What? Grilling a skillet? Let me explain. I love the crust that a cast iron skillet gives a burger. What I don’t like is all of the smoke in my kitchen which results when you have to heat the skillet to such a high temperature to allow the burger to sizzle and crisp upon contact. So what’s a person with a craving for a juicy burger on the inside with a crisp crust on the outside to do? I’ll tell you what. You put the skillet on a preheated hot grill (gas or charcoal) and heat the empty pan for 10 minutes over a very high heat.
Once it is sizzling hot, you sprinkle the pan with a bit of salt and carefully put in the burgers, searing them until they are crispy and brown on the outside.
This is similar to the crusty goodness that you would get if you cooked them on a flat top grill in a restaurant. You can cook the burgers any way you like. I prefer them medium rare.
The topping for these burgers is just out of this world. I combine goat cheese with a little bit of cream cheese for smoothness and creaminess and add to that mixture a bit of horseradish and dried cherries which I cut into smaller pieces with kitchen shears.
This burger is heavenly served on a toasted, buttered brioche or pretzel bun.
Goat Cheese Horseradish and Dried Cherry Topped Burgers
Although this may sound like a crazy assortment of ingredients, you have to try this fabulous burger to believe it!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 pretzel or brioche buns
- 2 cloves garlic very finely minced
- 1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
- 4 ounces goat cheese at room temperature
- 2 ounces Philadelphia Cream Cheese at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons white horseradish or more if you like it spicy
- 1/3 cup dried cherries snipped into halves with kitchen shears or chopped
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
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Preheat gas or charcoal grill to a high heat.
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Heat oven to 200 degrees for warming the buns.
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Heat a large cast iron skillet on the stove over medium high heat. Add the butter and the garlic to the skillet and quickly brown the buns in batches so they do not crowd. Do not burn the garlic or brown the butter.
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Remove the buns from the heat, put them on a sheet pan, lightly cover them with aluminum foil and place them in the warm oven.
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Carefully remove the cast iron skillet from the stove and place on the preheated grill to get very hot for 10 minutes.
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Form the hamburgers into four even patties. Evenly sprinkle about 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in the hot pan on the grill. Add the patties to the pan and don't move them for 5 minutes. You want a crisp crust to form.
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While the burgers are cooking, mash the goat cheese, cream cheese and horseradish together in a bowl and fold in the cherries, distributing them well.
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Turn the burgers after 5 minutes and cook on the other side until they reach the temperature you like them.
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When the burgers are done, leave them in the pan on the grill, season them with fresh black pepper to taste and them top each of them with 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Remove the burgers from the heat and place them in the buns.
When the burgers are done I prefer not to drag a heavy burning hot skillet back into the house so I turn off the grill, throw a cup of soapy water in the pan and leave the pan outside to cool. I know people get all worked up about wetting a cast iron skillet but personally I like a really clean pan free of burned-on crusty debris so once I clean it I just spray it with cooking spray and there you go. It’s fine. Not obsessing over the pan. I’ve had mine for 30 years. Been abusing it all these years and I guess it’s just a survivor.
Enjoy these delicious, creamy, goaty, sweet and savory bundles of juiciness and hopefully, you will look forward to many other creative and exciting dishes in 2017 @metirmentblog.com.