Gourmet Rooster BBQ Bacon Burgers

Hi guys!  Memorial Day is coming up on us pretty fast!  Are you prepared?  Do you have lots of fantastic BBQs planned?  A cook-out every day?  What about me you ask?  Well, I will be packing.  Yep, that’s right.  We are moving.  Don’t worry Reno, we are just moving a little bit down the mountain;)

We are planning to move June 15^th….So I figure we should start packing now.  Will that really happen?  We’ll see.  I’m pretty excited to move.  I love our house now….but I can’t wait to get back to city livin’.  No more propane for power, septic tanks, pine needles everywhere, bears, etc.  I really am only moving about 5 minutes down the mountain, but it will be a big change.  I hope.  It turns out I’m not Snow White and living in the forest doesn’t suit me.

Back to my burgers…(Did I not tell you I’m making burgers?  Oops.  I’m making burgers.)  I really wanted to grill these burgers on the BBQ outside, but we have a super duper red flag warning today here.  There is already a huge fire burning about an hour or so south of me, and I decided not to burn down the Galena Forest tonight.  You’re welcome neighbors.  I will be using my indoor grill for this.

How much would it suck if I burned down this house right before I was scheduled to move out of it?;)

So this burger is special for a few reasons.  The first and most important reason is that this burger has ground up bacon inside of it.  I didn’t think of this myself.  My friend Jason was telling me about a local place, which has since closed, that used to sell ground beef with ground bacon in it.  I am assuming this isn’t what let to their closure since ground up bacon in burgers sounds amazing.  I also use two kinds of Gourmet Rooster spreads in it…and I put the cheese in the burger.  Sounds yummy, right?  It’s easy too.

I used two pounds of ground beef, about 2/3 a pound of thick sliced bacon, Gourmet Rooster Smokehouse Bacon BBQ Sauce, garlic salt, black pepper and gorgonzola cheese.  It already sounds phenomenal, right?

If you are counting Gourmet Rooster….don’t worry….the other flavor comes later.

So the bacon gets a trip in the food processor to get “ground”.  Is that grammatically correct?  It doesn’t seem right.

As you can see in the picture above, I gave it a rough chop before I put it in the processor.

Then, in a large bowl, I mix the beef, ground bacon, sauce, salt and pepper.  I don’t add the gorgonzola yet because I am going to form some burgers that are cheeseless for my wee ones first.

The kiddie’s burgers have been removed…so I added the gorgonzola.  I mixed this all up lightly.  Don’t over work your meat.  I say that all the time…but it’s true….right guys?

Make sure that you put a little dent in the center of your patties.  When burgers cook, they tend to poof up in the middle so if they have a dent in the middle….this isn’t a problem.

I grilled these on my trusty George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine.  One tip:  the bacon in the burger will splatter like a you know what.  If you are grilling this on a BBQ…watch your fire.  It might flare up.  It you are doing this in a pan….wear goggles.  I’m kidding.  Just stand back.

I grilled my burgers for about 4 minutes.

Oh look!  The second Gourmet Rooster flavor!!  I top my burgers with Gourmet Rooster Caramelized Onion and Chardonnay spread.  I also used lettuce and tomato.  Burger toppings really are a personal preference so you do what you need to do.

If you love grilled onions on your burger, you will love this spread.  And you don’t have to cut any onions.

Are you kidding me right now?  There is bacon IN THE BURGER!  COOKED RIGHT IN!  Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you, but I need you to realize the possibilities of bacon IN your burger.  The BBQ sauce isn’t half bad in there either.

I don’t care if this is bigger than Paisley’s head.  I’m goin’ for it.  I hope you try this recipe too!  You will.  It’s bacon.

Gourmet Rooster Bacon BBQ Burgers

2 pounds ground beef

2/3 pound bacon, ground in food processor

¼ cup Gourmet Rooster Smokehouse Bacon BBQ Sauce

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1 ½ teaspoons black pepper

4 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

Gourmet Rooster Caramelized Onion and Chardonnay Spread for topping

Mix together ground beef, ground bacon, BBQ sauce, garlic salt, black pepper and cheese with your hands.  Gently form burgers, leaving a dent in the middle.  Grill until cooked through on both sides, about 4 minutes per side.  Serve on buns with Gourmet Rooster Caramelized Onion and Chardonnay Spread.