http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/07/grilling-recipe-cheese-stuffed-burgers-curly-hot-dogs/
Stuffed burgers can be a really fun and yummy alternative to regular cheeseburgers, but with a pleasant surprise inside! I pondered purchasing a fancy burger making machine to stuff burgers, but could not think of how else I could possibly use it and really did not have the extra storage space.
You don't need a special burger press to make yummy stuffed burgers
After a few attempts at trial and error, this is the technique that I came up with using little more than a ramekin.
Start by splitting your burger meat in half
Take the half of a burger meat and press it into the bottom of a ramekin. If you are smart, you will spray some non stick food release in the bottom, and around the inside of your ramekin so it comes out easily when you are done.
Half the burger meat pressed into the ramekin
Now cut your cheese stuffing into cubes and place it in the middle of the burger patty. Most melting cheeses would probably work fine, but I chose pepper jack for this burger. Grilled onions, pickles, bacon bits, or blue cheese would probably also go really well, but that would be a matter of preference.
Cheese placed in the center of the burger
Take the other half of the burger meat and top the cheese. Be sure to press down evenly so that the top and bottom half's adhere to each other.
Food release helps the burger come out much easier than without
Now it is time to hit the burger with your favorite seasonings and head to the grill. I grilled the stuffed burgers at about 350F which is a little cooler than normal for a little extra time to make sure that the cheese melted.
Burgers cooked for just a little longer than normal, but not much
What we ended up with was a juicy, cheesy, and extremely flavorful burger! Even though burgers are not much of a novelty, these stuffed burgers cooked over hardwood lump charcoal on the Big Green Egg turned out delicious!
So excited to try these! Thanks for sharing! Are there any other good cheeses you've tried this with?
Thanks for looking and commenting! I have not tried many cheeses but I bet a stringy cheese like mozzarella could be fun. Blue cheese probably would not melt that well, but I bet it would also be fantastic!
Yes! Love blue cheese! You know what? I saw someone do a burger with a babybel cheese inside it. Those little round cheeses that come covered in red wax... It's almost the perfect shape for the centre of a burger. It's a mild cheese though...not like blue.
Fellow Montana food blogger here 🙂 Glad to have found your blog! Stuffed burgers are a really nice change. I made some the other day that were stuffed with a jalapeno popper & bacon type of filling. I like your ramekin idea a lot. I used a small dinner plate and just made one patty a little larger than the other so that I could sorta tuck the edges over. Kinda worked, kinda didn't. 🙂
Hey @Ali- Great to hear you are a fellow blogger from the Big Sky State! The ramekin trick works quite well. I cannot wait to take a deeper look at jamhandsblog- Expect a PM from me- Cheers!