Recipe - Inside-Out Cheese Burgers

A quick over view of my life lately... the place I was working for has gone under. It was so far in debt that they had not choice to file for bankruptcy and well anyone working there is pretty much out of luck.

Now with that said, I also have SOOOOO much time and I'm LOVING it! No more wondering when I will go in next, if my day off will be a day off, not having 100 things to do on the days I did get off and no worries of time. Although I will miss my job dearly, I also feel almost liberated!

Now back to my KITCHEN! Toward the end of the warmer days this summer, I did have a few moments that I caught something on TV that mmmmm just looked yummy! I was watching the Food Network (yea again, it's my go to when there is nothing else on or I can't give total attention to it) and they were having this kind of cook off against 2 different restaurants that were making burgers that were named 'Juicy Lucys', not sure if that name is spelled right or not). Basically it was 2 slightly thinner hamburger patties with cheese stuffed between, the patties put back together so the cheese created a pocket inside! OMG I was in heaven. My DH on the other hand was thinking 'heart attack waiting to happen' until I pointed out to him what exactly was the difference on having a piece or 2 of cheese ON the burger or melted between the patties! He was still kind of off the idea, until I got into my kitchen a couple days later that is.

So here we go... my version of them. I decided to name them Inside-Out Cheese Burgers. This is such an easy recipe it's not funny and I can think of at least a dozen different cheeses that would work well but so far the best I have found to work is the every day American style Cheddar slices. You know the kind, wrapped piece by piece in clear plastic and sold in something like 10slice packs, although I'm sure now a days there are bigger packages too.

Ingredients (recipe is for 2 patties)
 ♥ 2 1/3 to 1/2 pound ground beef (I use lean sirloin)
 ♥ 2 - 4 slices american style cheddar slices, folded into 4's

 ♥ olive oil or liquid/spray butter/margarine for frying

 

This can even be a kid friendly/involved recipe as long as there is an adult to supervise when it comes to using the stove.

Directions

Step 1 - make even amounts of patties... make them rather thin and about the size of your hand (including your fingers), you will need excess on the sides like you would a pie crust in order to compress the patties back together and seal the seams. Make sure the patty is 1 piece with no holes or really thin spots. You want them as even as you can get them with exception of the sides.

Step 2 - lay out your patties side by side and place 1 or 2 folded slices of cheese right in the middle a patty while leaving a 2nd to cover over that cheese to reform into 1 patty.

Step 3 - put the other patty carefully over the top of the patty with cheese and start to work the sides back into each other to seal them and create one larger patty. This is the reason you want them rather thin or you won't be able to cook them through properly.

Step 4 - Fry... make them any way you would normally make your hamburgers. No doubt there will be a tiny place here and there that didn't seal right and cheese will bubble out, don't worry about it, just scoop it back up when you pick up the burger! Or perhaps you'll have spent enough time fold in the sides and won't have it happen at all, if you do SHARE with us how! I have made these at least 15 times now and almost every time there is at least 1 burger that oozes before it's finished.

The photos I made show me making one patty with the american cheese slices and the other with slices of mozzarella. They were both good but if you really want the ooze factor from the mozzarella then you must eat it first thing and piping hot or it just gets cold and goes back into a more solid form. It will of course never be almost liquid as the american slices end up being but it was still good! I'm sure a number of other kinds of cheese, American or other countries alike, just look for ooze or stretch (like the mozzarella cheese) factor!