Amazeburgers

Recipe: Spicy Whisky BBQ Sliders
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays
Time:  25 minutes
Ease: 4
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 8
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

Ordinarily I take issue with making up words, but from today forward these burgers will be known as Amazeburgers.  I have no other singular description for them.  Amazeburgers they are.

Usually I avoid burger recipes.  (And before you call me a liar, yes I know I posted about these burgers just last month.  Let me clarify.  They were mini.  Everything and anything mini stands to be the exception to the rule).  I've been burnt by far too many burger recipes that tried to class up the basic burger when, hello! who are we fooling?---burgers aren't meant to be classy.

I didn't have high hopes for these burgers, but because I can't stand to have the same recycled recipes for dinner every week, I tossed this one on my monthly menu.

It's from the newest Pioneer Woman cookbook, and sadly isn't posted on her blog.  If you read along though, you'll get the gist on how to make these melt-in-your-mouth, I-can't-eat-just-one, where-have-these-been-all-my-life Amazeburgers.

The ground beef is seasoned, squirted with a little Worcestershire and then shaped into burgers.  Interesting tip from PW: make a well in the center of each burger with your thumb to prevent the patty from plumping too much when it is cooking.

Coat the skillet with a little butter--eek! yes, butter!--and cook the patties on both sides.

Fry some diced onions in the delicious juices, some might call them fat but that just seems insulting, then pour in some whiskey.  Allow the whiskey to bubble up and reduce.  Add BBQ sauce, and some jalapenos, and then toss the burgers back into the skillet.

I told you: simple.  I gave this a '4' for ease because I think part of what made my burgers so Amazeburgery was that for once in my life I didn't over cook the burgers.  I like my meats done medium, with a hint of pink on the inside, and somehow I managed it with these burgers.  I might not, however, manage it the next time I make them. 

After returning the burgers to the skillet, I flipped them over and swished them around in the sauce.  Hubby ended up being about twenty minutes later than I expected the night I served these, so I let them simmer in the sauce and they remained perfectly amazing.

I may or may not have eaten mine before he came home.

It's not often that I am this impressed with something that involves barbeque sauce.  Even Hubby was impressed, which is saying something.  Hubby is rarely impressed, food snob that he is.

This recipe is definitely one of those don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover recipes.  What I thought was going to be another recipe tried and marked off the "To Make" list has become one that now will go on the "Hubby Loves" list.