Blue Cheese Caramelized Onion Burger
Beef burger with tangy blue cheese, slow-cooked caramelized onions, lettuce, and tomato on a toasted ciabatta bun.
- Prep
- 15min
- Cook
- 50min
- Total
- 1 h 5min
- Serves
- 4
- Calories
- 890per serving, est.
By Time for Burgers, updated
Three large onions look like far too much for four burgers, but cooked slowly in butter they shrink to a soft, sweet pile, and that sweetness is what you want against sharp blue cheese. A teaspoon of balsamic vinegar in the last 2 minutes lifts the browned bits from the pan and adds a little acidity.
The rest stays plain on purpose: lettuce, sliced tomato and a crusty toasted ciabatta, which stands up to the onions better than a soft bun. Start the onions first: they need 35 to 45 minutes, while the patties take only 8 to 10.
Blue Cheese Caramelized Onion Burger
Prep 15 min, cook 50 min, total 65 min. About 890 calories per serving.
timeforburgers.com/recipes/blue-cheese-caramelized-onion-burger
Serves 4.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Melt 3 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add sliced onions with a pinch of salt and cook slowly for 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft, jammy and deep golden brown. Add 1 tsp balsamic vinegar in the last 2 minutes. Set aside.
Season ground beef with salt and pepper, then form into 4 equal patties.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in another skillet over medium-high heat. Cook patties for 4-5 minutes per side, until an instant-read thermometer in the center of a patty reads 160°F (71°C).
During the last minute of cooking, top each patty generously with crumbled blue cheese and let it melt slightly.
Toast ciabatta buns until golden and crispy.
Assemble burgers: place lettuce leaves and tomato slices on bottom buns, add beef patties with melted blue cheese, top with generous portions of caramelized onions, then crown with top buns. Serve immediately.
Tips
- Salt the onions as they go into the butter. Salt pulls out water, so they soften before they start to color.
- Keep the heat at medium-low and stir every few minutes. If the edges brown before the onions go limp, add a tablespoon of water and lower the heat.
- Use your widest skillet so the onions sit in a shallow layer. Piled deep, they steam and take far longer to color.
- Crumble the blue cheese while it's cold and cover the pan for the last minute. It softens and slumps over the patty without running off.
Substitutions
- Gorgonzola dolce instead of a firm blue: creamier and milder, and it melts more on the hot patty.
- Goat cheese for anyone who doesn't like blue: still tangy, and it works just as well with the sweet onions.
- Gluten-free: use a gluten-free roll in place of ciabatta and toast it well so the onion juices don't soak in.
Make ahead & storage
Caramelized onions keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge and freeze well, so a double batch is worth making; rewarm them in a skillet. Cooked patties keep 3 to 4 days; reheat to 165°F (74°C) and add fresh blue cheese afterward.
