Frozen “Meat District” Hamburgers

Didn’t exactly plan on my first “BBQ” post to be of frozen hamburgers, but I was gifted a twelve pack of these. Someone said they limited purchases of these because of demand, so I am happy to have received them.

Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy buying some 80/20, doing a slow smoke and a sear.. but not this time. This will be as the instructions instruct. From frozen.

---

Recipe

---

The Prep Table

The plan is to smoke up a pack of bacon at 225 degrees, then crank the pellet smoker to 450-475 with my Grill Grates and put them burgers on. I do have some proprietary ingredients and blends, but everything else is readily available:

• Meat District “The OG” Frozen Hamburger Patties
• Smithfield Cherrywood Bacon
• Busch’s Market Kaiser roll buns
• Boar’s Head pre-sliced cheddar cheese
• French’s Original Crispy Fried Onions
• Kroger brand Hamburger Dill Chips
• “Bone Suckin’ Sauce” BBQ sauce
• Sliced onion
• Beef Rub: Blend of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
• Pepper blend: Dehydrated, super hot locally grown peppers
• Hot Delallo Pepperoncini’s – Unrelated to the burger, but I can’t help it.

---

The Process

Everyone has their opinion on smokers: Electric, propane, stick, off-set, smoker boxes.. or pellet. Cheater smokers, pellet poopers, whatever nicknames you want. I do nearly all of my smokes/grills on this guy, or his little brother: the RT-340. I’m a huge fan of these for the simplicity, portability (Trailbrazer), and most of all: The result.

For this smoke, I filled the 40lb pellet hopper with a mix of Char-hickory and Mesquite. I’ve always been a fan of this blend for beef, and it was left over in the bin from my beef tenderloin experiments. Spoiler alert: Did not disappoint.

Bacon went on – no seasoning – just package to grates at 225 degrees. Flipped the bacon at the 1 hour mark (seen above) and added some corn for the wife. I also dusted my cob with some homemade cajun seasoning because I can’t let a good corn cob go to waste.

After the bacon was done, took it off and kept it on the cutting board until the corn was done. Then it was time to crank the pellet grill to 450-475 to get them burgers on. Yes, I snuck a piece of bacon.. to test it out. Purely for research.

Now, I’ve used this smoker all spring/summer, and anytime you go from smoker to grill, you should clean out drip tray. I did not do this. I had months of pork butt, brisket, tenderloin, my candy bacon, and who knows what else sitting on the tray. My poor neighbors had a backyard party going, and I smoked the hell out of the area. The young kids were running around yelling “Fire!!!”. Hilarious, yes.. but be safe, clean that grill

After these had a chance to go from frozen to cooking, I threw a dusting of my beef rub and pepper blend. The beef rub isn’t anything special: Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Onion Powder — but it’s right kind of mixture you go for. And that’s what makes it yours. I absolutely love spices, seasonings, rubs.. I’ve worked on this specific blend for longer than I’d like to admit, but it’s perfect on beef.

My old partner at work blessed me with some fresh hot peppers. His kid has a green thumb, I love anything spicy and it was a perfect meeting. The problem was that them peppers were unbelievably hot. I don’t remember what they were, they were in zip-loc bags and had hilarious hand-written warnings on them. Kid has a sense of humor: Both writing the warnings and growing the damn things. I didn’t know what to do with them.

One day, I sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. I took a mortar/pestle and hand-ground these into coarse pepper blend that is dangerous. I’ve cooked with these before in the kitchen, and the wife was none-too-pleased that I basically OC-sprayed our house. We laughed, we cried. I kept laughing, she didn’t. But I digress.

By this time, I’ve done 2 hours of smoking bacon, a 1 hour break waiting for the corn, about a half hour of smoking these burgers. I always estimate time and cook to temp. I like a medium-well burger, so I was shooting for anything over 155. I dusted them, let it cook. Rotate, let it cook and then flipped. Dust again with that beef rub and demon dust, and repeat.

Once it hit about 130ish, I threw a couple strips of bacon back on the grill and put the buns in also. Smoked bacon isn’t crispy, and I wanted a little texture. After a short time, I got what I wanted. Toasted bun, crispy bacon and a nearly ready hamburger. Just throw a piece of cheddar on, melt it down and it’s almost time.

---

The Result

Everyone has their “perfect burger”, and if it includes any mustard, you’ve done yourself a disservice. I’ve never liked mustard on anything and don’t enjoy ketchup on a burger. That being said, the stack: Bottom bun, bed of pickles, hamburger, bacon, onion, BBQ sauce drizzle, crispy onions, top bun.

I think the frozen burger was good! I was delightfully overwhelmed by the smoked bacon which packed a hell of a punch from the harsh Mesquite wood. Crisping up the bacon with the addition of the crunchy fried onions added a great texture to accompany the saucy BBQ drizzle. This burger knocked it out of the park. I intended to give a decent review of the frozen patty, but I can’t accurately do that. I was punched in the face with the smoky bacon, the heat from the pepper, the best damn BBQ sauce (Bone Suckin’ Sauce!) and I always have a pepperoncini finisher on the side.

My only complaint is that this burger filled me up and I couldn’t do another. I hope you enjoyed taking this journey. I’ve always loved smoking food, making something out of nothing, and enjoying the result. Until next time.

---

The Recipe