Green Chile Cheeseburgers
I had the best Green Chile Cheeseburger when we were in NM about two years ago. It was at a small place called Bobcat Bite. It just wasn't the best Green Chile Burger, but it was the BEST burger I've ever had. I tried to make this one similar to their's, but Bobcat still wins...lol
I heard that my favorite butcherettes, Lindy & Grundy, have a ground beef & bacon mix, but have never seen it, so I decided to make my own :o) I love to grind my own meat! Hubby got me a grinder a couple of Christmas' ago, but I don't use it nearly as much as I should! For the burgers I ground a mix of...Beef Chuck, Beef Short Rib, Pork Butt & Bacon!! I ground about a total of 3 lbs with maybe 1/8 pork, 2 slices of bacon (home cured at L&G) and the rest beef. I put the pork in for extra richness & fat, but the mixture gets too soft if I put in too much...the burger would have a meatloaf consistency then. I pretty much use all parts of the hunks of meat! I make cubes for stew, use scraps & bones for stock & render the fat. It's kinda therapeutic cutting up the meat;o)
Pork Butt
I like to get it with bone-in, so I can make stock out of it...
Beef Chuck
I like to use Chuck for ground beef and stews because it has a nice fattiness to it...
Cubed Chuck
I froze this for later use, maybe for stew or chili...
Beef Scraps & Bones
The round brown things are the bones from the Flanken Short Rib. I also froze this to make stock later.
Cubed Pork
Also froze this for later use...
Rendering Fat...
Since there wasn't that much, I rendered the pork & beef fat together. I really need to be more healthy, but I just can't resist rendering fat and using it for certain dishes;o) I used this to fry up the burgers!
Chuck, Short Rib, Pork Butt & Bacon ready to be ground...
Grinding...
I like coarse texture...
Love Fresh Ground Meat!!
Formed into Patties
They are about 6 oz each. I seasoned it with Magic Dust, salt & pepper right before cooking it for about 3 mins on each side and flipping it only once for med rare :o) I made them in a cast iron skillet and I covered them while they cooked and added the cheese the last couple of minutes...
Veggies...
w/Tater Tots!
No, I did not make the Tater Tots;o) I did look up a recipe once and tried it, but it was a disaster! It all just fell apart on me...lol I love "tots", I love how they got resurrected in the movie NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!! It's much easier and consistent buying Ore Ida! I used an Aged White Cheddar for the cheese.
Really Yummy!!
The Green Chile Mixture was leftover from the Hatch Green Chile Enchiladas I made a few weeks ago. I just froze the mixture...I love freezing things;o) I didn't add any mayo or ketchup or other condiments to the burger, the juicy meat and green chiles were enough! The taste of the burger was delicious, adding just the little bit of bacon pumped it up. You could really taste the bacon, but you may miss the crunch of it. It saves on calories grinding the bacon into the meat because you usually would get two slices on one burger, but this had two slices in 3 lbs of meat!
