A hamburger isn't BBQ meat. A hamburger is a BBQ dish. So, that's out of the way. It needs to be said. No sane person would simply put a patty of ground meat, what we call a hamburger, on their plate and eat it with some lettuce and fried potatoes. What we all call a hamburger is actually the most important part of a meal. A dish with bread and things like lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, and sauce. And that can be a simple dish, or an over-the-top one. Our Epic burger is an example of the latter. We don't call it epic for nothing.
Shopping list
4 sandwiches
1 kg ribeye
30 g all-purpose rub
2 eggs
150 g bacon cubes
50 ml BBQ sauce
8 slices of bacon
300 g grated cheddar
100 g butter
200 g flour
2 onions, sliced into rings
250 ml brown beer
2 g salt
2 g pepper
2 g garlic powder
2 g smoked paprika powder
1 head of iceberg lettuce
1 tomato, thinly sliced
60 g Jalapeño pieces
8 slices of chorizo
burger sauce
Necessary
Meat grinder
Hamburger press XL
Skillet
Sauce pan
Burger flipper
Core thermometer
Let's get started!
Cut the ribeye into large chunks and place them in a freezer bag in the freezer for at least an hour. Place an 8mm plate in the meat grinder and grind the frozen meat into ground meat. Add 30g of rub per kilo of meat and an egg to the freshly ground ground meat and mix well. Form large balls and use the hamburger press to form extra-thick patties. Wrap each burger individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate to firm up.
Make a beer batter with 150g of flour, 250ml of dark beer, an egg, 2g of salt, 2g of black pepper, 2g of garlic powder, and 2g of smoked paprika. Slice the onions into rings, coat them in a bowl with flour, then in the batter, and deep-fry.
Fry 150 grams of bacon cubes in a skillet with a little oil over indirect heat until crispy. Pour about 50 ml of BBQ sauce into a small bowl and stir in the bacon pieces and bacon fat to make bacon jam.
Fry the bacon slices in the skillet you just used for the bacon cubes.
Make the cheese sauce just before serving to prevent it from hardening before you start assembling the burger. Melt 100g of butter in a saucepan, then add 50g of flour and whisk thoroughly. Then add 300g of grated cheddar, a handful at a time, stirring each time to melt before adding the next.
Grill the cut open bread until light brown.
Grill the burgers first over indirect heat and then finish them over direct heat. Cook the thick, epic burgers indirectly to about 48°C (118°F) and then grill them immediately over direct heat until they reach a core temperature of 53 to 55°C (131 to 131°F). You can cook ribeye steak like a ribeye steak, including medium rare.
Make sure you have all the ingredients that need to be hot and ready when you start building your Epic Burger. Start by assembling the bottom half of the bun, followed by a lettuce leaf, a slice of tomato, the first burger patty, some melted cheese sauce, bacon jam, one or two slices of bacon, the second burger patty, cheese sauce, bacon jam, some jalapeño rings, the burger sauce, bacon slices, two or three onion rings, and then the top half of the bun. Using a steak knife or a long wooden skewer, run it all the way through the bun to keep your Epic Burger upright.