Three New Takes on Burgers


America’s Test Kitchen shares recipes for revamped hamburgers, shrimp burgers, and portobello burgers.

Three recipes for when you seem to run out of new takes on a grilled staple at the end of the summer

 

All-in-One Grilled Burgers

Why This Recipe Works: We love a burger that’s stacked high with add-ons, but we couldn’t help but wonder whether there was a way to take some of the “top” out of the toppings. We wanted to put the same bold flavors inside the burger, instead. We started with some classic burger toppings: cheese, bacon, and mustard. Because the cheese and bacon added a good amount of fat to the meat, we switched from 80 percent lean ground beef, which is our usual favorite, to 90 percent lean for this recipe. We also found that we liked these burgers cooked until they were completely well-done. The additions to the meat kept it from getting dried out. We then went on to more adventurous flavor combinations using firm cheese and potent ingredients with minimal moisture (such as garlic, herbs, chiles, and powdered seasoning mixes). These burgers may not be piled high with colorful toppings, but one bite will prove that looks aren’t everything—it’s what’s inside that really counts.

Serves 4

We suggest cooking these burgers completely (to well-done); the extra ingredients tend to make them taste mushy if not cooked all the way through. If you like, toast the hamburger buns on the grill while the burgers rest.

Ingredients 

  • 8 slices bacon, chopped fine
  • 1½ pounds 90 percent lean ground beef
  • 4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (1 cup)
  • 4 teaspoons yellow mustard
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 4 hamburger buns

Directions

  1. Cook bacon in 12-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until brown and crisp, 10-12 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate.
     
  2. Break ground beef into small pieces in bowl, then add cheddar, mustard, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and bacon. Using your hands, lightly knead mixture until combined. Divide meat into four equal portions. Working with one portion at a time, lightly toss from hand to hand to form loose ball, then gently flatten into 1-inch-thick patty. Press center of patties down with your fingertips to create ¼-inch-deep depression.
     
  3. For a charcoal grill: Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (6 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash pour evenly over grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, approximately 5 minutes. For a gas grill: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, approximately 15 minutes. Leave all burners on high.
     
  4. Clean and oil cooking grate. Place burgers on grill and cook, without pressing on them, until browned and meat easily releases from grill, 4-6 minutes. Flip burgers and continue to grill until browned on second side and meat registers 150-155 degrees (for well-done), 4-6 minutes longer. Transfer burgers to platter, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve on buns.

Variations

Ranch All-in-One Grilled Burgers
Omit bacon, cheddar, mustard, and Worcestershire. Add 2/3 cup crumbled blue cheese, 4 teaspoons powdered ranch dressing mix (from packet), and 2 minced garlic cloves to burger mixture in step 2.

Tex-Mex All-in-One Grilled Burgers
Omit bacon, cheddar, mustard, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Add 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro, 4 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, and 4 teaspoons taco seasoning (from packet) to burger mixture in step 2.

Italian All-in-One Grilled Burgers
Omit bacon, cheddar, mustard, and Worcestershire. Add ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, ¼ cup chopped fresh basil, 4 teaspoons Dijon mustard, and 2 minced garlic cloves to burger mixture in step 2.

 

Grilled Southern Shrimp Burgers

Why This Recipe Works: A good shrimp burger should be first and foremost about the shrimp. Unfortunately, many shrimp burgers are more reminiscent of fish-flavored rubber patties or overseasoned bread balls than shrimp. We set out to develop a recipe for our ideal shrimp burger: moist, chunky yet still cohesive, and with seasoning that complements the sweet shrimp flavor but doesn’t overpower it. After early testing we decided we needed a combination of finely chopped shrimp to help bind the burgers, as well as some larger, bite-size chunks. We achieved this texture with help from the food processor. We wanted to use as little binder as possible, to avoid the soggy, mushy results we’d seen in other shrimp burgers that frequently used a combination of mayonnaise, egg, and breadcrumbs. We kept the mayonnaise for the much-needed moisture and fat it added but left out the egg and decreased the breadcrumbs. Some minced scallion and parsley, lemon zest, and a touch of cayenne pepper rounded out the flavor of our burgers.

Serves 4

grilled shrimp burgers

Be sure to use raw, not cooked, shrimp here. Dry the shrimp thoroughly before processing, or the burgers will be mushy. Handle the burgers gently when shaping and grilling; if overhandled while being shaped, the burgers will be dense and rubbery, and if handled roughly during cooking, they will break apart. Serve with salad greens or toasted hamburger buns with Tartar Sauce.

Ingredients 

  • 1 slice hearty white sandwich bread, torn into large pieces
  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • 2 scallions, minced
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • Pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1½ pounds extra-large shrimp (21-25 per pound), peeled, deveined, and patted dry
  • Vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs, approximately 10 pulses. Transfer to small bowl. Do not clean food processor. Combine mayonnaise, scallions, parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and cayenne in large bowl until uniform.
     
  2. Pulse shrimp in now-empty food processor until some pieces are finely minced and others are coarsely chopped, approximately 7 pulses. Add shrimp to mayonnaise mixture and gently fold until just combined. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over mixture and gently fold until incorporated.
     
  3. Scrape shrimp mixture onto small baking sheet, divide into four equal portions, and loosely pack each into 1-inch-thick patty. Cover and refrigerate patties for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 hours.
     
  4. For a charcoal grill: Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter three-quarters filled with charcoal briquettes (4½ quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, approximately 5 minutes. For a gas grill: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, approximately 15 minutes. Turn all burners to medium-high.
     
  5. Clean and oil cooking grate. Lightly brush tops of burgers with oil, lay them on grill, oiled side down, and lightly brush other side with oil. Cook burgers, without pressing on them, until lightly browned and cooked through, 10-14 minutes, flipping them halfway through grilling. Transfer burgers to platter, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

 

Mediterranean-Style Portobello Burgers

Why This Recipe Works: For a vegetarian burger with unbeatable meaty taste, we turned to grilled portobello mushrooms. Scraping out the gills avoided any muddy off-flavors, and marinating the mushrooms in a simple vinaigrette boosted their complexity. Cutting a shallow crosshatch into the caps not only allowed the portobellos to soak up more marinade, but it also prevented the skin from turning chewy while cooking. Before grilling, we mixed together some toppings that complemented the mushrooms’ Mediterranean flavor profile. A combination of chopped roasted red peppers, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and feta cheese made for a bright, briny accompaniment, and a quick basil-boosted mayonnaise promised a creamy component for our finished burgers. Keeping these two toppings close by, we grilled the mushrooms alongside ½-inch-thick sliced red onions. Skewering the slices with toothpicks kept the onion rounds in place for tidy grilling and brushing them with the remaining marinade unified the flavors. Once the mushrooms had taken on plenty of rich char on both sides, we placed them on a platter and filled the gilled sides with the feta mixture. Returning to the grill, we gave the filled mushrooms a final blast of heat to warm them through and then toasted up sturdy Kaiser rolls. We assembled our flavor-packed finished product, stacking our stuffed mushrooms, sweet grilled onions, and some peppery baby arugula on top of our basil mayo–smeared buns. These burgers were perfectly rich, and juicy—no meat necessary.

Serves 4

mediterranean portobello burgers

Our favorite feta cheese is Mt. Vikos Traditional Feta from Greece. If the mushrooms absorb all the marinade, simply brush the onions with olive oil before grilling them in step 4.

Ingredients

  • 4 portobello mushroom caps (4 to 5 inches in diameter), gills removed
  • ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (1 cup)
  • ½ cup jarred roasted red peppers, patted dry and chopped
  • ½ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, patted dry and chopped
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • ½ cup chopped fresh basil
  • 4 (½-inch-thick) slices red onion
  • 4 Kaiser rolls, split
  • 1 ounce (1 cup) baby arugula

Directions

  1. Using tip of paring knife, cut ½-inch crosshatch pattern on tops of mushroom caps, 1/16 inch deep. Combine oil, vinegar, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper in 1-gallon zipper-lock bag. Add mushrooms, seal bag, turn to coat, and let sit for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour.
     
  2. Combine feta, red peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes in bowl. Whisk mayonnaise and basil together in separate bowl. Push 1 toothpick horizontally through each onion slice to keep rings intact while grilling.
     
  3. For a charcoal grill: Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (6 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, approximately 5 minutes. For a gas grill: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, approximately 15 minutes. Turn all burners to medium-high.
     
  4. Clean and oil cooking grate. Remove mushrooms from marinade, reserving excess. Brush onions all over with reserved mushroom marinade. Place onions and mushrooms, gill side up, on grill. Cook (covered if using gas) until mushrooms have released their liquid and are charred on first side, 4-6 minutes. Flip mushrooms and onions and continue to cook (covered if using gas) until mushrooms are charred on second side, 3-5 minutes.
     
  5. Transfer onions to platter; remove toothpicks. Transfer mushrooms to platter, gill side up, and divide feta mixture evenly among caps, packing down with your hand. Return mushrooms to grill, feta side up, and cook, covered, until heated through, approximately 3 minutes.
     
  6. Return mushrooms to platter and tent with aluminum foil. Grill rolls cut sides down until lightly charred, approximately 1 minute. Spread basil-mayonnaise on roll bottoms and top each with 1 mushroom and 1 onion slice. Divide arugula evenly among burgers, then cap with bun tops. Serve.

Excerpted with permission from Master of the Grill from America’s Test Kitchen.

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