Chorizo Burgers with Cool Ranch Pepper Sauce

One of the biggest advantages of country bumpkin middle-of-nowhere living is having a local butcher.  We’re talking farm-fresh stuff. And you know what you’re getting. No pink slime (gag) or crap. Just great cuts of meat at amazing prices! So a few weeks ago they started making home-made pork chorizo.  Now I had never had it but my black-hearted little sister (love you Liz!) LOOOOOOOVES it and said I had to try it but warned me that it was spicy (cause she knows I have a wuss level of spice tolerance). After talking with my butcher about just how spicy it was he assured me that it wouldn’t melt paint and that I could handle it but it did have some kick to it.

Now when I got it home and opened it up I could smell the spices.  While it smelled amazing I knew it would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too hot for me as-is so I decided to blend it with top ground beef.  The ground beef is neutral if you will in flavor and would help curb some of the heat and make it palatable (at least for me). Now what concerned me was whether or not Mr. Fantabulous would like this as he really doesn’t care for pork so much. Well wait, let me rephrase that – he likes pork tenderloin and chops but hates pulled pork or roast (weird I know!), he hates breakfast sausage or sweet sausage but loves hot Italian sausage.  So chorizo needless to say was a gamble with him.

Since chorizo is packed full of spices I didn’t need to add anything to the meat mixture.  I didn’t want to take away from the flavor of it.  So for this I wanted to concentrate on a sauce that would send this burger from “Damn!” to “HOLY HOT DAMN MARRY ME WOMAN!” The smashed avocado was a given and to be quite honest I did this for me as I had a feeling the burger may be spicy so if I put the avocado on it, it would help cool down the heat. However it’s a burger and burgers require a condiment.  Now ketchup would just insult this thing.  Mustard didn’t make sense.  Sour cream .. eh, maybe.  Salsa?  Eh too messy.  Mayo… GAG!  yes.. I just shuddered and made that squinched up face!  YUCK!

No for this it deserved something awesome.  I really liked the idea of sour cream but wanted to expand on that.  So there I stood, fridge door open (God if my parents were alive and saw me do that I would get yelled at!  That was a HUGE no no in our house!) “You’re letting the cold out!  Take a picture then shut it!”  were often said in our house. But since this is my house and my fridge I stood there with it open (though Mr. Fantabulous isn’t allowed to do that – double standard?  YEP!  lol) I happened to spy my jar of ranch dressing.  Now THAT would go with it but I didn’t want just ranch.  I wanted to take simple ranch and transcend it into Awesometown!

So back to the fridge I went, door wide open and me neck-deep in the shelves looking for stuff to awesomfy the ranch sauce with.  Now that I have fallen in love with caramelized onions I knew those would be great either on the burger or in the sauce.  Then I spied a jar of roasted red peppers.  Since there was only one left in the jar I went with that as well. To make my regular ranch dressing it calls for mayo and sour cream but since it’s just a scant amount of mayo and there are tons of other things being added to this dressing I was ok with it. I was going to kill the mayo taste.

Obviously it’s a sauce and since the avocado was chunky I went with a creamier sauce thus I stuck everything in the blender.  Originally I went with the ranch stuff, mayo, sour cream, onions and peppers.  While that was good it was severely lacking.  It just was not worthy enough for this burger.

So this time instead of the fridge I hit up my pantry of spices.  Obviously we went with a spicy theme and to me that means cumin, cayenne and smoke paprika. Those to me are the holy trinity of spices. That trinity on hot fries… TO DIE FOR! I added my spices, gave it a whirl in the blender and gave it a taste.  Seriously if I had a spoon I would have just eaten this dressing/condiment/sauce/AWESOMETASTIC stuff!

The burgers came out super, SUPER juicy and moist (I ended up using a meat thermometer to 165F just because it was part pork).  I am slightly ok with a slight pink in a beef burger but not with pork. I don’t care what people say nowadays. Now for me I need cheese on a burger so for this I opted for me Chihuahua cheese though you can use any type of cheese though if you can go with this.  The flavor compliments the dish perfectly.

Now the big test was Mr. Fantabulous.  He sat down he gave the burger a once over and said “Wow honey, that’s a gorgeous burger!” then he picked it up and gave it a huge bite.  I had a bite of mine and fought as hard as I could from closing my eyes and savoring every single chew but I had to see his reaction.  To see if he made that face of “OMG what did you give me woman? Did you sneak pork in this?” but he didn’t make the face instead he let out a “Mmmm” as he took another bite.

We didn’t talk much over dinner as we were both too busy inhaling these.  So how do I know he loved them?  Well after we both pretty much came up for air in eating these he said “Hey are there anymore for me for lunch tomorrow?” or it could have also been the fact that I’ve made these about 8 times already and every time he sees them he gets the biggest smile on his face.

These are a DEFINITE burger winner!  You NEED to try these!

Chorizo Burgers with Cool Ranch Pepper Sauce

• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

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Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
• 1/2 lb pork chorizo, loose
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoon Buttermilk Ranch Seasoning
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 whole roasted red pepper, seeds removed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Chihuahua cheese
• 1 avocado, pitted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Sourdough Pretzel Buns

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Instructions

1. Place the butter and oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
2. Sauté the onions until translucent and caramelized. ~10 minutes.
3. While the onions are cooking mix together the ground beef and chorizo just until combined; don’t over mix as it’ll become tough.
4. Form into 6 patties leaving an indent in the middle of each one; set aside.
5. When the onions are done, place the onions (leaving behind the juices), roasted pepper, buttermilk, ranch, mayo, paprika, cayenne and cumin in a food processor pulsing until well combined.
6. Transfer to a lidded container and place in the fridge while the burgers cook.
7. Place the burgers in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat.
8. Cook for 8-10 minutes per side or until temperature reads 165F.
9. Evenly divide the cheese on top, cover and shut off the heat.
10. While the cheese is melting, mash up the avocado with the salt leaving in a few small chunks.
11. Remove the lid and assemble the burger.
12. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of sauce on the bottom of the bun.
13. Place the burger on top followed by a heaping tablespoon of smashed avocado and another tablespoon or 2 of sauce.
14. Place the burger bun on top and place a skewer in the center for presentation.

Notes

To freeze simply shape the patties and place each patty between pieces of wax paper. Double wrap in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag.

Freeze until you’re ready to inhale and cook again. These are awesome grilled as well!

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