Bison Burgers and JoJo Wedges

So I was away traveling for work and enjoyed so much authentic Mexican food, I have to up my game. The flavor.. and passion.. that some of these small eateries put into their food is remarkable. Thank you to all of those small restaurants – you’ve taught me more than you’ll know!

And of course, I had some mesquite-smoked beef ribs. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see where I went and what I tried. Thank you again to my border eateries.

BUT, I didn’t have any burgers. And, being the American I am, I needed a hamburger. The wife needed to go to Fresh Thyme, and that’s where I found my favorite meat blend thanks to Force of Nature Meats. Until I get a grinder/stuffer and can make my own blends – these folks do a hell of a job. You may remember I used it for my Chili, but this time – I went all Bison. Bison Ancestral Blend. Read on, my friends.. let’s go!

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Recipe

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The Prep Table

We pulled out the tools today. I flew back on a Friday – felt like absolute shit all weekend, to be honest with you – but I needed to get back at the cooks. You know my Oklahoma Smash Burger which was a grease bomb burger – I wanted to go more traditional. Less grease, more flavor, more.. authentic.

I’ve seen so many great hamburgers… and I’m learning the Instagram game… but they all can’t be 2-3 patties, egg drippy, cheese slathered.. I need a simple, clean, easy-to-eat hamburger with a little something. I threw some local love in there too. In fact, I’ll put a link up to start: check out Freakin Pickles – great people. I recommend you sell spears in addition to your chips, but your chips worked perfect on these ones.

Rolled out the artillery. The RecTeq Bull was itching to be used, the Blackstone was lonely.. and the prep table MrsForensicBBQ wanted to get rid of (joke) was going to be key as I get things going. Let’s get to some ingredients:

I bought some fresh cut bacon from Fresh Thyme – “Black Pepper” bacon. That Ancestral Blend of Bison meat, heart and liver. A hearty tomato, iceberg lettuce, and smoked Gouda cheese. A little extra with the Dave’s Killer Hamburger buns, those Freakin’ Flaming Dill Pickle Chips and an unexpected friend: Hidden Valley Ranch’s Secret Sauce Spicy. Nothing over the top, just have to make sure everything is done right.

Anytime I pull out the Victorinox, I’m excited. The tomatoes slices perfectly with none of that tomato “push”. I used them to slice the Jojos and I was ready to go. What the heck is a Jo Jo? New to me too. While the food was familiar, the term was not. Slice a Russet in half, and wedge it in threes. You’ll have a thick slice of tater that will bake nicely.

I’ll mention here that we were about 80 degrees on this particular day – perfect to spend it outside. The cloud cover made taking pictures a pain in the ass, but I did my best. But I also let the weather work in my favor. I actually prefer the baked “potato fries” to fried – so I sliced these up and let the weather dry them out. I still like it crispy, and you’ll see I added a little bit to that as well.

A bit out of order, but appropriately in “The Prep Table” – these Jo Jo’s were oiled up and coated with my cajun blend. Without a touch of smoke/heat, they already exhibit a great color.

This turned out to be about 4 hours of a cook. A rough 2 hours for the smoking of the bacon and another hour+ for the potatoes. I hesitated putting my recipes on here for this exact reason – I cook to temperature, not time. To the visual, not by the watch. Everything is “about this” and “around here”. My seasonings are roughly the same – a “dusting” and a “dash”.. I like this too because as I’ve said in the Three S’s posts: Make every cook your own.

Enough talk.

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The Process

Rather than buy the pre-packaged bacon – as I admittingly do – I went with the store made kind. My buddy Slide is going to tell me to make my own – and I’ll get there… but not yet. So this particular bacon – bought about a pound and didn’t do anything special other than take it out of the butcher paper and put it on the grates. MrsForensicBBQ said to put some seasoning on it – but I don’t listen. She’s used to that.

Bacon is pretty easy. 225 for about 2 hours. I mentioned I just got back from Texas, so I went with straight Mesquite wood for this cook. I ordered the embarrassing amount of beef ribs from Cattleman’s in Fabens and I just wanted more of that mesquite. Roughly two hours, flipping halfway through and you’ll have a nice soft bacon that’s ready to go.

Feel free to cook your bacon anyway you want, but that added smoke to this – especially when I’m Blackstone’ing the burgers – really pops. And for those crispy bacon lovers – you’ll crisp it up later if you want, trust me.

I have to also cook the potatoes and burgers, so this was a pre-cook. Once the bacon was done, I placed them in a half-pan, sealed it with a foil topper, and waited until I made the burgers. This bacon was extremely greasy. Watching it sizzle and drip all over that (not-so-recent) clean grill was… welcoming. The grease left on these grates made the tater cook easy – didn’t need to apply any non-stick. Speaking of which – I went on a HUNT a week or two ago for that Duck Fat Spray and came up dry.

So Wolf and I had a back-and-forth about whether or not to starch the starch. Was the Panko needed for the taters – absolutely not, I’ll give him that. Was it wasteful? Also no. I enjoy the light breaded-ness (?) of the Panko so why the heck not. You saw above, that I sliced each Russet into 6 wedges. From there, slathered in oil and dusted with that homemade cajun. Put them on those bacon grease covered grates at 400 degrees – and MrsForensicBBQ made like a snow globe and wintered those wedges.

How long do these take? However long you want to. Potatoes are awesome because you’re not going to hit a temp-point and 5 minutes later they’re screwed. You get some wiggle room. And I used that to decide when I’m going to start the burgers. When those potatoes were starting to burn (my favorite) – I got to burger making. I love using multiple appliances for a cook – makes me feel like I’m getting a lot done. One day I’ll bust out the Trailblazer and have two smokers rolling, with the Blackstone – and maybe even the Matador to showcase the goods.

About 45 minutes into that potato cook, the bacon cooked and covered, it was time to give the Bison some attention. Figured the slide show below would be the best way to showcase:

That Ancestral Blend of Bison – Meat, Heart and Liver, has so much flavor. I’ve done the beef and bison before – and love the results. They come in 1lb packs, so I was going to smash burger 1/4lb patties. So let’s walk it through. Roll up about half-pound balls of bison (?) and get the Blackstone prepped. High heat and slightly oiled. I did two sessions of cooks on this – I knew two were going to be for weekday lunches, and the last two for dinner (spoiler alert: I ate too much). I’ll reference again the Oklahoma Onion Burger – the double stack was inferior to the single.

Give her about 10-15 seconds and flatten them things down. I did the double spatula press – one on top of the other – and let it cook. When you see that gray creeping up the sides, you’re good to flip. Or wait another half minute and really crisp that thing up. When you do that flip, and you don’t see that dark brown/black char – you did it too early. Use my pictures as a guide – nailed it.

Here’s where I put it all together. I’ll do a slight recap for y’all: Pre-cooked the bacon, set it aside and had the potatoes cooking. When those potatoes were about done, I started with the burgers. I toasted the buns and prepped them for the patties. The lettuce, onion, tomatoes were already sliced up and ready to go, so it was just stacking. Let’s go picture by picture:

Really enjoyed these Dave’s Killer Buns. I loved the brioche for the Oklahoma Onions, but these needed a homestyle, hearty feel. These did just that. I don’t like an overly crispy bun – these just needed texture. A little clock on the Blackstone until they crisped and prepped them up. A slight covering of with that HVR Secret Sauce on the buns – not too early to soggy the buns – but right before the show.

So we placed the ball of meat on the ‘Stone, flattened it – throw some of your seasoning on there. I again went with my Cajun – it’s probably my favorite go to as it has a bite, but doesn’t overpower. I love it on most everything – including pizza. So post cook, we flipped the patty and give it another love dusting. Drop your cheese on there and let it melt.

I went with a smoked Gouda, a harder cheese so play the game on how much you wanted it to melt. Your Kraft squares will be oozing down the sides, your Gouda won’t. Cook where you want it. The onions were a last minute move – I love a raw onion, I love a grilled onion. I decided to put these on right when I put the cheese on to give it a little cook – but nothing near a sauté/grill. Just enough.

That HVRSS covered the bottom bun and the bed of lettuce on the bottom. So many preferences and theories to the stack – I probably change mine over time too. I wanted the dry patty but the flavor of the sauce. From bottom to top: Bun, Lettuce, Patty, Onion, Pickle, Tomato, Bacon, Bun. Onion/Tomato sandwiched the pickle, keeping them in place. Spaced out the meats so the flavor imparted the most coverage of the veg. A sauce covering on each bun to give the pallet the flavor upon bite.

Boom.

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The Result

Had to share the finished bacon result in this section. Look at that color, my goodness. So none of my previous photos show it, but when I was cooking the patty – I put the bacon on the Blackstone to add some heat. Remember when I said you can choose your crisp level? Now’s that chance. You’ve imparted the smoke, your pig is cooked – how crispy do you want it? I didn’t want to add too much more to the process, so I just added some heat.

Set two burgers up for the picture and here you go:

Probably my favorite part – aside from the taste – is the color that the All-American burger brings. Your darks from the meat, the greens/reds from your veggie, that slightly cooked onion – I was so happy with this result. Sure, you don’t see much pickle (I can see it peeking through). But it’s a perfectly stacked burger.

Remember those fries that were cooking?

Man, these were outstanding. The burnt wedges with that slight Panko coating brought a delightful crisp. I made way too many of these to enjoy this particular evening, but these were a dynamite cook. Remember, cook to where you want them – I like a crispy burnt and that’s when I made my burger. If you want them softer, eye your potato cook and use that as your guide.

This was the plated burger. My ketchup blend was Sir Kensington’s Spicy Ketchup with a couple dashes of hot sauce (Mule Sauce from StickerMule). I haven’t had regular-ass ketchup in a long time without some hot sauce in it. To each their own.

Let’s talk about the finish. I’d like to hear your reasonings behind the burger layering also. I think the finish was spectacular. It looks like such a well-rounded “even” burger. For those condiment fans out there – no. No ketchup on the burger. And absolutely never any mustard on there either. Just a little of something that the HVR Secret brought was enough for me. That first bite was Moses sea-parting good. That smoke from the bacon hit pleasantly good – the beef was delicious. Lettuce is always give or take, but the texture is what was added. Onion/Pickle/Tomato – it was the perfect All-American Burger. The cheese was melted enough to bite through – definitely try this one out.

My first cook after my work-trip, and I was delighted. I had some leftovers and while they’re never as good the day of – it was still a damn good burger. My friends over at Trompo King came through big and I can’t wait to showcase some al pastor! We got some big things coming in the ForensicBBQ world!

MrsForensicBBQ is knocking out some KILLER cooks – I love seeing what weird plant-based stuff she comes up with. I side-eye her cooks since they don’t have any meat in them, but she really makes a damn good meal. The color she brings to her grain bowls, soups and such far surpass mine – So lucky she grabbed that cooking bug and kills it. Thanks for joining me on this journey. Until next time!

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Recipe