We’re kicking off the new year with a brand new burger blog! Burgers can be quite versatile so we decided to test out a handful of recipes for you to up your burger game in the new year. For this blog we included both beef and chicken options to give you even more variety. Here are the recipes we made:

• Breakfast Burger
• Mac and Cheese Burger
• French Onion Burger
• Taco Burger
• Bloody Mary Burger

Follow links above to skip right to the recipe page.

Without further ado, let’s get started!  Let’s start in the morning with our breakfast burger.

Breakfast Burger

For our breakfast burger, we used store bought beef patties from the Chef’s Counter at Festival, both seasoned and unseasoned options are available in-store. For the chicken version of this burger, we used chicken breasts. We topped our burgers with a slice of cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Finally we made homemade waffles to use as the bun.

To begin, start with your meats. Because we bought unseasoned patties, we pre seasoned with Lowry’s before cooking. We pan fried our burger patties and chicken breasts, while we baked our bacon in the in the oven. While the meat is cooking, we started up on our buns.

 

Next we made our waffle buns. To make ours, we just used a box mix and made them according to the package instructions with our mini waffle maker. To save time, you could also buy store bought or frozen waffles to use as your bun. Once these are finished, cover with tin foil to hold the heat until we’re ready to assemble.

Last thing before assembly is the eggs since the other items are easier to hold their heat while the eggs are made. Cook your eggs as desired, we made scrambled eggs to top our burger, but you could make any style you prefer.

Finally, the easy part: assembly. Start with one waffle, then add your beef patty/chicken breast with cheese, which we placed in the oven for a few minutes to give it a nice melt. Then comes the bacon, which we cut in half to more easily fit the size of the burger. Your fresh eggs come next, followed, of course by the other waffle bun.

We served our burgers with a side of maple syrup and breakfast potatoes (and hot sauce, of course).

Now this is just one version of a breakfast burger, but there are many more options one could use to shake up the variety. You could use breakfast sausage for your meat patty, or use a fried egg instead of scrambled, pancakes in place of waffles, or you could even top your burger with hash browns. I think we will be trying other variants of this burger and we’ll share out results with you.

Click here to view the recipe page for our Breakfast Burger!

 

Mac and Cheese Burger

This next recipe is super simple and delicious and has minimal prep work once your meat is cooked. It also includes three of my favorite things: cheeseburgers, mac and cheese, and prosciutto. Easily enough, all you need for this recipe is your beef patty or chicken breast, store bought macaroni and cheese from the deli, sliced prosciutto and buns.

First up we need to prepare the burgers (or chicken breasts). If you bought unseasoned patties, we recommend seasoning with Lowry’s Seasoned Salt before cooking. Cook to completion before moving to assembly.

Once your meat is cooked, it’s time to assemble. First place your meat atop the bottom bun.

Next fold over that delicious prosciutto over the top of your meat after which we will top with the prepared mac and cheese, which should be warmed through either in the microwave or oven.

 

The Mac & Cheese from Festival Foods is one of my favorite items from the deli, the hardest part of making this recipe was not devouring the macaroni while waiting for the burgers to cook.

 

Top the burger with the other half of your bun and you’re ready to munch.

This is a fairly simple recipe and there are many different variations one could do with it. You could make homemade mac and cheese, or prepare your own burger with ground beef, or maybe even try to do a Juicy Lucy with the mac and cheese… we’ll save that idea for next time.

Click here to view the Mac and Cheese Burger recipe page.

French Onion Burger

Next on the list, we’ve got our French Onion Burger.

For this recipe you will need the beef patties (or sub chicken breasts) again, along with some of my other favorite food:  sliced mushrooms, sliced white onion, Swiss cheese, and wait for it…. Pretzel buns.  We did this recipe with pre-made patties and chicken breasts, so as with the previous 2 recipes, cook your meat as explained above.

Next, heat a skillet with oil. Slice your white onion, then toss them in the skillet. Cook until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes, then add your pre sliced mushrooms and heat until tender and golden, about 7-8 minutes.

 

Once the meat is cooked, we put them on a baking sheet, and placed a slice of Swiss cheese on each beef patty and chicken breast and put them in the oven under low heat, just enough to melt the cheese.

Once the cheese is melted and the onions and mushrooms were cooked, it’s time for assembly.

 

First take your bottom half of your bun and put your burger or chicken (with melted cheese) on next. At this point, you should be an expert at bun placement.

Next add your mushrooms and onions, followed of course, by the top half of your bun. Finally, devour.

The combination of onion, mushrooms, Swiss cheese and pretzel bun was perfection, and worked really well with both the burger patties and the chicken breasts.

Click here to view the recipe page for the French Onion Burger

 

Cheese Stuffed Taco Burger!

Now it’s Taco Time with our Cheese Stuffed Taco Burger!

For this recipe, our two versions used ground beef and ground chicken, and both included taco seasoning, cheddar cheese, lettuce, pica de gallo, brioche buns, and guacamole. Taco bout a good time.

To start, mix your ground meat with the taco seasoning. Once mixed, portion into four equal parts to eventually make into four quarter pound patties, you can make your patties larger if you prefer, though making them smaller will make stuffing cheese more difficult.

Next fold a piece of cheese into quarters and stack them together, then form your meat patty around the cheese. Try to make sure you completely cover the cheese so that the cheese doesn’t all leak out.

Once the patties are formed, heat a skillet over medium heat and cook your patties to completion. These patties are quite a thicker with the stuffed cheese so they may take a little longer to cook on both sides.

A little bit of cheese oozing out isn’t the worst thing, just make sure you don’t burn any cheese that melts out.

Let’s talk guac: We made our guacamole fresh for our burgers, using one of our most used recipes, however Festival also carries fresh guac in-store if you want to save a step. After the guac is ready, and the burgers are cooked, it’s time to assemble.

As usual, start with your bottom bun followed by the meat patty. Next top your burger with guacamole followed by Pico de Gallo.  You can make your own or use store-bought, we used Crazy Fresh brand Pico, found in the produce section at Festival.

Finish your assembly with the top of the bun.

We enjoyed ours with chips and salsa on the side. For those interested, margarita recommended, but not required.

Click here to view the the recipe page for Cheese Stuffed Taco Burger

Let’s get to our final burger – the hangover Bloody Mary Burger!

Bloody Mary Burger

This one is both delicious and super fun to make with the variety of accoutrements. You can add as many or as few classic Bloody Mary fixings as you please. This ended up being one of our favorite recipes from the blog, both for the flavor and the fun presentation.

To start things off you need 1 lb of ground meat (beef or chicken), 1 tablespoon of hot sauce (we used Frank’s, my personal favorite) Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Mix these ingredients together then form into equal patties.

Cook your patties all the way through on a skillet at medium heat. While the burgers cook, you can make your Bloody Mary sauce.

Bloody Mary Sauce (Click here and scroll to bottom to view as web page). For the sauce you need to simply combine a ½ cup mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons Bloody Mary Mix (store bought), 1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, juice from ½ lemon, 1 tablespoon vodka (Tito’s), and 1 ½ tablespoons hot sauce (Again, we used Franks). Mix these ingredients and set aside.

Next up: the fixings. What fixings and add-ons do you put in your Bloody Mary? Meat sticks, pickles, olives, horseradish, tomatoes, sausage, cheese curds, bacon, cheeseburger sliders, pepperoni, chicken wings, pimento.  You want a throw a slice of pizza on there?  What’s stopping you?  You can add almost anything to you drink so why not add it to your burger?

To assemble, start with the bottom bun and spread a layer of the Bloody Mary Sauce followed by your meat patty. Next, add your lettuce, tomato and pickle chip, then top with a generous amount of your Bloody Mary Sauce, and finally the top of the bun. Now, grab those skewers and get ready for some fun.

 

For our burgers, we used 2 skewers on each burger. The first skewer we simply weaved bacon through it. For the second skewer we used a cheese curd, a cherry tomato, a pepperoncini, and meat stick, and a black olive. Obviously, you can use any variety ingredients you prefer.

Serve with a beer chase or if you’re really ambitious, enjoy with a Bloody Mary!

Click here to view the recipe for the Bloody Mary Burger

 

Well folks, that’s all we have this time. Thank you for reading, let us know which burgers sound most tantalizing to you!

 

Cheers and remember, always surround yourself with those willing to taste test with you!