Donna's Barbecue Cheeseburgers

Memorial Day weekend is upon us folks and that means the official summer grilling season is about to begin for real.  What is better than summer grilling season?   I can't think of too many things actually.  There's nothing better than warm days and evenings when it stays light late into the evening and you can fire up the grill and toss on something quick and easy.    That's what I'm talking about.  Quick AND easy.  Outdoor grilling and eating can be casual, no muss, no fuss,  using paper plates to eat on  and that is Okay!!  It's important to enjoy every moment of the summer, sharing time with family and friends.

A while back we were going to grill some good old fashioned American burgers for dinner, but I had a bit of inspiration and decided to doctor them up just a bit before they went on the grill.  This is my pepper jack barbecue burger and are they ever tasty!  Wow.  We all loved them, so I have been making our burgers this way since.  I'm not sure Dan would want to go back to just a plain older burger and he is a real connoisseur when it comes to hamburgers.  He may hold a world record for the number of hamburgers eaten in a lifetime.  As for the kind of "cheese"burger you make, you can use any cheese that you like as long as you can buy an 8 ounce block and grate it because the cheese in these burgers is mixed in the cheeseburger, not melted on top.  We have also made these with cheddar cheese which are just as good, especially if you don't like spicy foods.  Next, we are going to try them with mozzarella and some marinara sauce.  How good would that be?

Here is what you need and how you made Donna's barbecue cheeseburgers.

2 pounds 80/20 ground beef
1/2 medium onion, minced
1 8 ounce block cheese, grated
1 large egg
1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's original)
1.5 tsp salt
fresh cracked black pepper

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients in a bowl using your hands.  You don't want to add too much salt because the cheese and the barbecue sauce contain salt.

To make the patties, I scooped out about a tennis ball sized section of the ground beef mixture, rolled it between my hands to make a ball, and pressed it into a burger patty with a bit of a well in the middle.  This helps make sure the middle of the burger cooks at the same time as the edges of the burgers.  I got 10 good sized burgers from this mixture.

See all of that delicious cheese in the burgers?  After they are cooked, the cheese oozes out of the burger and you enjoy that delicious flavor with ever bite.  Yum.  Yum.

Cook the burgers to your liking -  rare, medium, well done.  Dress them up anyway you like.  We had ours with lettuce, tomato, pickle, sliced onion, and just a little more barbecue sauce.  Yessirree Bob they are fine.  Cheesey, barbecuey, slightly oniony, deliciousness.

You might want to make the patties ahead and let them sit in the fridge for an hour or two because they are softer than burgers made with plain ground beef.  This will help keep them from falling apart on the grill when you flip them.  Even if they do split, it doesn't matter.  Just scoop up all the pieces because you won't want to waste one bite.

Hope this gives you an idea for a different version of the All American favorite - the hamburger.  I think you're gonna like them a lot!  Happy summer grilling season!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Grilling takes the formality out of entertaining.  Bobby Flay