Pimento Cheese Burgers

These Pimento Cheese Burgers are thin burger patties smashed on a bed of thinly sliced onion and jalapeno, topped with our creamy homemade pimento cheese, and served on a buttery toasted bun. The ultimate smash burgers!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 5

Total Time 15

Servings burgers

Calories 559kcal

Author Karly Campbell

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef 80/20
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 small jalapeno pepper
1/2 small onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt more to taste
½ teaspoon cracked pepper more to taste
½ cup pimento cheese
4 hamburger buns toasted with butter
Shredded lettuce and sliced tomatoes for serving

Instructions

Add the ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder to a bowl and work it together with your hands to distribute the seasoning throughout the meat, being careful not to overwork the meat.
Portion the meat into 8 loosely packed balls, 2 ounces each.
Heat a large cast iron skillet or flat top grill over high heat. You want this to be very, very hot before cooking the burgers.
While the skillet or grill is heating, slice the pepper and onion into very thin slices.
If you’re working in a skillet you’ll want to make two burgers at a time. If you’re working on a larger surface, you can make all of the burgers at once. Add a small amount of butter in each spot where you will place a burger patty and then drop a few slices of onion and jalapeno into a little pile over the butter. Let cook for 1-2 minutes to brown a bit.
Add the balls of beef to the skillet or grill directly on top of the piles of onion and peppers. Immediately smash each one with a burger press or two large spatulas. The burgers should be smashed very thin, a bit larger in diameter than your hamburger buns as they will shrink a bit as they cook.
Sprinkle the flattened burgers with salt and pepper.
Let the burgers cook until the edges are browned and the tops are turning more of a gray-ish color, 45-60 seconds.
Flip the burgers, season again with salt and pepper.
Immediately drop spoonfuls of pimento cheese on top of each burger, working quickly. If you’re cooking on a flat top grill, you should be able to cook all the burgers at once, working quickly so as not to overcook the burgers.
Immediately stack 4 of the burgers on top of the other 4 burgers, making 4 double patties.
Remove from the grill and place the burgers on the toasted buns and top with thin slices of tomato and shredded lettuce. Serve immediately.

Notes

For the buns, we prefer cheaper store brand buns or potato buns to something like a brioche bun. These are more of a simple burger than a gourmet burger and we want the beef to shine through, which can be hard with larger, more flavorful buns.

The jalapenos do not really make this spicy as long as you’re using very thin slices. Use more jalapeno for more heat or leave it off altogether if you don’t want it.

We often keep it simple with our mix of seasonings listed here, but a few other favorite burger seasonings include the Blackstone Cheesesteak seasoning (seriously good stuff and reasonably priced at Walmart) and Kinder’s Buttery Burger seasoning (also amazing and easiest found on Amazon).

When pressing the burgers, we use a piece of wax paper between the burger patty and the press. It makes clean up a little easier and nothing sticks to the press.

If you’re using a skillet to make these burgers and want to serve them all at the same time, we place the cooked burger in a bun with no toppings and wrap it in foil, repeating until we’ve finished cooking all the burgers. This will keep the burgers hot, the cheese melty, and the buns soft. Unwrap and let your family top their burgers how they wish when you’re ready to eat.

To toast the buns, heat a skillet over medium low heat, butter the insides of the buns and toast on the hot skillet until golden brown.

We don’t usually add any additional condiments to our burgers because the pimento cheese packs in a lot of flavor and creamy goodness. That said, a light drizzle of hot honey over the cheese is phenomenal here. Sweet, spicy, cheesy, beefy - all my fav things!

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