Description
The BEST Smash Burger recipe with bacon, pickles + the most amazing burger sauce! Works on a Blackstone, other flat top, or cast iron skillet!
Ingredients
Scale
Burger Sauce:
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon dill pickles, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon pickle juice
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce (sub coconut aminos)
- 1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
Smash Burgers + Toppings:
- 1 pound ground beef, 80/20
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 slices thick-cut bacon, cut in half
- 4 hamburger buns
- 2–3 tablespoons butter
- 4 slices American cheese
- 2–3 burger pickles
- (optional) white onion, very thinly sliced
Tools (optional):
Instructions
- Make Burger Sauce: Add the classic Burger Sauce ingredients to a small bowl, stir to combine. Set aside.
- Prep Burger Balls: Add ground beef, salt, and pepper to bowl. Mix to combine. Use a scale to create 1/4 pound balls with your hands and set aside.
- Prep Other Ingredients: Make sure your bacon is halved an ready to go. Butter both sides of the buns. Have cheese ready to go, some salt + pepper for seasoning, as well as an extra plate to put your cooked burgers on. Having everything prepped and ready to go is essential, because the cook time goes real quick.
- Cook Bacon: Bring Blackstone or flat top to medium-high heat. Add bacon and let cook to your liking, 3-4 minutes (more if you like them extra crispy). Warm up your burger press a bit so the bottom isn’t cold (especially if you store it outside). Move bacon off to the side, but make sure the bacon grease is nice and distributed.
- Cook Burgers + Toast Buns: Place burger balls on flat top. Slowly press down on each ball to flatten until the patties are approx. 1/4 inch thick. This will take 15-20 seconds per burger. Let sit and cook for the next 40 seconds (feel free to season patties at this point if you want). Flip and immediately add a slice of cheese to each – this is also when you will put the burger buns down (buttered side down). Close lid and let burgers cook approx. 2 minutes. Open lid and remove burgers and buns to clean plate.
- Build + Serve Burger: Take a toasted bun and place the cooked burger on top (or stack two). Top with two slices bacon, burger pickles, and burger sauce – also add onion if you want. Enjoy!
Notes
- Bacon + Buns: the bacon grease on the flat top and toasted buns seriously elevate this burger! Do not skip!
- Double vs. Single: totally up to you if you want to stack for a double smash burger or keep it at a single – personal preference!
- Cast Iron Skillet: you can definitely make these in a large cast iron skillet, but it might work best if you use two skillets, one for the burger and one for the buns so they can be done at the same time.
- Cook Time: we did the dirty work here and tested all the different time frames – the 3 minutes total time had the most consistent results for a not undercooked, not overcooked burger. If you are concerned you can shoot for closer to 2 minutes 50 seconds, if you want!
- Burger Press + Paper Squares: you can definitely get away with using a sturdy metal spatula and pressing down on it with a full can of beer or something, but the burger press really is nice here! You can also place a paper square between the ball of ground beef and burger press when you press it down, to keep it from sticking. We didn’t and obviously it worked just fine, but feel free to use these as well.
- Nutrition info is for the smash burgers + toppings. Does not include the burger sauce because amounts added can vary.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 burger
- Calories: 418
- Sugar: 5.6 g
- Sodium: 953 mg
- Fat: 15.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 29.8 g
- Protein: 32.8 g
- Cholesterol: 99.9 mg