Father's Day welcomes summer with backyard barbecues and family gatherings. Warm up the grill and make dad a "Whamburger" to celebrate his role in your life. We found this mouthwatering recipe for dad in My Key West Kitchen: Recipes and Stories, our favorite Key West cookbook.*
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Garlic Oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup sherry wine vinegar
- 2 pounds ground chuck beef, preferably 80% lean (best to use freshly ground beef, never frozen)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce
- 4 of your favorite buns
Instructions
Heat the garlic and oil and butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the mushrooms and cook until tender. Add the vinegar and stew the mushrooms for another 2 minutes. Using a fine-mesh strainer, pour the liquid into a small bowl; transfer the mushrooms to a plate and set aside.
Return the strained cooking liquid to the pan and reduce it over medium-high heat until it becomes syrupy. Add the syrup to the reserved mushrooms, mix, and let cool completely.
Meanwhile, divide the ground meat into four equal parts, then divide each part into two thick patties. Place 1/4 cup of the sautéed mushrooms in the middle of the four patties, leaving a border of meat all around. Put another patty on top of each, then crimp the outer edges of the patties tightly to seal and smooth the edges with your fingers. Refrigerate for about 1 hour to help seal the edges.
When ready to cook, season the patties with salt and pepper. Prepare an outdoor grill or preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Place the burgers on the grill and brush with BBQ sauce. After 5 to 7 minutes, flip the burgers, brush with more BBQ sauce and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes, depending on how well done you like your burgers cooked.
During the last 2 minutes of cooking, top the burgers with slices of your favorite cheese to melt. About 1 minute before the burgers are done, add the buns to toast on the grill.
Serve the burgers on the toasted buns and enjoy!
For more Father's Day ideas, visit our Father's Day pinboard on Pinterest.
* My Key West Kitchen: Recipes and Stories by Norman Van Aken and Justin Van Akin, published in 2012 by Kyle Books. Photograph by Penny de los Santos.
