this ONION BURGER is a NATIONAL TREASURE

when i think of a burger this is the one i think of some consider it a national treasure born out of the great depression there's a lot of pain and uncertainty in america the same time there was a huge appetite for the beloved burger meat was expensive but onions were cheap so to satisfy people's demand and to offer something affordable burger joints in oklahoma started smashing a large amount of onions sliced as thin as possible onto a small amount of meat basically piling on as much onion as there was meat and people loved it almost 70 years later this burger is as popular as ever it's my personal favorite way to eat a burger and there are many stewards keeping this tradition alive burger historian george moats is a famous one my friend mike puma sells his gotham smash burgers in and around new york city you got white mana in new jersey sells them as sliders and oklahoma still keeps the tradition alive in places like the hamburger inn and ardmore and johnny's grill in el reno and i'm sure there's many many more it's one of the many simple dishes that prove less is more and when this burger is executed right there may be nothing better and that's what i'm going to show you how to do today if you have the right tools this can be one of the fastest and easiest and of course cheapest burgers to throw together and i'm going to show you how to do it today so let's just jump right into it here i have about a half a pound of 80 20 that is 80 percent lean to 20 fat ground chuck the fat content is important in this burger because we're not going to use oil we're going to use the fat in the burger to make sure that we get a nice crust on the meat so a lean ground beef not ideal in this in this burger and we have a regular spanish onion i'm gonna go half an onion per burger approximately so i'm gonna slice this whole onion up and that should be enough for two now you can do double patties i'm not gonna do a double today i'm gonna do a single smash burger i like a smaller burger so if i want lots of burgers i'll just have multiple burgers rather than one huge burger with like three burgers on it that's just me though so with regard to the meat we got to remember it's a small amount of meat we're using and it's going to cook really fast max three four minutes so i'm gonna go for around two and a half to three ounce burger patties and i'm gonna weigh them if you don't have a scale you can just eyeball it [Music] i'm going to slice up my onion [Music] now in an ideal world i would say do this on a mandolin that's gonna be the best the thinnest setting on the mandolin it's gonna get you the perfect shape and size of onion but i always like to show how to do it by hand in case you don't have a mandolin or you don't want to use a mandolin and so what we're gonna do is we're just going to go really slow and we're going to use a thin blade or the first top half of your chef's knife which is thinner than the thicker back end and what we do is we just use our lead guiding finger more than we might normally to kind of act as you know those uh band saws is always like a guide you have to think of it like that like a deli slicer that that pressure always keeping it in line so you get the right thickness that's what this finger does and so we're just gonna go really slow that's the thinness that you want to go for that means they're going to cook really fast and caramelize properly maybe that's a little too much for one but you get the idea more or less i've got my two three ounce patties and one onion thinly sliced beautiful the bun we're going with is the martins and we're going with american cheese if you don't like american cheese i know what to say like i read a grilled cheese food truck i ban this from my food truck i'm not a fan of it but some things it just makes sense for it and this is an american burger through and through and it just calls for american cheese if you want to use cheddar go ahead and use cheddar if you don't want cheese don't use any cheese but i'm going with this and now in its basic form this burger is a bun onions and beef and that's as simple as it needs to be in order to be delicious but i'm going to show you ways to kind of make it fun you can kind of make a burger bar you can make these burgers and then people can add whatever different condiments they might want so first we're going to slice up a few kosher pickles cause a pickle is always a great thing to put in a burger because it's real fatty and rich and a pickle is acidic and it kind of cuts through the fat and lightens it up again if you don't like pickles then just leave them out and now i'm gonna make like a a special sauce based off of a russian thousand island style of dressing but i'm just gonna make it mine a little bit so we're gonna start with one of the pickles and i'm gonna dice it really fine like a relish i've got a little shallot this works really nicely in this i'm going to treat it the same way as i did the pickles then i got my calabrians i'm gonna throw a few of these in so i've got my chilies my onion and my pickle i'm gonna take a little bit of that pickle juice just a tad i'm gonna go in with that get a little bit of that vinegar in there i'm gonna go with some of that calabrian chili oil a little salt and in with the mayo i hope i have enough i had like about a half cup i wish i had about a cup but i think i can finagle this and just a little squirt of ketchup you don't want too much a touch of mustard i actually like it it's really interesting with that the the chili's in there it's not a straightforward russian dressing the chilies do sort of take it in another direction but i like it you can make it either way i'm gonna do one with this and one without so we'll see how that is so we've got our condiments waiting to customize our burgers for whoever wants what and we've got our burger stuff ready to go get cooked we've got a couple buns our cheese is ready to go everything moves fast so we want everything done already i've got a cast iron pan a large one it's been preheating on the stove on a low heat so i can go jack it up and we should be ready to go my tools of choice are a silicon spatula one that i can just kind of press down and i know it'll release it's non-stick uh if you want to use parchment paper you could do that as well and then to scrape and flip i like to use a fish spatula it's kind of bendy i can kind of work my way underneath there and flip these guys no problem that's it let's just go on over and smash some burgers a flat top or griddle is gonna work best for this but if you don't have one of those a cast iron pan is gonna work best i want the pan almost smoking before adding anything once it's hot enough we first toast the [Music] buns once the buns are toasted add two balls of the meat with space in between and then smash them into the pan [Music] you see this is the benefit of using like a parchment paper or maybe even greasing the spatula before smashing so it won't stick like this but it's okay it's not a problem at all just try to use the spatula to flatten those edges [Music] once both are smashed season with salt then add a generous amount of onion you don't need to add this much onion but you know i'm trying to honor tradition over here plus i like fried onions salt them and then kind of smash them into the burger patty this is going to sweat out the onion juice and add that onion flavor to the burger there's only really going to be one side that develops a crust so make sure your heat is high enough and do not flip until a solid crust has been developed on that first side you can give it a little peek to see when it's closed once you can see a crust has developed scrape underneath it and then give it a nice flip with a lot of confidence you should be greeted with a perfect crust give the onions a minute to cook and while they cook season that side of the meat and then add the cheese then on top of the cheese add the bottom bun and on top of the bottom bun add the top bun this is going to steam the buns and warm them up when the onions are nicely cooked scrape the burger up take the top bun and close the burger up and you're ready to dig in the delicious thing about these onions is some are caramelized some are darker some are less cooked than others and you get all these delicious flavors and textures that make this burger amazing so good now let's try some condiments a little ketchup and a couple pickles this is fantastic any way you slice it you could add the condiments you could not you could just add ketchup just a pickle make it a bar making an experience but these are so easy so fast and so delicious you might be insane to not give this a shot [Music] get your hoodies available down in the link below thanks to all my patrons scrolling up on the screen supporting this show if you want to become a patron there's a link on the screen and in the description as well that's all that i have today i'll see you next time until then take care of yourself and go feed yourself you

Channel: NOT ANOTHER COOKING SHOW

Views: 1,564,688

Keywords: oklahoma onion burger, grilled onion burger, onion burger, burger recipe, oklahoma onion burger recipe, fried onion burger, oklahoma onion burger diners drive ins and dives, oklahoma onion burger youtube, oklahoma onion burger food network, white manna sliders, george motz onion burger, gotham burger social club, how to make a smashburger, smashburger at home, george motz, onion burger oklahoma, onion burger sauce

Id: lo8GVZkYEHE

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2020