- Hey friends, it's Ashley
from the Test Kitchen. We're gonna take your
burger game up a few notches with a little French flair, keep watching. (bright music) Imagine this, two comfort
foods coming together to create the ultimate eating experience. Classic French onion soup and a perfectly cooked juicy burger. It's like wearing footie pajamas underneath your favorite cozy blanket. Let me show you how to make it. We're gonna start by getting
our onions caramelized. Go ahead and get your
butter melting in a pan on medium-high heat while we slice up our onions. And just to note, as the butter slowly
melts and simmers a bit, it will start to brown just slightly and that aids in the flavor
of caramelized onions, so let that happen, that is what we want. And with your knife go really gently and try and get as even slices
as you can and super thin. The thinness will help
everything caramelize evenly and it will help get those
onions nice and translucent, which is exactly what we wanna see. Giving these onions a little bit of a stir to incorporate that butter, I'm gonna let them cook
on medium-high heat for just a couple of minutes longer and then move the entire pan aside, drop the heat to low, and let the magic happen low and slow, making sure to give them
a stir every few minutes. Now onto the burgers. I'm using fresh thyme and
shallot as ingredients that will be folded within
the burgers themselves. This way it adds a great depth of flavor and they're already ingredients traditionally found in the
classic French onion soup. I'm using fresh shallot within my burgers because it adds a really
beautiful brightness to the bite of this burger along with the creaminess from the caramelized white onions later. Oh, you cannot beat this,
this is going to be delicious. I'm really attentive
to the mixing in this. Make sure that we're using
nice and wide finger movements, we're not pressing everything together. As hard as it is to not
wanna squish your patties, it's better to lightly
mix with your fingers. This recipe yields four
beautiful burger patties, so the easiest way that I do this is I just take my full pound of ground beef and equally ball it into
four balls for each patty, so that's what I'm doing here. So, forming my patties I'm
really paying attention to leaving an indent. I'm gonna season it with just some coarse
salt and black pepper and these beauties are ready for searing. And remember, you guys,
seasoning is really important, so just be sure to season
well on both sides. Great, now I'm just gonna
pop these in the fridge for a couple of minutes
while I get our buns ready. For a really awesome burger tip, if you're not already doing this, add a little bit of mayo to
your buns before you toast them. It adds a really nice flavor and it helps with even golden browning. It's definitely my go-to
way to prep my burger buns. Once we have a nice
crust of toasty goodness on each of these buns, I set them aside to
start searing our patties in the same pan. Once your patties hit the
hot cast iron, let them be. We want to create that
great sear on a burger patty that everybody lives for, and that requires not moving them around, let the crust develop. While I let my patties cook, I keep an eye on them and I start to grate my fresh Gruyere cheese. This cheese is what makes
French onion soup so fantastic. And I'm still being
patient with my burgers, not messing with them too much. And checking on our onions quickly, they smell insanely good and super sweet. I'm adding a little bit of Brandy to them and this rounds out the flavor and helps lift those
yummy bits of goodness from the bottom of the pan. Oh my gosh, the crust. This is what a great sear
can do for your burgers. Look at that, it's perfect. At this point, the burgers will only need a couple of minutes on
this side to cook through, so I build my burgers directly in the pan. Start with a hefty pile of
those caramelized onions, yum. Next is an equally hefty
pile of that grated Gruyere. Oh my gosh, this is going to be great. Watch how this melts so perfectly over the sides of the burger. That's what you want,
overload that cheese. Also, I always strategically
let the cheese build off onto the hot cast iron pan and let it crisp up at the bottom. I temp to ensure they're
cooked to my liking and cover them up, keep them warm, while I get ready to plate up. And look at this, that cheese pull, the gooey caramelized onions
falling into that cheese, this is gonna be so good. So here it is, it looks so good, and that really oozy Gruyere
cheese is just calling my name. I'm gonna take a bite. (bright music) That is powerful flavor. The caramelized onion in that
salty really juicy burger, this is so good. Make sure to like and subscribe and we'll see you next
time here in Test Kitchen. (bright music continues)
