Fire Roasted Poblano Burgers

It dawned on me recently - I don’t have a hamburger recipe on DadCooksDinner. How can that be?

Maybe it is because my favorite hamburger changes often. I was really into blue cheese burgers for a while; then I went traditional - cheeseburger, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles. I went through a slider phase, rolling the burgers ultra-thin before grilling. Then I started duplicating the Galley Boy burger from Swensons, Akron’s own hamburger joint. (A Galley boy is a double cheeseburger topped with barbecue sauce and tartar sauce. This one is my wife’s choice of burger; she always asks for the BBQ and tartar sauce.) Apologies to Skyway SkyHi fans - Akron’s other own hamburger joint - but the Galley Boy is better. Pppthhthp.

My current favorite has a hint of Mexico to it, a burger topped with grilled onion, fire roasted poblano peppers, cheese, and salsa. I want to call it a Tex-Mex burger, but that’s not right; it’s probably closest to a New Mexico green chile cheesburger, while being almost exactly wrong if that’s what you’re looking for.
Now I have annoyed Texans, Mexicans, New Mexicans, and Skyway fans. I’m on a roll!

I’ve been making burgers by hand for years, and they always come out as misshapen lumps. I finally gave up and bought a burger press. I feel like I’m cheating…but my burgers actually look like burgers when they come off the grill. Of course, I bought the most overdesigned burger press available, and paid extra for the pre-cut pieces of butcher paper to go with it. I’m terrible, and I can’t stop myself.

Enough about my kitchen gadget issues. Enjoy your burgers!

Recipe: Fire Roasted Poblano Burgers

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Equipment

• Grill (I love my massive Weber Summit, which gives me extra space to make a side dish, like Grilled Corn, at the same time as these burgers.)

Ingredients

• 2.5 pounds ground chuck (aka “80/20 ground beef”)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 poblano peppers
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into ½ inch thick rings
• Shredded Colby-Jack cheese
• 8 hamburger buns
• Salsa (homemade or your favorite brand)

Directions

1. Shape the burgers

In a large bowl, break up the ground beef, sprinkle it with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Toss the ground beef to coat it with the seasonings, then break the meat into eight equal sized portions. Pick up a portion, and gently form it into a patty, roughly ½ inch thick by 4 inches wide. (This is where the burger press comes in handy.) Repeat until you have eight burgers.

2. Preheat the grill and fire roast the poblano peppers

Set the grill up for cooking over direct medium heat, and fire roast the poblano peppers while the grill is preheating. For my Weber gas grill, I turn all the burners to high, drop the peppers on the grill grate, and close the lid. After five minutes the peppers should be blackened on the bottom; I flip the peppers to blacken the other side. After five more minutes, I check the peppers - when they are black all over, I remove them to a bowl. (Sometimes they need a few more minutes.) Then I brush the grill grate clean with my grill brush.

3. Cook the burgers and onions

Set the burgers and onion slices on the grill grate over direct medium heat. On my gas grill, I keep the lid closed as much as possible while grilling. Grill the burgers and onions until they are well browned on the bottom, about five minutes. Flip the burgers and onions and grill until the burgers are cooked through and browned on the bottom, about five more minutes. During the last two minutes of grilling, top each burger with Colby-Jack cheese and close the lid to melt the cheese. Remove the burgers to their buns.

4. Peel the poblano peppers

Let the poblano peppers rest until they are cool enough to handle, then peel away the blackened skin. Pull out the stem and seeds and discard. (You don’t have to get all the seeds, but get as many of them as possible.) Tear each pepper in half, and put a half pepper on top of each burger.

5. Serve

Top the burgers with the salsa and serve.

Notes

• Small onions on the grill: as you can see from the pictures, my onions were not the large onions I recommend in the ingredients. They’re smaller onions from my wife’s backyard garden. To help grill them, I cut them thicker (about ¾ inch thick), and skewered them on a kabob skewer before grilling.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

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Pan-Grilled Bratwurst with Onions and Peppers
Grilled Corn with Chipotle Lime Butter
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