These Big-O Bacon Burgers will be a hit with the family!
Warning: this recipe is dangerous. Not only is it one heck of a crowd-pleaser, but your family and friends will be kicking down your front door for a seat at your dinner table. Heed my words.
Originally featured in our cooking app (and later, in our first cookbook, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans), this is a burger recipe that heaps umami on top of umami. These days, more and more restaurants and food pros are grinding bacon with beef to form their special burger blends, but like many of you, I don’t have a meat grinder on hand in my kitchen. My solution? Freeze the bacon, roughly chop it, and then pulse it in your food processor before mixing it with ground beef. (Remember to use sugar-free bacon to keep it Whole30-friendly!) Plus, I add cooked-and-cooled minced mushrooms for an extra blast of flavor power.
I usually eat these burgers in a lettuce wrap…
…but if you have time, I highly recommend roasting Portobello mushroom caps and using them as “buns.” And don’t forget to load up the toppings!
Time to make Big-O Bacon Burgers!
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons ghee, lard, or fat of choice, divided
- ½ pound cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
- 4 ounces bacon, frozen and cross-cut into small pieces
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Equipment:
- 12-inch cast iron skillet
- Food Processor
- Large bowl
- Wire rack
Steps:
Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and sauté the mushrooms until the liquid they released has cooked off. Set aside the cooked mushrooms to cool to room temperature.
Pulse the frozen bacon pieces in the food processor to the consistency of ground meat. Just a few pushes should do it!
In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bacon, and mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper.
Using your hands, gently combine the ingredients. Be careful not to overwork the meat!
Divide the mixture into four portions (or more if you’re making sliders), and use your hands to flatten each into ¾-inch-thick patties.
Melt the remaining tablespoon of ghee in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, and carefully add the patties.
Fry up the patties in the hot fat, turning once. They should take about 3 minutes per side, whereas sliders should only take about 2 minutes per side. Of course, you are free to cook ’em as well-done as you wish.
Transfer the patties to a wire rack so that any excess fat can drain off.
Pile them with your favorite burger toppings, wrap them in lettuce leaves or roasted Portobello mushrooms, and chow down!
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2021).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Big-O Bacon Burgers
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee lard, or fat of choice, divided
- ½ pound cremini mushrooms finely chopped
- 4 ounces bacon frozen and cross-cut into small pieces
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and sauté the mushrooms until the liquid they released has cooked off. Set aside the cooked mushrooms to cool to room temperature.
- Pulse the frozen bacon pieces in the food processor to the consistency of ground meat. Just a few pushes should do it!
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bacon, and mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Using your hands, gently combine the ingredients. Be careful not to overwork the meat!
- Divide the mixture into four portions (or more if you’re making sliders), and use your hands to flatten each into ¾-inch-thick patties.
- Melt the remaining tablespoon of ghee in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, and fry up the patties in the hot fat, turning once. They should take about 3 minutes per side, whereas sliders should only take about 2 minutes per side. Of course, you are free to cook ’em as well-done as you wish.
- Transfer the patties to a wire rack so that any excess fat can drain off. Pile them with your favorite burger toppings, wrap them in lettuce leaves or roasted Portobello mushrooms, and chow down!
Jody S says
These were so easy and flavorful! We had a pack of meat a little over a pound, so our burgers were a bit bigger. When you bite into them they have just right amount of salt and juiciness. I even think people who don’t like mushrooms would appreciate these burgers.
Laura says
I bought Michelle’s book, Nom Nom Paleo food for humans this week and this is my first recipe from it I used. I just made this recipe for my family tonight, and drool. What an awesome recipe. I was nervous, this recipe includes a ton of mushrooms, and I am the only one in the house that likes mushrooms. Before I could get the burgers cooking, my husband came home from work and was commenting on how the house smelled like mushrooms. But, everyone ate them and, they agree it’s a winning recipe. Thanks for such a great recipe.
Mark says
I really enjoyed this recipe. I think the mushrooms in the burger really added another layer of flavor without it being necessarily a discernible mushroom flavor. I ended up using some double smoked bacon which I had in the fridge and it gave the burgers a real yummy smoky bacon flavor. I didn’t think about this until after I had mixed the raw bacon into the hamburger meat, However, I like my burgers pink on the inside, but with raw bacon in the patties, I felt that I had to cook them until there was no more pink to make sure that the bacon was fully cooked. When I cook this recipe again, I think I will cook my bacon and reduce it to a fine crumble before adding it to the burger meat so that I can leave my burger patties medium rare without worrying about eating uncooked bacon.