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By Mr. Brown.. 89
This is how I make cheeseburgers at home — with a fryer.
If I found out the world was about to end, I’d calmly walk into the kitchen and make this cheeseburger: a simple blend of beef, paprika, and garlic topped with pickles and sharp cheddar cheese.
As for the frying, believe it or not, as long as you keep the oil between 300 and 325ºF, this will be the most un-greasy burger you’ve ever enjoyed.
This recipe first appeared in Season 1 of Good Eats: Reloaded.
My Own Private Cheeseburger
- 170 grams chuck, trimmed, cut into 1.5-inch cubes and chilled
- 170 grams sirloin, trimmed, cut into 1.5-inch cubes and chilled
- 142 grams cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 brioche hamburger buns, split
- 16 to 20 dill pickle slices or “chips”
- Mayo and yellow mustard
- 2 quarts peanut oil, for frying
- Get a nice big Dutch oven and add enough peanut oil to be 2 inches deep. Install your candy/fry thermometer to the side of the pot and crank the heat to medium-high. Your thermal destination is 320ºF.
- Turn on your broiler and place rack in top position. This is a perfect time to use your toaster oven if you have one.
- Meanwhile, place the meat and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it resembles a medium grind, about 10 pulses.
- Weigh out the meat into four 3-ounce portions and roll into balls. Place one of the meat balls between two sheets of wax paper on a tortilla press and flatten completely into a 5- to 6-inch-wide disk. It will be irregular around the circumference, but that’s good — those irregularities will become crunchy goodness. The meat will also shrink back down to bun-size as it cooks. Set smashed meat sheet aside and repeat flattening process with remainder of meat balls (leave the meet sheets inside the wax paper for now) and refrigerate.
- Grate the cheese and toss with the paprika and garlic powder until all the powder has stuck to the cheese.
- Spread a thin layer of mayo on the bottom of the buns and place half the cheese mixture on top. Spread mustard on the bun tops and place the rest of the cheese on top. So, you should have half the cheese on the bottoms (on mayo) and half on the tops (on mustard). Place both halves under the broiler so that the cheese melts as you cook the burgers. This will happen quickly, so don’t walk away.
- When the oil hits 320ºF, remove the meat patties from the refrigerator. One by one, transfer the meat patties by peeling back one piece of wax paper and inverting the patty onto a spider. Peel back the other sheet of wax paper and gently lower the spider into the peanut oil, letting the patty float free. Cook 1 minute — no more, no less. You can cook up to 3 patties at a time, but don’t let the oil temperature drop below 300ºF.
- Remove the fried meat to a paper towel to drain briefly, then place it on the bottom bun right away. Place the pickles on top, followed by the bun top. The goal: bread/mayo/cheese/meat/pickles/cheese/mustard/bread.
- Consume or wrap in foil and hold for up to 30 minutes.
Hardware: Dutch oven, candy/fry thermometer, wax paper, tortilla press, spider strainer
Yield: 4 burgers
Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
89 Comments
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1 Missy Reply
@ Andrew Kleeger seems like a real complainer for only reading the recipe.
2 Andrew Kleeger Reply
This recipe leaves me cold for several reasons: 1) I’m really anti-frying, 2) mustard is for hot dogs, not burgers, 3) no mayo on a burger, thank you very much, 4) seems like a heluvalot of clean-up and mess for a few burgers!
On the positive side, I do like the idea of grating and seasoning the cheese, and, of course, toasting the bun/roll!
80/20 fat ratio is OK, but 85/15 is better for you and still plenty enough fat to be tasty. 90/10 makes a pretty dry, tasteless burger. Go any higher than 80/20 and you might as well hit the drive-thru.3 Joseph Bradley Reply
@Blake Helm the broiler or toaster oven is to toast the bun and melt the cheese. He mentions it in step 5.
4 Blake Helm Reply
You mention having the oven on broil or use a toaster oven but then never say why. What am missing?
5 David Hoffman Reply
Lousy dry overcooked burger.
6 Ayla Reply
@Jason M Olsen, that’s because you didn’t read the recipe correctly. It calls for 1.25 oz of cheese per burger. The “one area calls for 5 oz. of cheese” that you mention says “If you want 4 burgers, obviously you need 5 ounces total. Six would be 7 1/2, eight would be 10 ounces”. 1.25 x 4 = 5 Pretty self-explanatory.
7 Jason M Olsen Reply
One area calls for 5 oz. of cheese, this page says 1.5 oz. I would go with 5 would have been much better
8 Robert Reply
I love this recipe, I did use slider patties from Snake River Farms and duck fat to fry, but it was still amazing!!!
9 Jeff Hunter Reply
Wouldn’t it be bread/mayo/cheese/meat/pickles/cheese/mustard/bread instead of bread/mayo/cheese/meat/cheese/pickles/mustard/bread?
10 Tom Reply
No salt?
11 Saralyn Reply
An absolutely amazing burger! Worried about it being greasy, but it so wasn’t! Very cheesy & delicious! Next time I’ll add my typical produce (lettuce & tomato).
12 Joshua Lange Reply
Mr. AB, my wife and I made these from your recent cookbook, but modified them to be sliders. They were MOST delicious my friend!
13 DebbyO Reply
Sounds GREAT! Just cannot get beyond what to do with all that slightly used oil…especially when cooking for one. Would definitely make this for a crowd though! TY Alton!
14 Susy Reply
Those plates are “Franciscan Starburst”. 🙂
15 Holli Carter Reply
I *NEED* these plates, sir!
16 Tracy Reply
This looks amazing!
Can’t wait to try it and THANKYOU for sharing this Alton Brown.
Love watching you cook!17 Michael Reply
Best burger I EVER had was a deep fried cheeseburger, from a cart, waterfront Amsterdam, April 1976. No one believes me when I tell them that it wasn’t greasy. Perhaps they will now.
18 Kim Reply
Looks like this is Alton Brown’s version of deep fried burgers made famous by Dyer’s Burgers in Memphis TN.
19 Barbara Reply
Dear Mr. Brown,
My husband requested hamburgers last night for dinner. Until now i have always felt like a hamburger failure. My bugers were always edible and ok but it was never anything that I would get excited about. After his request, I decided i needed to try something new. Like so many times before i said i wonder if alton brown has a recipie? Google coming to my aid, you surely did. We have tried several of your recipies before so i felt confident that it had to be better then what i have made before. I tested it first on myself and my mother in law. I was not disappointed. I felt like it was by far the best burger I had ever made and my mother in law agreed it was delicious. Later last night, I made it for my husband as he got home from work. He agreed it was the best I had made. He really liked it. 3 bites in he says to me ,”you know what would make this better…”
Then i said , its perfect the way it is and Its Alton Browns favorite. I read him your blurb at the beginning of your post.He put ketchup on it anyway…
Forever a fan,
Barbara20 OK Reply
“You know what would make this better?” I don’t think he was talking about the end of the world or a nap. That’s just a guy’s perspective.
21 Lance Reply
Not greasy at all ! used a brioche bun added Cayanne pepper to the cheese spices I also fried in duck fat and easy great burger.
22 James Reply
For bigger burgers I tinkered a bit and found 6 oz of meat flattened to the same diameter cooked between 2 to 2.5 minutes gives similar results just in a bigger package.
