Stuffed Burgers with Bacon, Onion and Cheese!

This recipe is one of my son's FAVORITES. I discovered it on AllRecipes awhile back and we've enjoyed them a couple times since. They are fairly labor intensive burgers, but in my opinion well worth the effort and everything flows smoothly if you line the steps up in the right order. This was the first time I made them for Kenneth since I initially discovered this recipe when he was away. He gave it a big thumbs up and I'm sure with grilling season upon us we'll be revisiting this one again soon!

A copy of the AllRecipes printout with my comments from the first time I tried it!

All my ingredients lined up and ready to go! Shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, hamburger, onion, pepper, salt, barbecue sauce and garlic powder.

Put 1 lb of ground beef in a bowl and add salt and black pepper.

Followed by barbecue sauce.

And garlic powder!

Now the fun part, time to get dirty! Take your rings off, and with clean hands dig in and evenly combine all ingredients.

I shaped the beef into 8 patties (double deckered on the plate with a sheet of foil in between) and placed that in the refrigerator while I got the filling ready!

Hubby got the grill going for me and so I had to take a picture of him since he was part of the dinner making process!

And then for fun a picture of my pretty girl!

Next the bacon went in the pan and got cooked up until it was brown and crispy!

While the bacon cooked I diced up some onion (I diced up WAY more than I needed - I tried to adjust the recipe below to be more accurate for what you'll actually need but if you happen to end up with a bunch of excess like me, throw it in a Tupperware in the fridge and it makes a great pizza topping!).

The onion went into the bacon grease in the pan.

I diced up the bacon into small pieces and set that aside.

The onions were getting nice and browned in the grease.

Next I squeezed about 2 tablespoons of cheese per patty into a tight ball and placed on top of 4 of the patties.

The bacon pieces got mixed into the onion.

I spooned about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of onion and bacon filling on top of the cheese on the 4 patties.

I topped the 4 patties with the other 4 patties and gently sealed the edges all the way around as best I could.

The burgers on the grill - you can see where the seam splits a little and see some of the yummy filling in the middle!

Hubby snagged the camera and said you took a picture of me I take a picture of you bringing the burgers back inside!!

All grilled and juicy and ready to eat!

Close up of where the seam split and you can see a little of the gooey cheese, bacon and onion oozing out!!

The final product plated up and ready to eat - hubby loves his with some barbecue sauce, onion ring and a few pickles. YUMM!! These are a great burger meal - with all the goodies inside you don't need a whole lot of toppings to enjoy them. These are a good weekend grilling out treat!

Recipe slightly adapted from AllRecipes

Makes 4 Burgers

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons barbecue sauce

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

4 slices bacon 

1/4 medium onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the ground beef, salt, black pepper, barbecue sauce and garlic powder using your hands. Taking a small handful at a time (approximately 1/8 pound), shape into 8 patties. Lay patties out on a cookie sheet (or stack on a plate with a sheet of foil or plastic wrap between them) and cover with plastic wrap; place patties in the refrigerator.

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown, about 5 minutes. Remove bacon from skillet with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Turn the heat down to medium and pan fry the onions in the remaining bacon drippings until soft and translucent and just beginning to brown. Dice bacon into small pieces. Mix together onions and bacon in a small bowl.

Prepare a grill or large skillet for medium heat.

As the grill heats, pull beef patties out of the refrigerator; top 4 of the patties with 1- 1/2 tablespoons of the bacon and onion mixture each, and squeeze about 2 TBS of shredded cheese into a ball and add to the toppings. Top each with one of the remaining patties and press the edges together to seal.

Grill or pan fry the stuffed and sealed patties until cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes per side or until they reach desired doneness. Serve on hamburger buns with condiments of your choice.