Not a Boring Burger; a Bacon Ring Burger.

 

Bacon Ring Burger, we saw the Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings on Facebook and had to have a closer look. The original recipe was by John Thomas of Grilling 24×7, . My first thought was “What a great burger topper”! So, here is our take on these and a great burger. You’ll see that I made some changes to fit in with what I had in mind. So, we made these for our Date Night and filled them with sautéed garlicky mushrooms. We call them Bacon Rings, what a treat.

Patti and I have set one night a week just for us. It’s our date night. We usually put something special on our Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, but sometimes we cook inside. We always eat outside on our patio where it is very comfortable with a rainforest theme. Wood burning stove, little lights, candles, lanterns and surround sound. We enjoy a little wine, or strawberry margaritas using frozen strawberries for ice, good food, music and sometimes a dance or two…

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Servings: 5

Ingredients

2 ½ lbs hamburger 80/20

1 ½ tsp coarse ground black pepper

1 Tbsp. GMG Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Rub

Provolone Cheese

Condiments of choice

Ingredients: Mushrooms

¾ lbs baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. minced fresh garlic

3 Tbsp. shallots or green onions, sliced

Ingredients: Bacon Rings

5 large sweet onion slices

1 lb. bacon

½ cup Country Bob’s Apple Chipotle Sauce

GMG Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Rub

toothpicks

Directions

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Mix your seasonings together with the hamburger and make your patties. We made 5 out of 2 ½ pounds. Then, place them in the refrigerator. (Burgers hold together better if they go on the grill cold) Sauté the mushrooms and shallots in the butter and set them aside. Put them on the grill when the burgers go on to heat up.Coat the onion rings with the Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce and season with the Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Rub. Wrap each onion ring with 3 strips of bacon and secure with your toothpicks. Yes, 3 strips of bacon. I smoked these for an hour at 225 degrees (107c). Pull them off the grill and turn it up to 350 degrees (174c) for the burgers. We put the burgers on for 6 minutes a side with a quarter turn at 3 minutes. Top with cheese and bacon ring. Then, fill the bacon ring with the mushrooms.I like to smoke everything for at least 30 minutes with an hour being even better. After all the Green Mountain wood pellet grill is a awesome smoker so use it for all the wood smoke flavor it will add to your food.

So after the grill comes up to temp and burns clean turn it back down to 225 degrees (107c). Place the bacon wrapped onion rings directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for an hour or so. This is referred to as “Smoking” or “Hot Smoking”, the temperature is 225 degrees (107c).

After an hour, turn the (Temperature Control) up to 350 degrees (174c) and pull the Bacon wrapped onion rings off the grill. When the grill comes up to temperature put your meat back onto the grill. I did this for 3 minutes per side. The burgers I did for 6 minutes aside with a quarter turn at 3 minutes. Top with cheese and bacon ring. Then fill the bacon ring with the mushrooms. Perfect.

U.S.D.A. recommends an internal temp of 165 degrees (74c). We use a Maverick ProTemp Instant Read Thermometer for checking meat temps.