Scott’s Rock-n-Roll Burger

Ahhhhh! I wish I had a picture with the bun!

Want to blow away your guests at your next cookout? Serve them Scott’s Rock-n-Roll Burger.

Become the grill king (or queen).

This burger. It’s just amazing. The combination of ingredients is a flavor explosion in your mouth. And it’s such an interesting combination, that’s what makes it taste so good.

Instead of ketchup I use grape jelly. Sound weird? It’s amazing. The sugar content between ketchup and grape jelly is similar.

Instead of any other type of cheese I use goat cheese. It’s amazing too.

Surprise your guests and do tell them what’s in it. Ask them to guess.

Recipe time

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Assembly time: 5 minutes

Shopping list

• 3 lb ground chuck (80/20)
• good buns (not cheap buns). I like Kaiser rolls.
• 2 lb thick cut apple/hickory/pecan smoked bacon
• goat cheese (roll, not crumbles)
• grape jelly (any kind will do)
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt
• unsalted butter
• whatever you want as a side item (potato chips!)

You can grind your meat if you like. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.

Instructions

1. Cook all the bacon until it’s done (takes about 30 minutes).
2. Heat your grill to high.
3. Hand form the patties and make them 1/2 inch thick and as large as your buns.
4. Lightly salt and pepper the patties.
5. Cut up the goat cheese into 1/4 thick round slices. It will probably completely fall apart. Don’t worry about it.
6. Butter your buns.
7. Turn your grill down to medium-high.
8. Cook the patties 5 minutes per side.
9. Remove patties when internal temperature is 155 degrees.
10. Grill your buns. 30–60 seconds until the butter is melted, and the buns have dark brown grill marks.

Assemble for your guests!

Assembly

The Rock-n-Roll Burger is a gourmet specialty delight.

It is a privilege for all invited to be eating this delectable feast.

Assemble all the burgers at once yourself. If you let your guests do it, the food will get cold because people don’t know what they’re doing. Or someone is going to leave out an ingredient because ‘I don’t like that’.

Dear guest, You will like it. You will like it and eat it.

This is your burger and your house. People get to eat what you are serving. Or they can just eat chips – those are the two options.

Bun + burger + grape jelly + goat cheese + bacon + bun. Done.

How much grape jelly?

Pretend it’s a PB&J. You want enough to taste it. If I measured it, the amount would be around 3 TBS. I just eyeball it.

How much goat cheese?

Cover the burger with it. You don’t want it an inch thick, but you don’t want a few specks either.

How much bacon?

Come on, really? It’s bacon. Load it up.

The key to this burger is using the correct ratios of ingredients so you can get a little flavor of everything. If you skimp on jelly or cheese the burger is going to taste like meat on a bun (bleah!).

What if someone wants their burger rare or well-done?

Go eat somewhere else.

I don’t run a restaurant. I cook burgers that taste great, so I don’t take requests. Your burgers will taste great too if you follow my instructions.

What you need to know is when you pull the burgers off at 155 degrees, they will continue to cook on up to 160–165. They will be approaching well-done but won’t be hockey pucks.

Rare? No.

Additional tips

Here are a few more things from my goodie bag that will help you make this recipe awesome:

Do’s

• use a digital thermometer to check the temperature of the meat
• buy a bottle of wine or some beer

Don’ts

• squash the burgers on the grill with a spatula (no!)
• use lean ground beef, ground turkey, tofu, etc.
• use frozen meat
• smash the raw patties to make them equally thick

Congratulations Rock Star Chef.

Question: How did your burgers come out? Please share it on Facebook.