Burgers are fantastic and very common item to grill, griddle or smash! In this recipe, we discover the unique technique to crafting a wonderful tasting Oklahoma Onion Burger.

A What? Defining an Oklahoma Onion Burger

It might be obvious but you really can’t order an Oklahoma Onion Burger and follow with a ‘hold the onions’ request. Your restaurant server would likely ask you to leave. The onions are the burger or at a minimum, a significant portion of the burger expereince.

Southern Living defines an Oklahoma Onion Burger as:

“A ball of ground beef is pressed firmly into a hot griddle or cast-iron pan for instant, maximized browning. Then, it’s topped with loads of thinly-shaved onions. The burger cooks quickly while the onions steam and caramelize, and everything is flipped over to create even more browning and caramelization.”

Well, sounds delicious to me already! Let’s make some!

Steve Adds a Few Burger Tips

House of Q fan Steve Waldron has sent us quite a few recipes to share on our website. (That’s awesome!!) But for burgers he adds a couple of great tips to share.

What kind of meat?

Steve made his onion burger with cold smoked, then ground beef brisket. That alone sounds delicious but for many at home this might be a little to much to take on when making a weekday meal. But this really leads to the point about the patties… you really have lot’s of options for what kind of meat to use. For our house at House of Q it would likely be 100% pork for our burgers. For others it might be a mix of pork and beef or even the standard burger 100% beef. We encourage you to try a chorizo or even italian sausage burger for this recipe. You see… there are options!

How Thin Are the Onions?

For this Oklahoma Onion Burger, the onions play a key role. The choice is to use a sweet onion which adds a whole layer of flavour when cooked so start with that ingredient. However the key to the onion is thinly slicing the onions. Steve uses a mandoline to create paper-thin slices of onion. The thinner the onions the easier they are to cook and caramelize into the burger.

To Sauce or Not to Sauce?

Steve made this burger a few times before sending it to us at House of Q. His first versions had no BBQ sauce on the patties. Tragic!? Well, not really… like the meat choice, there are options. We know that!

Steve used a compound butter (a flavour butter with herbs, garlic, mushrooms or even olives) and placed that on top of the burger once it was turned over. His next versions eliminated this step and used Apple Butter BBQ sauce.

The point here is that the added butter or BBQ sauce can be beneficial to add moisture and flavour to the burger. But you can explore what you like best!

Oklahoma Onion Burger

Print Recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Grill, Kitchen

HoQ Product Apple Butter BBQ Sauce, Backyard Classic (Rock’n Red) BBQ Sauce, Competition Beef Rub, Five Star Competition BBQ Sauce, Rock’n Red 2.0

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 1

Author House of Q

Ingredients

• 6 oz meatballs – mixed beef and pork (or your choice) portion into two equal meatballs
• 1/2 fine sliced sweet onion
• 2 slices Gouda or Monterrey Jack cheese
• 1-2 TB House of Q Competition Beef Rub
• 2 TB House of Q Apple Butter BBQ Sauce
• 1 soft bun

Instructions

• Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, finely slice the onion and sprinkle with Competition Beef Rub. Let the onion sit open at room temperature for an hour. Before cooking, squeeze out any excess moisture.
• Preheat your griddle or skillet to about medium to high heat or about 450 F. Don’t forget to preheat your cast iron smashing tool if you are using one (preheating keeps the meat from sticking to the press).
• Lightly drizzle the griddle with oil and place both meat balls on the warm surface. Sprinkle each ball with Competition Beef Rub and then top each with 1/2 of the onions. Using your burger smash tool or a spatula, smash the meat ball and onion together until the meat is spread evenly and thin. A tip is to smash to an even thickness and the overall size to be about 1/2 to 3/4" bigger than the size of the bun. Cook for a few minutes and using your spatula carefully slide underneath all of the pile and flip so onions are now underneath the patty.
  
• Season the top side with Competition Beef Rub and then a tablespoon or so of Apple Butter BBQ Sauce to each patty. Add the sliced cheese. If you have a lid on your griddle, close it or cover the patties with a grill dome. This will help cook the burger and bring all the flavours together.
• Meanwhile warm the buns on the griddle or toast on a grill. Stack one patty on top of the other and then place both patties together on the bottom bun. Top with the bun. Between the onion, BBQ sauce and cheese the only added topping might be a little mustard like Slow Smoke Gold on the bun or some pickles but this burger is going to have plenty of flavour! Grab some napkins!
  

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