Grilling season is officially here! So that means a steady diet of beer, brats, steaks, chicken – and burgers. Now my personal consumption quotient of all those tasty comestibles is never at a low point, no matter the season. But the smell and flavor of the grill certainly ramps up more so as the weather gets warmer. Oh heck yea, I grill and BBQ in the winter, too, but I’m not one of those 20-below flipping steaks and burgers die hards.
You’ve probably heard of “Beer Can Chicken” by now. How about “Beer Can Burgers?” Now most of the recipes I share involve beer as an ingredient, but this one is a little different. We’re just using the beer CAN to make these bad boys. Don’t worry. The beer inside won’t go to waste. Perish the thought!
Ingredients
• At minimum, 12 cans of Craftapped Partner beer
• 4 lbs. ground chuck (buy fresh from your favorite butcher)
• 2 lbs. medium sliced bacon (again, your favorite butcher)
• Shredded cheese of your choice
• Six freshly baked buns
• Salt and pepper
• A bunch of toothpicks, soaked in water for at least an hour
—
(Here’s where you decide. I’ll give you some suggestions)
• Sautéed mushrooms
• Grilled onions and peppers, cooled then sliced into chunks
• Cooked bacon, sliced in chunks
• Chili
• Beef hash
• etc.
(Read the recipe. You’ll see where this is going!)
Directions
Open a can of beer. Drink while preparing grill and burgers. Start coals, and move to one side for indirect cooking. If using gas grill, just fire up one side and get grill heated up. Clean the outside of another can, and set aside. Using cold meat, form into 8oz. to 12oz. meatballs. Layout meatballs, and press bottom of clean can into meatballs to form a depression with meat edges. Don’t press too hard and go all the way down-leave a good half-inch or more on the bottom. Move some of the outside meat up the can edges as needed. Wrap a kitchen towel around the upper ring of meat as you gently extract the can. Salt and pepper to taste. Clean outside of can and drink contents.
Wrap two slices of bacon around top outer edge of each burger. Use soaked toothpicks to hold in place, if needed, which you probably will. Fill “meat holes” (sounds kind of naughty, don’t it?) with your choice of goodies. With grill temp at approx. 300-degrees, place filled burgers on indirect side of grill. Cook for 30-minutes, and then rotate and move them around for even cooking. Put shredded cheese on top. Cook another 30-minutes or until meat is cooked to at least 160-degrees. If you want a more brown top to the cheese, remove from grill to a baking sheet and put under the broiler for a few minutes.
(As you add fillings, you may want to squirt some BBQ sauce or other favorite into your meat holes. That was not a metaphor: read above)
Serve immediately with your favorite sides. Drink remaining Craftapped Partner beers. Send your 21+ kid to the store to fetch more.