Dan Whalen’s Mac and Cheese Stuffed Burger

From the ABC News Website

I like burgers. Ok, let me correct that. I love burgers. I’m always looking for a new way to make burgers, because why not change it up a bit? I mean, I don’t eat just one kind of pizza! Mmmm, pizza. But I digress.

I had a hankering for burgers, but not just any burger, but a stuffed burger. But not just any stuffed burger (man, I’m really into using italics in this post), but a mac n’ cheese stuffed burger. Here’s the thing about stuffed burgers, they’re a meal unto themselves. Especially this one, because it includes a slice of beefsteak tomato. Protein, check! Carb, check! Vegetable, check! And they’re soooo big that it will be the only (more italics!) thing you’ll be able to eat.

Now I could have just made a batch of box mac n’ cheese (eh), but I really wanted to take this burger HNL.

Time to fire up the Google Machine! A search for “mac n’ cheese stuffed burger” brought me to ABC News’ website (go figure), and this recipe for Dan Whalen’s Mac and Cheese Stuffed Burger. Talk about taking the mac n’ cheese HNL!

EGGcessory Used

Stuff-A-Burger Press

Ingredients

• Mac and Cheese
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 8 ounces Cheddar cheese
  • 8 ounces Jack cheese
  • 8 ounces pasta
  • 1 ½ tablespoons butter
  • 1 ½ tablespoons flour
  • 1 ½ cups milk
  • Salt
• Burgers
  • 2.25 pounds ground beef
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 20 tomato slices
  • 8 burger buns

Directions

Make the mac and cheese:

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook your pasta until al dente according to package directions.

Dice the onion very small. Mince the garlic. Grate the cheeses.

In a large pot cook the onion in the butter for about 5 minutes. Make sure the pot is large enough to eventually house the pasta, and that you’ll be able to mix the pasta without it going all over the place. The original instructions didn’t indicate whether to use a pan or a pot. As you can see by the picture I used a pan at first until a little voice inside my head said “a-duh! How are you going to mix the pasta in this?!” Good thing for the voices in my head or I would have quite the mess! 🙂

Toss in the garlic. Next, add the flour and whisk well to combine. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring the whole time, until the flour turns a slightly toasted hue.

Add the milk and whisk well to eliminate any lumps. Bring to a simmer and remove from the heat. (Look! It’s in a pot now! Woo-hoo!)

Add the pasta, then mix in the cheese. I used a small pasta for this so it would fit better in the burger cavity later. It was a curly elbow pasta, but you can pretty much use whatever pasta shape you want.

Stir until all the cheese melts, which should happen naturally, but you can put it back on to low heat if necessary. I didn’t need to turn the heat back on. The cheese eventually melted.

Taste and add salt if necessary, as all cheeses have different salt contents. I added no salt, because cheddar and Monterrey Jack are pretty salty already. I tasted it to be sure, and was like “yea, no salt needed.”

Pour the pasta into a 9 x 13-inch pan lined with parchment paper and smooth out into a thin layer.

Refrigerate until hardened, about 2 hours.

Cut your sheet of mac and cheese into rounds about 3 ¼ inches in diameter to facilitate burgers that will be 4 to 4 ½ inches round. A cookie cutter will help with this task if you have one that is the right size.
I was using a burger press so I eyeballed the size of my mac and cheese rounds when cutting them.

I ended up cutting up whatever was left and storing it to use as a mac n’ cheese side dish for another night. On that night I put the cut up pieces in a small baking dish, and then I put that in the oven on high broil for 5 minutes. The cheese melted, and browned a little. The mac n’ cheese was great on its own!

Stuff it:

Season chopped meat to taste with salt and pepper.

There are 2 options for stuffing the burger below, with a burger press and without a burger press depending on whether you have a burger press or not. I recommend using a burger press because it makes forming the burgers much easier.

Using a burger press:

Roll some of the chopped meat in your hands to the size of a baseball.

Oil the burger press (bottom and top pieces), then put the ball of meat in the middle.

With the flat side of the top press facing up, push the top of the press down on the ball of meat until it meets the bottom of the press. Slowly pull the top of the press out. This will leave you with a cavity in the middle of the meat.

Gently fill the cavity with one of the mac and cheese rounds.

Take more chopped meat and flatten it to about a ½ inch thick and about the size of the mac and cheese round.

With the flat side of the burger press top facing down, push down on the top of the flatten meat until the top and the bottom of the burger press meet.

Gently take off the top of the burger press, and then push from the bottom of the burger press to pop the stuffed burger out. You may need to smooth out any seams with your finger.

Man that press makes a mighty fine looking burger! 😉

Without a burger press:

Roll your beef out thin (about 1/2 inch ).

Place a mac and cheese round onto the beef and wrap the pasta in the meat.

Tightly seal and press out any air.

Tomato Slices:

Mix the breadcrumbs with the olive oil.

Lay your tomatoes on a sheet pan and press some breadcrumbs onto each tomato round.

Broil the tomatoes for a minute or two to brown the breadcrumbs.

Cook it:

Set the Egg for direct cooking, and bring the temperature to 400° F. Disregard the lone hot dog on the grill. That’s for my beef averse 3 year old. I’m working on it! 🙂

Grill your burgers for about 7 minutes per side.

If you see any cheese starting to explode out of the burger, take it off the grill. The burger press makes such perfect burgers that I’ve never had cheese explode out the sides. I’m telling ya! Get a Stuff-A-Burger press. Best money I’ve ever spent. 😉

Build the burger by putting one of the patties on the bottom bun, topping with a breadcrumb-coated tomato slices and then the top bun.