Smash Burgers

By Brian Lagerstrom
I mean it when I say (at the time of writing this sentence) that the smash burger is the best burger you can make at home. In this recipe, I'm showing you how to easy-grind your own beef for extra beefy flavor, how to not smoke up your kitchen (too much), and a burger sauce that you'll be putting on all future burgers for life.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 2 double burgers
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Ingredients 

BURGER SAUCE

  • 125 g mayonnaise
  • 15 g chopped onion
  • 60 g ketchup
  • 25 g sriracha
  • 15 g yellow mustard
  • 60 g bread and butter pickles
  • 1/2 clove garlic, sliced
  • 2 g kosher salt
  • 2 g black pepper, ground

THE BEEF PATTYS

  • 450 g boneless beef short rib

LET’S TALK TOPPINGS

  • burger sauce
  • green leaf lettuce
  • shallot, thinly sliced and rinsed
  • dill pickle, sliced (i recommend claussen)
  • Kraft singles or your favorite melting cheese

Instructions 

THE BEEF PATTYS

  • Cut the boneless short ribs into 1"x1" (2.5cmx2.5cm)pieces and freeze them for 15-20 minutes.
  • Load ½ of the 15-20 minute frozen beef chunks into a food processor and process on high for approximately 20 seconds until it looks like ground beef.
  • Place on tray or in bowl and process the other half of meat. once finished, toss both rounds of ground meat gently to combine.
  • Measure meat out into six 3 oz/85g portions. Gently squeeze each into a ball and put them between 2 pieces of parchment paper. Smash each portion down with a flat bottomed pot. When finished smashing all 6 balls, refrigerate while you prep your toppings.

TO COOK THE BURGERS

  • Preheat a cast iron skillet on high. Using a pad of butter, toast your burger buns in the skillet until golden brown. Set buns aside somewhere warm.
  • Wipe out any remaining butter or debris from the cast iron skillet and preheat 2 tbsp of high smoke point neutral oil (canola, grapeseed, avocado) in the cast iron on high heat.
  • Season one side of patties with salt and pepper and place the seasoned side down in the cast iron. Now season the side facing up with salt and pepper then press down with a spatula. cook on side 1 for about 90 seconds total, then flip.
  • Add the cheese to each patty, and cook on 2nd side for another 30 seconds. Once the cheese is fully melted and the burgers are fully cooked, assemble your burgers. 2 patties per burger.
  • Assemble each burger with bottom bun, lettuce, shallot, 2 patties, pickles, sauce and top bun in that order.

TO MAKE THE SAUCE

  • Combine all ingredients and blitz them up using an immersion blender. Sauce should be nice and smooth but still a little chunky.
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Brian lagerstrom tossing pizza dough in kitchen

About Brian

As a former professional chef, I’m obsessed with creating well-designed recipes that not only taste good, but that are practical and fun for home cooks to re-create. You can browse my recipes here or head to my YouTube channel to watch all of my recipe videos.

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