Man Food: Bourbon Burgers

Mar 13, 2013

Written by Pat

In honor of the first taste of summer weather in the North East, which is really just one of thousands of reasons to bust out the grill, we held our first Bro Council cookout of the year last week. Ray entrusted me to the burgers so I had to show him and his Tequila Meatballs up. So, I channeled my inner Guy Fieri and made my (soon to be) famous Inside-out Bourbon Burgers. Apparently we put bourbon in all our food here...you would too if you had to work with Ray.

The Recipe

Bro Council Bourbon Burgers

Ingredients
2 lbs. of Beef (1 pound of ground chuck and 1 pound of round. The round should be lean, and the chuck at least 80/20 - you need a little fat for the flavor.)
1/4 tablespoon granulated garlic and onion powder
1/2 tablespoon basil, thyme, and rosemary
1 teaspoon paprika, cumin, all spice, and lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon white pepper and black pepper
Sea Salt to taste
Fresh mozzarella cheese - varies, but we like to use a lot
Bourbon sauce - read about that below

The Mix
Mix the spices together thoroughly with the meat, cover it, and let it sit over night in the fridge.

The Cooking

1. After sitting over night, making the patties by placing real mozzarella from your grocery store or anti-pasta bar to slice to a bottom patty of meat and cover with another patty on top and squeeze the edges together. You should have enough meat for 6 patties, and 3 burgers.
2. Next the cooking process - we started about an hour before hand soaking a mix of apple and hickory chips for the smoker in water. This helps the smoke to really come out.
3. If you have it, use a cast iron grill/smoker with real charcoal. If not, a gas grill works (but the smoking won't be an option).
4. Bring up the temperature to about 250, put in the wet apple and hicokry chips on the hot coals and placed the burgers off to the side of the fire using an indirect heating method. This will keep them from cooking too quickly keep the moisture in them.
5. DO NOT squeeze them with your spatula - all you are doing is taking out flavor and making them dry when you do this.
6. Before finishing them off after reaching a temperature of at least 160 degrees - flip them 2 more times.
7. Before the last flip, add the bourbon sauce. (Check below for recipe)

I make my own bourbon sauce that is brushed on each side to flavor. You can find a good recipe for Ray's favorite version here, or you can use your favorite sauce from any store or online shop. I also use an excellent store bought version from one of my favorite places in Myrtle Beach, "Pepper Palace"  - if you love hot sauces, BBQ, and salsas you should check them out online. Their sauce comes with an optional bobble of "ghost pepper powder". Then uses a very small amount to mix in for a kick. Ask Ray how hot it is - he found out the fun way. He drank some straight from the bottle. Oh, and here's what the finished version looks like:

There are plenty of other versions of this with some slight changes. The surf and turf version adds some Old Bay Seasoning and replaces the cheese with lump crab (I prefer Phillips from Baltimore, having lived there) or some Cajun Seasonings with grilled alligator tail. Send us your favorites, or what version you would like to see, and we'll try and feature it here.

Check out a slideshow below, and click on any picture for the full-size image. Enjoy the burgers, and eat more beef!