Queso Bacon Burgers with Avocado Salsa

This is an awesome burger. In fact, Crystal describes this burger as “awesomer.” I was having family over for a BBQ/birthday party, and I decide they deserved awesomer burgers. Burgers made with bacon and roasted peppers, dripping with a queso cheese sauce and loaded with an avocado salsa.

Crystal, Mrs. Happy Homemaker, is my secret blogger for the  Secret Recipe Club this month. Each month members are “assigned” a participating food blogger. We choose any recipe from the assigned blog to bake/cook from, and blog about the recipe keeping the blogger a secret until posting day. As soon as I saw this burger I had to give it a try.

I’m so glad I did. It’s a fantastic, juicy, messy, burger, loaded with great Mexican flavors and it got rave reviews. The original recipe called for 6 jalapenos but I thought that was too hot for our crowd, so I used mostly Anaheim peppers. I made 16  1/3 lb. burgers, so if you’re not feeding a crowd, you’ll may want to downsize the recipe.

Crystal has lots of awesome recipes on her site, like Mini Oreo Cheesecakes and the Best Ever Coconut Custard Pie, so be sure and stop by.

Queso Bacon Burgers with Avocado Salsa
adapted from Mrs. Happy Homemaker

Ingredients:

3 Anaheim peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 pound of bacon
3 pounds ground chuck
1 cup crumbled queso fresco
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 buttermilk
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 avocados, pitted & thinly sliced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
16 hamburger buns

Directions:

Coat Anaheim and jalapeno peppers with oil. Roast peppers over a gas flame or in the oven until well charred. Transfer to a bowl, cover, & let cool slightly. Remove & discard the skin, stem, & seeds and finely chop the chiles.

Fry the bacon until crisp. Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon fat.

In a large bowl, combine the reserved bacon fat, half of the chopped chiles, and crumbled bacon. Then mix in the ground beef. Form into 16 patties. Season with salt & pepper.

In a medium bowl, combine the crumbled queso fresco, mayo, buttermilk, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and the remaining chiles. Season with salt & pepper – refrigerate.

In another bowl, toss together the sliced avocados, onion, cilantro, lemon juice, and remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Set aside.

Grill the burgers, turning once, for about 10 minutes for medium rare – longer if you like them more well done. Just before the burgers are done, toast the buns on the grill (or skillet) for about a minute.

Place some avocado salsa on each bun bottom, top with a burger and queso fresco dressing and finish with the top half of the bun.

Print Recipe

 

Tagged as: burgers, cooking, food, recipe