Home Cookin': The Burger Explosion

More than a little hat tip to the gents over at BBQ Addicts whose invention, the “Bacon Explosion,” was the creative jumping off point for this monstrosity.

No shot of getting this thing in the New York Times, but my concerns (and those of our crew of culinarily curious friends) were in getting this in our bellies.  The idea just seemed like the logical next step and although it took about 3 hours start to finish, it is more than worthwhile trying it out at home for your next get together.  This one is guaranteed to stop people in their tracks.  As always, I will note that I am not a professional chef and though these directions worked for me, they may not work well for you.  This recipe is fairly forgiving so as long as you are certain to cook these beauties all the way through I can see little danger in making a minor misstep (and tons of upside in creating your own variations).

I actually made a Bacon Explosion alongside the Burger Explosion for comparison’s sake.  The recipe for the “Bacon Explosion” which is packed with pork sausage is best picked up at BBQ Addicts, though I will note that I tweaked that recipe a little, swapping out the bbq rub for a home spun mixture of salt, pepper and rosemary.  The rosemary worked out very well.

Burger Explosion (serves 8-10)

1lb 80/20 ground beef

4 slices of white American cheese

9 slices thick cut bacon

3 slices of regular bacon

1 butt of whole grain bread – toasted

1 large egg

2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce

1/3 cup BBQ sauce (any kind will do)

Step 1 – Fry up the 3 slices of regular bacon on a griddle as you would for morning breakfast, when done remove from griddle and pat dry (don’t worry about getting too much grease off, this ain’t health food!)

Step 2 – Take the butt end of the whole grain bread and sop up the rendered bacon fat from the griddle.

Step 3 – Place the bread into a food processor and whir it up for a few seconds to make breadcrumbs (yes, even the breadcrumbs are gonna taste like bacon!).

Step 4 – Put your ground beef, egg, oyster sauce and 3 tablespoons of the bacon-y breadcrumbs into a bowl and mix thoroughly by hand.

Step 5 – Make a 4×5 lattice pattern with the bacon (this may be the most fun part of the recipe)

Step 6 – Lay out the ground beef mixture over the entire bacon lattice.

Step 7 – Place the cheese slices on top and then crumble the cooked bacon over the cheese.

Step 8 – Roll the meat/cheese/crumbled bacon mixture up to the “top” of the lattice and form into a log.

Step 9 – Roll up the lattice and meat like you were making a sushi roll.  It is best to use the foil under the lattice to lift and crimp.  I thought this would be the hardest step and it wasn’t too bad.  Take your time though.  You want to make it nice and tight.

Step 10 – Take it to the grille (Bacon Explosion is in the back, Burger Explosion is in the front).  I used a gas grille and cooked it indirectly (gas wasn’t on underneath the explosion) at about 225 for 1.5 hours.  Then I turned the heat up to about 300 degrees for 20 minutes and started poking and prodding it like any good dad would do at a BBQ.  At this point, though it is hard to screw up, again just make sure you get the internal temp right*.

Step 11- The last 10 minutes or so I applied some basic supermarket BBQ sauce to the outside, trying to be careful not to burn it because of the high sugar content.

Pre-sauce…

After saucing…

Step 12 – Cut up and enjoy!

The Burger Explosion tastes like the best bacon cheeseburger you’ve ever had in your life.  No need for additional condiments, though no one would scoff if you tossed this on a bun and added some lettuce, tomato and onion.

Some notes:

1. This is surprisingly not overly salty.

2. Too much of this will probably kill you, but you will have a huge smile on your face.

3. The Bacon Explosion was great, too!  I think the Burger Explosion won the popularity contest, but narrowly because they were both really good.

Have fun with this, I know we did.  Let me know if you make it and how you tweaked the recipe.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend!

Marc @ Burgatory