Eggnog leftovers taste great when made into waffles.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 20 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 burgers |
Ingredients
- 4 hamburger buns
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened, or as needed
- 1 pound ground chuck beef (80% lean)
- 4 6-inch squares parchment paper
- salt to taste
- 4 slices American cheese
- burger toppings of choice
Instructions
- Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil the grate. Set a cast iron flat-top griddle or large cast iron skillet onto the grill and preheat until smoking.
- Spread butter on the inside of the buns and toast on the flat-top until lightly browned. Set aside.
- Form meat into 8 loosely-packed balls, 2 ounces each. Do not pack the meat tightly, as this will prevent it from smashing properly. Place each ball on the hot flat-top, cover with a piece of parchment (to prevent sticking to the spatula; re-use each parchment square on a second patty) and immediately smash down to a 1/4 inch thickness using 2 stiff, sturdy spatulas that are criss-crossed to get proper leverage as you press down. You may also use the bottom of small skillet. Sprinkle the meat with salt.
- Grill for about 45 seconds, until the edges are dark brown and the centers are a light pink color. Using a bench scraper or firm spatula, gently scrape up the patties, flip over and immediately cover 4 of them with cheese. Grill an additional 15 to 20 seconds; stack the plain patties over the cheese-covered patties so you have 4 stacks. Move each stack to a bun and serve with your favorite toppings.
- If you only have one spatula, wrap your other hand in an old dish towel for protection, and use it to press down on the spatula with both hands.
- You can make 4 (4 ounce) patties instead of 8 (2 ounce patties), but I prefer the thinner patties that have more crispy surface area.
- I buy American cheese freshly-sliced from the deli, but individually-wrapped slices will work too.
Reviews
Make it tonight on the grill, using a grill plate, and it’s one of the best burgers ever. Will make it this way from now on. Thanks. The picture isn’t the best, but here it is!
These are great. I use a large saucepan to smash. It gets them perfectly even.
We have had these smashed burgers two times this week and all 7 of loved them,the recipe was very good.
recipe is great but the Tips is where I had a problem. “I buy American cheese freshly-sliced from the deli, but individually-wrapped slices will work too.” The individually wrapped slices are not cheese, read, it is processed cheese food.
Great burgers! Anyone saying it’s not salty enough didn’t follow the instructions … it clearly reads “salt to taste”! If it came out needing more salt … then that’s on YOU! Oh, I’m also assuming the butter is salted too since the instructions do not say ‘unsalted butter’, so if you used unsalted butter well … that’s on you too! LOVE the crusty & crunchy texture!
At last a proper burger. Basic burgers are always gonna be the best. Tried and true, all a burger patty has is ground beef 80/20 that is seasoned with just salt and pepper and nothing else. All the best restaurants know it and that’s all they do. This adding garlic powder, onion powder, onion soup mix, bread crumbs is simply wrong and horrible. Do that to your meatloaf not your burgers. Yum. BTW. I don’t get the smash burger thing. That’s just normal pressing the patty right down flat. You can even buy proper tools to do it.
Made these last night on my Camp Chef griddle. Used fresh ground short rib with ~10% bacon added. So good!
Excellent! From now on, this will be the only way I’ll make burgers! (I was once at a friend’s place who grilled thick burgers the usual way and mine came out all RAW in the middle!) Smashing is definitely the best way to do burgers! IMHO
Big hit with the family and so easy.
Awesome!!!…super delicious, and with the cornichons !!! PERFECT!!!!
A great recipe! Definitely cook this burger on the BBQ grill. I used a cast iron griddle press and a 15 inch Carbon Steel pan preseasoned. I used one rectangle piece of parchment paper to cover 2 burgers. Each burger was 2 ounces. A very quick way to make a burger. I sliced the tomatoes thin with a serrated knife and chopped up lettuce. I also added pickle and onion. I added all the veggies and condiments to the bottom bun. Thank you France C. for the excellent recipe!