Buffalo Blue Cheese Burger

A few weeks ago when my folks were visiting we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in search of some good old fashioned American food - Nachos and Burgers. 2 out of the 5 people ordered the Red, White and Blue Burger and the rest of us ended up wishing we had. It was so.freaking.good. It basically combines a bunch of our favorite flavors - spicy Buffalo wing sauce, Blue Cheese, and onion rings on a juicy grilled all-beef burger (you would be amazed at hard it is to find an all-beef burger in Germany - they really like their pork).

We decided we needed to try making something similar at home immediately. We grilled red onions instead of topping ours with an Onion Ring like the Hard Rock version and it was absolutely delicious. The onions carmelize and the smoky-sweet flavor combined with the spicy, tangy wing sauce, strong blue cheese and tender juicy burgers is just too good. I mean, worth-every-single-calorie-and-clogged-artery delicious. We also discovered that making wing sauce is super easy, so you will likely be seeing many many buffalo chicken recipes in the future.


Oh - and I recommend eating these with a napkin!

Buffalo Blue Cheese Burger
2 lbs ground sirloin
Creole Seasoning (we always use Tony Cachere's)
1 1/2 cups crumbled bleu cheese (stronger the better)
1 large red onion, sliced
1/4 cup unsalted butter
6 tbs. hot Cayenne Pepper sauce (I recommend Franks)
1-2 tsp Louisiana hot sauce (like Tabasco)
1 1/2 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
a few pinches salt
1/4 cup mayonnaise
4 sesame hamburger buns

Prepare the buffalo wing sauce. In a skillet melt the butter over medium heat. Add hot sauces, vinegar and salt and stir until well combined. Taste and adjust amounts to desired spiciness/flavor. Set aside in a small bowl or jar.

Divide meat into four thick patties - generously seasoned with Creole seasoning. Place sliced onions in tin foil or a grill basket. Prepare grill. Once hot, cook burgers to desired done-ness (which if you like burgers, better have some pink in the middle. come on.) as well as onions. Keep the onions over lower heat - they will probably be done before the burgers. Lightly toast the buns on the grill.

Mix a spoonful or two of buffalo sauce into the mayonaise and generously spread over both sides of each bun. Now build your burger - first pile on some grilled onions, then a generous heaping of blue cheese, then the burger patty, then sprinkle on a bit more blue cheese. Drizzle some wing sauce over the whole thing before topping with the bun. We found ourselves dipping the whole thing in wing sauce as well. You could optionally throw on a slice of tomato, pickles and lettuce if you so desire - we left those off just to keep things more simple.

Enjoy!