Quick Bite: Onion Mix Smash Burgers

Haven’t done a Quick Bite post for y’all in awhile. These are generally recipes I’ve done before, but they turn out so damn good I feel the need to put them on display again. I’ve gotten into a habit of taking pictures of nearly every cook when I’m wheeling out the RecTeqs and/or Blackstone. Not to brag, but nearly all of them turn out great and I’m like, “Damn, I gotta post that one”.

This was one of those.

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I already mixed up the beef blend. Super simple – 1 Pound of Ground Beef (probably 85/15.. maybe less) and a packet of onion soup mix. That’s it. Throw on your gloves, hand mix it up.. not overly done, but enough. We’re using our RecTeq in “oven mode” to cook up the frozen onion rings (McCall’s brand – may favorite in frozen sides by far). As you can see above, we have the onion rings in the tray, got a couple fake ass cheese squares for the burgers – my pickles/jalapenos and the burger blend.

I’ve seen a lot of weird ass techniques when smashing the “smash burger”. Don’t over think it. It’s supposed to be a dirty, blue-collar burger. If it falls apart, so be it. Ain’t no James Beard awards being granted for a smash burger. Here’s my trick for the smash burger. You throw the meat ball on the oiled griddle. Take the ass-end of our spatula (a solid heavy spat that won’t bend.. these stubbies – shown below – are perfect), coat the bottom of it with that griddle oil, and throw some weight down on the ball and smash it. Let it sit for a few seconds so the burger starts cooking and then slide the spatula toward you as you remove it from the burger. That’s really about it, don’t overthink the simplicity of the burger.

I had some red onion still diced up from some previous recipe so we’re using that as our sautéed onion. I love a raw onion on a burger, but I appreciate the flavor of a sautéed onion. Here’s the trick: When you do the flip on the smash burger (when the color starts to creep up the side and you got that CRISP on the bottom, throw your diced on there. It’ll time out to be perfect to have a crunch raw onion, but that sauté flavor.

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Wasn’t really a fail. I knew I was going to eat up two of them and save the rest for lunches. Once you flip that burger, throw that yellow square on there, and by the time it melts and starts to touch the griddle, your burger should be about cooked all the way. The onions should have that ForensicBBQ-patented style ready so throw those on there too and let it stick to the cheese before we take ’em off there.

I love this cheap ass tray I bought. I rip off a sheet of butcher paper, and it accomplishes the tray, the picture, the presentation – and it has HANDLES ?

That’s the ForensicBBQ burger. No sauces, just pickle, onion and jalapeno. Sometimes I’ll throw some BBQ sauce on and “rodeo-burger” it. I’ve been doing a fry sauce/comeback sauce a lot lately for fries/onion rings but not today. The longest cook time was the onion rings, but time it out right with your griddle time, and we have ourselves a quick weeknight meal.

I didn’t plan on my Quick Bite posts to take place of the usual Forensic Friday posts, but as short and simple as this cook is/was, it deserved the Forensic Friday treatment. Check out my Oklahoma Smash Burger for some inspiration, you’ll love it!