Southwest Guacamole Burgers

We told you this was coming. If you haven't read our post on the guacamole yet, you should. It was just two days ago when we posted it. These burgers were created as an excuse for Michelle to have more avocado. They turned out pretty well.

Here's what you need: 
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
A couple shakes of hot sauce to taste (we used Tabasco)
A couple shakes of liquid smoke
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp kosher salt


Here's what you do:
Throw all of your ingredients into a bowl and mix it up. It's really best if you do this with your hands. 

Once you have everything thoroughly mixed, create one large ball-o-meat and then divide into fourths. Form into patties with an slight indentation in the center. This should keep your burgers nice and, well, burger shaped while they cook. Add a little bit more salt and pepper to the outside of the burgers right before you throw them on the heat.

It's fall here where we live, and the weather, to put it mildly, is unpredictable. We cooked these inside on the stove top rather than on the grill. Zack prefers to use the griddle side of our griddle/grill pan for burgers. You can use the grill side if you want. Or, you could just use a skillet if you don't have a griddle/grill pan.


Since our griddle covers two burners, we create two different heat zones by cranking one up to medium-high and keeping the other on medium or medium-low. 




Start your burgers on the high heat. You want to get a nice sear on the meat. It creates great flavor. Once your burgers are browned up nicely on the outside, move to the lower heat. If you're cooking these in a skillet, just turn the heat down. Zack likes to cover the burgers with foil while they cook on the lower side to trap in some of the heat. Cook until you reach the level of done-ness that you prefer.

While your burgers are doing their thing on the lower heat, butter your buns and place on the high heat side. You just want to toast them up a bit. And, yes, we know there's grease from the burgers on the griddle. 

That's it. Assemble and garnish as you wish. Michelle, of course, recommends topping with guacamole, which has all of the usual burger toppings in it. If you don't enjoy avocado so much, top with lettuce, tomato, onion, and mix a little chili powder into some mayo. 


Enjoy!