine lettuce (optional)
Wash your hands. Then in a In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, chopped onion, salt, pepper, and garlic. Knead together. Alternately, if you don't like the feeling of raw ground beef, you can put all of these ingredients in a gallon-size zipper bag and knead it together that way.
Add the bread crumbs to the mixture. If you are using the day-old roll for your bread crumbs, it should be hardened so it will be easy to grate it into pieces and combine with the ground beef mixture you already started. If it's not quite hard yet, put it in the toaster, or oven, on low, just long enough to evaporate any remaining moisture from the bread.
Shape the meat into 6 equally-shaped patties. Each should be just over 5 ounces and slightly bigger than the palm of your hand. Cover patties with plastic wrap and set aside. Pre-heat your grill or frying pan. If the surface in not non-stick, treat it with a bit of olive oil, or vegetable oil. Personally, I prefer using the grill, so I preheat my cleaned grill, then stick half of an onion on a grilling fork, dip that in the oil, and rub it on the bars. It works great!
Put your burgers on the pre-heated cooking surface, bringing the internal temperature to at least 160F. I recommend that you use a probe thermometer. If don't have one, get the meat to at least medium to medium well. (for more information on safe cooking temperatures, see the USDA website) Only turn the burgers after they have sufficiently browned and glazed on the heated side, then place your cheese and onion atop the flipped burger (optionally) as the other side finishes. When done, get the burgers off the grill and place on the rolls, adding the condiments to taste.
Enjoy!