# Smash Burgers with Caramelized Onions

Smash Burgers with Caramelized Onions — a easy recipe with 6 main ingredients, ready in about 30 min and serving 4. Check which of its ingredients are on sale at grocery stores near you.

- **Time:** 30 min
- **Serves:** 4
- **Difficulty:** easy
- **Tags:** dinner, beef, quick, american
- **Source:** https://savingrecipes.com/recipes/beef-burgers

## Ingredients

- 1.5 lb ground beef
- 4 burger buns
- Cheddar or American slices
- 2 onions
- Lettuce & tomato
- Butter
- Salt & pepper _(pantry staple)_

## Instructions

1. Slowly caramelize sliced onions in butter, 15 min.
2. Smash beef balls onto a ripping-hot griddle; season, flip at a crust, add cheese.
3. Stack on toasted buns with onions, lettuce, and tomato.

## Tips

- Don't handle the meat more than necessary, and don't season until the balls hit the griddle. Salt mixed into raw mince dissolves the proteins and gives a springy, sausage-like texture.
- Smash once, hard, in the first 30 seconds, then leave it alone. Pressing later just squeezes out the juices you want.
- 80/20 mince, not lean. The fat is what makes a burger a burger — 90/10 gives a dry patty no technique will rescue.

## Substitutions

- **Ground beef:** 80/20 chuck is ideal. Lamb or turkey work, though turkey needs added fat. Plant-based patties don't smash well — cook them conventionally.
- **Cheddar or American:** American melts most reliably and is the classic smash-burger choice. Cheddar, Swiss or blue all work.
- **Burger buns:** Potato rolls are the standard for a reason — soft enough to compress, sturdy enough to hold. Brioche is sweeter.
- **Caramelised onions:** Raw onion for sharpness, or crispy fried onions. The 15 minutes is worth it if you have the time.

## Storage & reheating

Cooked patties keep 3 days but are much worse reheated — smash burgers are a cook-and-eat food. Raw portioned balls keep 2 days refrigerated or 3 months frozen. Caramelised onions keep a week and freeze well, so make extra.

## Common questions

### Why smash instead of a thick patty?

Smashing maximises contact with the hot surface, which maximises the Maillard crust. It's a different burger from a thick pub patty — crisp-edged rather than juicy-centred.

### Do I need a cast iron pan?

It helps a great deal. You need a surface that holds heat when cold meat hits it — cast iron or carbon steel. Thin non-stick won't build the crust.

### How do I stop the patty sticking to the spatula?

Put a square of parchment between the spatula and the meat when you smash, then peel it away.


_Photo: Acabashi — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cheeseburger_with_onions_at_Hatfield_Heath_Festival_2017.jpg)_