SMASH BURGER RECIPE (The ONLY burger I make at home)

hey what's up for me the best burger is not it in and out or at shake shack well those are very good burgers i wanted to say that for sure going on record delicious burgers but the best burger you can make is the one you smash yourself [Music] so we have to start with the number one most important aspect of a great burger and that's the beef itself today i've got one pound of boneless beef short ribs here and i'm gonna grind them up myself they're super well marbled with fat and they're packed with beef flavor i'm gonna cut these down into roughly one inch by one inch pieces and lay them out in a little quarter sheet tray as i go we're looking for a pretty fine grind of this meat and to do that we need a smallish chunk as a starting point if you don't have access to boneless short ribs by the way you could use a fatty end of brisket or a chuck roast anything that you would normally need to braise to make it edible once these are cut up i'm going to throw them into my freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes while i finish up the rest of this prep up next is burger sauce for that into a tall sided container measure 125 grams of mayonnaise check out this baby spatula by the way i love this little thing oh yes behind that measure 15 grams of diced onion 60 grams of ketchup 25 grams of sriracha or chili sauce 15 grams of yellow mustard 60 grams of bread and butter pickles and a little bit of garlic i've got a whole clove here i'll need about half of it though so i'm gonna smash that down cut it into little bb slivers throw it in there and oh yeah i'm gonna add two grams each of salt and coarse ground black pepper there we go next i'm going to grab my immersion blender and give everything a really good spin if you're not familiar burger sauce is like a super condiment once you've had a burger with it it's really hard to go back to a simple ketchup and mustard setup it's tangy and sweet and this one's got a little bit of heat to it you're gonna dig it once that's all spun up we're gonna give it a little taste and it's yum now we're gonna use that baby spatula to scoop it into a pint and then i'm gonna throw it in the fridge while i finish everything else up it's been 20 minutes now and the beef chunks are frosty and really firmed up as you can see they have very little give when i poke to them firm beef these these are like beef rocks okay to grind these beefs i'm gonna grab my food processor and load in half of these cubes real quick i know you're thinking hey what's up with the food processor that's not a meat grinder and that's accurate it's not but for me most people don't have meat grinders they're kind of expensive and it's a one-use appliance i'm not a huge fan of that instead i think that when you're doing small batches of stuff especially grinding hamburger meat or doing chili like we did in the last video this is the perfect thing don't get me wrong you can't make 40 pounds of bratwurst farce in this thing it's not gonna work out but it will do a turn when you're trying to break down some beef cubes in the hamburger meat i'm gonna process this on high speed for about 20 seconds or so and that's a little bit longer than i did in the previous video when we made ground beef for chili having really cold meat in the food processor helps us get that fine grind we need for a proper burger and it helps this meat from getting too worked up and sticky i also want to mention we're going through the trouble of grinding our own beef here for two reasons one is that we can pick out the exact cut of meat that we want for the freshest beefiest flavor and number two that freshly grinding our own meat gives us a looser product with a way better texture in the end and check this stuff out now we got loose and crumbly vibrant red beef and it just looks like it makes a good burger but i know you're wondering hey bry can i sub in store-bought ground beef instead and yes that will definitely work but just be aware it's a little bit more ground down it's a little bit stickier and it's gonna make a chewier burger that's just not gonna have as much beefiness as ours okay once i've run all this beef through the food processor i'm gonna gently toss everything up to combine here the first round was a little bit leaner looking than the second we want to get all that beef fat evenly distributed now i'm gonna grab a sheet tray and my scale i'm gonna throw down some parchment paper so that i can portion out these beefs i'm gonna be measuring out this fresh hamburger meat into six three ounce balls and getting them set up on this sheeti over here as i go don't be too rough on the meat here we wanna preserve that loosey-goosey texture as much as possible overworked beef is gonna make a chewy hamburger once that's all measured out we're gonna pre-smash the patties and this is gonna be controversial i think and i'll get back to why we're doing this in just a second for now though grab the balled up meat and work it just a little bit in your hands we're gonna give them a little squeeze just so things stay together in the pan this is not gonna be a meatball rolling sash we don't want tacky beef once that's balled up we're gonna throw it onto a piece of parchment and top it with a second piece of parchment from there i'm gonna smash it down gently with the flat bottom of a pot just like this i'm gonna put a little weight on it now and look at this thing it's a perfect little pre-smashed patty there's a lot of surface area here to get crisped up in the pan we're smashing these ahead of time because i think for the newcomer the highest success rate is going to be with a patty that's properly smashed before it goes in the pan look i know that in a proper smash burger restaurant they're going to put a ball of ground beef on the griddle and then use a big spatula to smash it out to get the maximum surface area i love the romance of that but in practice it's actually a lot harder to get right at home than it seems also cooking fatty burgers at home is really smoky and smashing them into a hot cast iron pan with a spatula makes them way smokier than i think anybody's reasonably going to deal with so uh pre-smashing here is going to give us some control it's going to give us a crispy well caramelized patty we're going to be stoked once these are all smashed up and looking good we're gonna throw them back on the sheet tray and into the fridge while we get the rest of our burger toppings sorted out for that i'm gonna start with a whole peeled shallot and i'm gonna slice it as thinly as i can i think onion is essential for a great hamburger and i really like the mellow qualities of a shallot but red onion will definitely work here as well once these are sliced we're going to rinse them off real quick to chill out some of that pungent sulfury stuff that i hate i'm going to throw them into a little cup container and set them aside behind that we need a dill pickle for sure burgers and dills give b-boy a thrill i have some cool crisp clawson's here cool crisps claw cool crisp clawson's here they're the gold standard for dills for burgs in my opinion all i'm doing here is just slicing them thinly maybe 1 8 of an inch once those are all sliced up we're going to throw them into a cup and now we're going to review what we need to have in place before we start cooking these burgers all this stuff comes together really quickly and we need to be ready of course we've got pickles the thinly sliced shallots the burger sauce we've got some green leaf lettuce that i've trimmed up and washed and finally we've got some squishy hamburger buns i recommend going with a brioche like this these are pretty widely available at grocery stores now they're supremely squishy super tender and they're perfect for this style of burger i also want to let you guys know that i attempted three times to create a bun with the same characteristics here and i didn't even come close i don't think it's possible to create industrial bread like this at home it'd be kind of like making american cheese at home oh yeah one last thing a perfect smash burger has got to have some sort of melted cheese on it so for that i've got kraft singies here it's a weird food i know i only use these for grilled cheese and cheeseburgers but it's just what we need they melt in a way that acts almost like a cheese sauce when it combines with the burger sauce and all those beef juices it's dope that's all that i know over at the stove we're going to preheat a large cast iron pan and also set up a little sheet tray with a wire rack to land our burgers on into the hot pan we're going to smear a generous amount of butter and toast off our buns we don't really need the bun to be super hot so i do this first just so i don't forget and that i toast it correctly like this see that's golden looking good smells great okay set that aside under the wire rack and now i'm gonna grab the beef patties and season one side of two patties with salt and pepper generously then into my ripping hot cast iron pan where i've preheated about two tablespoons of high smoke point oil we're gonna lay in the patties as you can see the parchment makes quick work of this it keeps your hands safe from oil spatter as well now i'm gonna season the far side of these patties with salt and pepper generously and i'm to push these into the pan with some gentle downward pressure for that i've got this modded heavily modded bent spatula here this is going to be perfect for ensuring maximum surface contact with a hot pan but it's terrible for flipping burgers and you're going to see that in a second these patties cook super fast about two minutes total i cook them mostly on the first side to get that dark brown fried beef crust and after about 90 seconds were there i'm gonna flip these now awkwardly with this 90 degree spatula and then immediately top with american cheese and let these coast for the last 30 seconds or so this is the beauty of a smash burger right here you get the most beef flavor that i feel is humanly possible and it only takes about two minutes with the house ground short rib you honestly get why steak and shake called these burgers the steak burger it's so beefy it's insane i'm gonna stack these now on top of each other and then onto the sheet tray to rest while i fire off the rest of my patties i've already got one bun ready to go i've got all my toppings prepared so let's make [Music] before i get out of here i just want to say how much i appreciate everybody who supports this channel on coffee there's been some really generous tips this week and you guys know who you are so thank you very much as always guys thank you so much for your time and attention thank you for sticking around and we'll see you next time

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 623,437

Keywords: smash burger recipe, smashburger, smash burger, smashburger recipe, smash burger cast iron, smash burger and cheese, american cheese, kraft singles, burger sauce, smash burger recipe serious eats, smashburger recipe babish, the best smash burger, perfect smashburger, thin burger, burger cheese, smash burger how to make, smashed burger, smashed cheeseburger, smash cheeseburger, food, cooking, weeds and sardines, brian lagerstrom, how to make a smashburger, burger, make at home

Id: 7dP7xJEasY4

Length: 9min 3sec (543 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020