Get Your Grill On: Jalapeño Cheeseburgers with Bacon and Spicy Ranch Sauce

It was National Burger Day this week (on Wednesday, May 28, to be exact — I had no idea May 28 was National Burger Day — you can check out a complete list of food days on Wikipedia). So in actuality, this post is a few days late, but with the warm weather and summer months coming, having an excellent hamburger recipe for a family BBQ is always a good thing. I found this particular recipe on epicurious.com about six years ago. Epicurious used to be my go-to site whenever I wanted to discover something new to try. I still frequent it, but I’d have to say I’ve been trying all sorts of different dishes because of Pinterest. Also, Food & Wine is pretty much a can’t-go-wrong resource for tasty dishes.

I didn’t have a burger on Wednesday or any day this week, actually, but it’s what we made on Mother’s Day! Yup, I wanted to grill gourmet hamburgers, so we went back to the ol’ Jalapeño Cheeseburger with Bacon and Spicy Ranch Sauce. Original recipe is called Jalapeño Cheeseburger with Bacon and Grilled Onions, but the only grilled onions in the recipe are mentioned as an aside for additional toppings, so I just say “and Spicy Ranch Sauce.” I know, probably TMI, but I figured an explanation would help if you’ve clicked on over to the original recipe. Of course, caramelized onions or straight-up grilled onions are a nice addition to any burger, in my book.

You can skip the bacon on these and they’re still amazing. You can halve the spicy ranch sauce (it makes a TON!) if you’re making it for 10 or fewer people. There’s no need to double it if you have 20 or more guests. Trust me on this. I always forget and make the whole recipe and then we have a crapload of spicy ranch (but then you can put it on anything you want, so I suppose there’s that!). I doubled it the first time we made these and we ended up throwing so much of it out because we couldn’t eat it fast enough. Do NOT skip the spicy ranch sauce. The sauce makes this burger. The tang from the lime dances on your tongue.

We’ve also skipped the Worcestershire-coffee glaze and the burgers still turn out tasty, but I highly recommend making it because it adds a depth of flavor that will blow your mind. My husband made a double with his (not sure if this picture makes your mouth water from wanting to eat or needing to vomit — didn’t realize how crappy the photo came out, but I didn’t get a chance to document a fully put together burger):

One last note: If you don’t have sharp white cheddar cheese, don’t worry. And I don’t shred mine, only slice it. We’ve used pepper jack, sharp cheddar and what’s called for and all have worked great. So use what you like or try something new, but don’t fret if you can’t find sharp white cheddar cheese.

INGREDIENTS

Spicy Ranch Sauce

• 1 C mayonnaise
• 1 C sour cream
• 1/2 C chopped fresh cilantro
• 6 T fresh lime juice
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 T minced seeded jalapeño chile [I use 2-3 whole jalapeños and I don’t seed mine]
• 1/2 t cayenne pepper

Burgers

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped (about 1 1/4 C)
• 1/4 C chopped fresh parsley [I NEVER use parsley, I ALWAYS use cilantro — it’s up to you!]
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 T chopped seeded jalapeño chile [same thing here, I don’t seed and I use 4 peppers with the burgers, sometimes adding serranos and/or yellow peppers]
• 1 t salt
• 1 t ground black pepper
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper

Worcestershire-Coffee Glaze

• 1/3 C light corn syrup
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 2 T ketchup
• 1 t instant coffee crystals
• 2 t (packed) golden brown sugar
• 3 T butter

• 16 bacon slices

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 8 hamburger buns or 3- to 4-inch square focaccia rolls, split horizontally
• 8 lettuce leaves
• 2 C coarsely shredded sharp white cheddar cheese [I already mentioned that it doesn’t have to be shredded, you just need a slice per burger, obviously, and it doesn’t have to be sharp white cheddar]
• Assorted additional toppings (such as tomato and grilled onion slices)

DIRECTIONS