Okay, brace yourselves because this recipe is one that you may dream about for nights on end after one taste. Because this recipe is not the most figure-friendly nor heart-healthy, it does not make an appearance very often in our house but boy, it's one that has us dreaming about its' next arrival! The Hubs' has affectionately coined these "heart-attack on a bun burgers" but I don't want that to stop you from trying this recipe...at least just once!
This weekend was the Hubs' birthday. I say that lightly because we have been celebrating this guy's birthday for days...maybe even weeks. But he deserves it. So, he picked out his birthday dinner menu to include these Blue Cheese Stuffed Bacon Burger, Sweet Potato Fries, Salad and my mom's famous berry pie. Yes, yet again, her pie remains the most requested birthday dessert to date.
Now, I'm coming clean with an apology right off the bat. These burgers transform you to another world and in doing that I might have been a bit neglectful in taking a final photo to share with you all of the finished product. I remembered when there was just a bit of burger left on my bun, resulting in this photo and my apologies.
I have shared before how much we love our Traeger Wood Pellet Grill from this Grilled Salmon recipe and this Pulled Pork recipe and how the smoky flavor from the pellets (mesquite, hickory, apple, cherry, maple) penetrates the meat and seafood.During our wedding reception, several meats served were smoked on the Traeger and I kid you not, wedding guests went out and invested in their own Traeger after sampling those meats!
I love that I just have to flip a switch and set a temperature and I am ready to grill. There's no need to hover over the grill as the temperature stays consistent with no hot spots and you can even bake with the Traeger as a fan makes the grill work like a convection oven giving you a wood-fired oven for pizzas, breads, cookies, cobblers - you name it. This extends my kitchen with an extra oven.
The Hubs' Blue Cheese Stuffed Bacon Burgers
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
6 strips of peppered or hickory bacon
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
5 tablespoons dry onion soup mix
1/2 teaspoon steak seasoning blend
6- 12 tablespoons blue cheese (it depends on how much blue cheese you prefer)
6 hamburger buns or ciabatta rolls
Instructions:
1. Combine meat and dry ingredients in a large bowl. Shape mixture into 12 very thin meat patties.
2. Place 1-2 tablespoons of blue cheese onto six of the meat patties, top with remaining patties, and then, with the cheese inside the patties, seal the edges with your fingers.
3. Cut strips of bacon in half and place two strips of bacon across raw meat patties and secure with a toothpick. Hamburger experts suggest making a slight depression in the top of the patty to accumulate the meat's juices like a small pond or to cook a burger using indirect heat such as using a Traeger. I think the addition of the bacon helps with the moistness of these burgers.
4. If you are using a Traeger grill, turn it onto "High". For other grills, bring the heat up to the highest temperature. Place the hamburger patties onto the grill and cook for 6 minutes per side until done.
5. Toast the buns and serve.
Makes 6 hamburgers.
For a variation: you could stuff the burgers with other types of cheese such as sharp cheddar, mozzarella, pepper jack - the sky's the limit!
Enjoy!
