Inside Out Bacon Cheeseburgers

Serves: 4     Prep time:  10 minutes  Cook time: 20 minutes

1 pound ground beef (I like 85/15)

1/4 large onion diced

2 T Montreal steak seasoning

3 T  water

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 slices cooked bacon

1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (optional)

4 onion rolls

1/2 T unsalted butter

1/2 T extra virgin olive oil

1/4 large onion sliced thin

1/2 cup mushrooms sliced

S&P

Turn on your outdoor grill or you can make these on an indoor grill pan to medium high, either way turn them on so they’ll be good and hot when your burgers are ready to throw on.

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Gently work to incorporate together using your hands.  Try not to overwork the mixture, just until combined.  Score the meat into fourths so everyone gets the same size burger. (Or if your kids are still young like mine you can make theirs smaller…and yours bigger, score!)  Form each fourth into a hamburger patty and set aside.

In a small saucepan melt 1/2 T butter and 1/2 T olive oil over medium heat.  Add your sliced onions and mushrooms, season with S&P and saute until soft, about 7-8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Toast your buns lightly in the toaster oven.  When I took the pictures for this recipe only had one onion roll left because apparently my babysitter had made sandwiches the night before using my other rolls.  Kind of a bummer but whole wheat english muffins work just as well in a pinch, and they are better for you.  I was a really good wife and sacrificed my onion roll and gave it to the hubby…

Place your burgers on the grill and cook to your desired doneness.  My hubby and I are medium rare folk but I let the kids go further to medium well. I make their burgers thinner so everything ends up being done around the same time anyway.  I served theirs up tonight with baked beans and corn.  Cooper is a big fan.  This evening the grown ups ate it with just a salad (the boys had 2 helpings of baked beans each) and mommy even snuck in a glass of pinot grigio.  Place your burgers on your buns (or muffins) and top with the grilled onions and mushrooms mixture.  I like to add mayo and bbq sauce to my burger but the kids are ketchup addicts.  You can slice up some tomato and lettuce if you like to serve on top of your burgers as well.  Then belly up and enjoy this deliciously moist burger.  You’ll never put the cheese and bacon on top of your burger again!

Meaty Morsel:  You can certainly substitute lean ground turkey, turkey bacon, and reduced fat cheddar cheese to this recipe to “lighten it up” but I was in the mood for a good ol’ fashioned burger tonight.