What the heck is more American?

The 4^th of July means many things to Americans. Some find themselves feeling more patriotic, others are excited for fireworks; some are eating American style: grilling. My burgers over the weekend were three components: Hand patted burger meat, homemade onion rings along with homemade jalapeno rings.

I started with slicing three Vidalia (yellow) onions. I tried to make sure that the width of each ring was about ¾ of an inch.

I found this Louisiana Fish Fry on sale and knew I could use it for something. I decided to mix the ten ounces of fry batter with 2 ½ c of Buttermilk for the onion rings, but I made sure to set aside about 1/3 c of the batter for the jalapeno rings. I tossed the onion rings into the batter and used my (washed) hands to completely cover them. Then, I covered the bowl and put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours.

Nothing starts my day off right than slicing a bunch of onions, crying because of them and then smelling like them the rest of the day.  In all seriousness, I wanted the onion rings to soak in the batter for as long as possible, so doing that task before heading to the grocery store was a perfect amount of time.

With a hundred bags of groceries to put away, I first (washed my hands) opened my packages (3lbs.) ground beef and plopped them into a plastic bowl, seasoned it with a few splashes of Worchester sauce, ground red pepper and of course, salt and pepper. After I washed off my ground beef-y hands I quickly put the groceries away.

I’m not sure what’s more American: burgers or bacon? So, I decided to stop pondering and put bacon inside the burgers. I rough chopped six slices of raw bacon and soft sautéed with diced onion and two ounces of chorizo. [My husband loves chorizo and eggs, so I buy a package and freeze it. It’s easy to cut a portion and defrost in the fridge.]

After the chorizo and bacon were cooked (bacon was soft, not crispy), I poured the whole mixture over a paper towel lined paper plate so most of the grease would soak into the paper towel.

I find hand patting my own burger meat….fulfilling?  I used my (washed) hands to mix the bacon-chorizo-onion mixture into the ground beef; I made a ball of meat in my hands, so that the fingers on my right hand barely touched the thumb of my left hand. Then, I slowly patted the meat while smoothing the edges. Finally, I used my thumb to imprint a dent in the center of the meat. I do this so the center won’t bulge when cooking.

I’m sure you’ll see a trend here, but I washed my hands then set up my dredging station: Hot peanut oil on the stove, a bowl of flour for dredging to the right of the stove and my batter covered rings to the right of that. If you use one hand for picking up the rings, then your other hand won’t get covered in batter and flour. You’ll need one dry hand for holding your tongs.

While my pot of oil was heating up, I turned my stove-top griddle to medium low heat. Yes, you read correctly, I said griddle. What can I say? My cheap gas grill is wonderful at burning food, but nothing else. Until I can afford the grill I dream of, I’ve resorted to my griddle…believe me, it’s much better than my grill!

I’ve gone over dredging before. Don’t forget to tap any excess flour off. The steps to crispy food after dredging are: dredge one item, lay into the oil. Dredge the next ring, and insert into oil. Never dredge a batch and then allow any amount of resting time (before cooking). Resting any type of food in wet flour causes clumps and gooey-ness.

Don’t drop ANYTHING into hot oil! Splatter burns are torture. The key is to get your hand as close to the oil as possible and gently lay the onion ring, moving away from your body.

The onions rings came out great, though I burned the second batch due to, well chatting.

My husband loves jalapeno burgers, so I came up with an idea: completely seeded, I sliced into rings and soaked them in the same batter as the onion rings. I cooked these after the onion rings were finished, in the same pot of oil. The six of us we were on the fence about the crispiness of the jalapeno strips. Most of us agreed that next time they should be a tad less crispy.

With all three components grilled, battered or fried I assembled my burgers. With melted Cheddar and Jack cheese over the bacon burgers, I set atop the bottom of the mayo-d bun. Next came a few jalapeno rings, lettuce; onion rings. I drizzled BBQ sauce over the rings, squirted a little mustard on the top bun. 

What’s more American than Bacon Burgers? Sharing with family and friends, thanks to Mom and the Cochrans for joining us!

Afterthoughts: Next time, I’ll add more chorizo, because none of us could taste it. I think the onion ring batter was a little too thin, so next time I’ll mix with 2 c of Buttermilk. Also, I need to perfect my jalapeno rings.

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend? Let me know what you think of my burgers!