Jalapeño Animal Burgers

To be an American is to crave a burger. I’m not sure if this applies to other nationalities, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The unique balance of salt, mustardy tang, melted cheese, juicy meat, and a toasted bun… oh yes.

A grill is the undisputed king of, well, grilling. But in an aparment, sometimes it’s not an option. I was able to get an acceptable burger out of the frying pan, and I’d love to tell you how!

Ingredients

• 1 lb grass-fed beef
• 1 jalapeño
• Animal Sauce
• Chipotle powder
• Elote seasoning (optional)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Hamburger buns — I recommend jalapeño buns to stay on theme

Preparing the Patties

Dice a jalapeño into a size you’d enjoy inside a burger patty.

Onto your primo grass-fed beef, sprinkle the jalapeño, chipotle powder, elote seasoning, salt, and pepper. Combine by hand, but don’t overwork it!

Form the delicious mixture into four equal spheres and press into patties.

Pro tip (not pictured here): Make a thumb-sized dimple in each patty before cooking. This will cause it to spread outwards instead of upwards during cooking and yield a more restaurant-like hamburger!

Let’s Cook

Heat a pan over medium heat, and add olive or avocado oil. For best results, let it heat for a few minutes before you add the meat.

This is my new favorite poorly-kept secret: mustard grilling kicks the burger into Flavortown! Spread a thin layer of all-American yellow mustard on one or both sides of the patty before grilling. If you have a brush of some sort, this is a great opportunity to dig it out of the back of the drawer.

Cook each side for a few minutes. This is a hard process to capture in words, but I like my patties barely crispy on the outside, but pink and juicy inside. Flip a time or three, and don’t worry too much if your patties don’t hold their form quite perfectly (you wouldn’t be the only one).

If you’d like cheese on your burgers, put a slice on each patty for the last minute or two they’ll spend in the pan!

Order Up!

Once you feel you’ve flipped your burgers enough times, move them onto a plate or cutting board and let them rest for five minutes. Meanwhile, put your buns face-down on what’s left of the oil, mustard, and any jalapeño pieces that might have gotten separated from the group.

Pop the patties on the buns and add a generous dollop of animal sauce. If you forgot to add the cheese earlier, it’s never too late. Serve with something like, oh, watermelon salad, and satisfy that burger craving without another human in sight!