I love me some sous vide Turkish slider burgers but sometimes I need some variety in my burger seasoning. Ever since I bought my first bottle of Red Boat fish sauce, I’ve been splashing it on almost every dish I’ve made. My chef sis recently tipped me off about a great recipe on White on Rice Couple’s food blog for the Ultimate Umami burger. Guess what’s the secret ingredient? Ding! Ding! Ding! Fish sauce!

When I made these sliders today, I modified the recipe a little bit by adding some sautéed onions, and swapping out the sugar for a little applesauce. The resulting mini burgers were really moist and tasty. I swear there’s no fishiness, just yumminess.

Recipe after the jump!

Here’s what I gathered to make 16 sliders:

• 2 pounds of grass fed ground beef
• 2 tablespoons Red Boat fish sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, finely diced (I just blitz one in my mini-prep food processor)
• Coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon of unsweetened applesauce
• Freshly ground pepper
• Kosher salt

Here’s how I made them:

I sautéed the onions in coconut oil over medium heat until softened.

I added the minced garlic and seasoned the alliums with salt and pepper.

Then, I spooned them onto a plate to cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, I gently mixed the beef, onion, apple sauce, fish sauce, and pepper to combine.

I divided the meat into 16 balls and formed them into slider burgers.

I placed the burgers on a plastic-wrap lined tray…

…and stuck them in the freezer to harden (minimum of 2 hours).

Once the burgers were frozen, I vacuum sealed the meat pucks.

I placed the burger packets into the SousVide Supreme (set at 132 F for medium rare) for a minimum of 1 ½ hours.

I heated a couple tablespoons of coconut oil in a cast iron skillet and seared the sliders (~ 1 minute per side).

I served the sliders on lettuce leaves topped with guacamole but these mini patties taste good unadorned.

I’m telling you, Red Boat fish sauce is pretty awesome!