Homemade McDonald’s Double Cheeseburgers

Copycat McDonald’s Double Cheeseburgers

Nothing beats a good double cheeseburger! However, if you are trying to recreate that fast food McDonald’s double cheeseburger its not so easy. One of the tricks to doing this right is to make the burger patties yourself and make them just like McDonald’s or other fast food joints. You’ll also want to follow this specific set of instructions.

Here’s what you’ll need (for 6 Homemade McDonald’s Double Cheeseburgers):

Hamburger Buns (at least 6)
1 Medium White Onion, diced very fine
Mustard
Ketchup
2 lbs Ground Beef (80% lean)
Pickles
Cheddar cheese, at least 12 slices

First you’ll need to make the burger patties. You’ll need a digital scale and a burger patty former. For the best taste you need to buy 80% lean ground chuck. McDonalds serves ⅛ pound burger patties for their BigMacs, cheeseburgers, and double cheeseburgers. Get your digital scale out and wrap it in plastic wrap. This helps keep things clean. Measure out slightly over 2 oz of ground beef in a little ball. My scale reads 2 and ¼ or 2 and ⅛ oz.

Place the 2 oz ball of meat in the patty press and press it down hard. My patty former is really for ¼ lb patties, which is a good thing in this case. The ¼ lb patties are larger and if you’ve ever grilled burgers that are 80% lean you’ll know that they shrink up really bad. Thus, you need to make these patties really flat and thin, so when the burger shrinks on the grill it will be just the size of your bun.

One trick I like to do is grab some cheap wax paper. Cut it up into burger size pieces and layer the patties with the wax paper. This way when you freeze them they won’t stick together.

When you grill these burgers make a medium or medium low heat. It is very important to not have high heat or you will burn these burgers really fast. I did 1 min per side and then moved them off the heat until they were done.

Take six buns and toast them on the grill over direct heat for about 30-45 seconds. After the buns are toasted and while the burgers are still sitting in an aluminum tin, squirt 4 dabs of mustard on top of each toasted bun (picture the four corners of a square). Then squirt 4 dabs of ketchup in between the mustard. Take your white onion, which has been very finely diced before hand, and sprinkle on top. Next add two pickles. Put one slice of cheddar cheese down and now you are ready to add the burger patty. Add one burger patty and then add another slice of cheese. Add the final burger patty and then the bottom of the bun. You’ll be assembling this burger upside down.

This may surprise some of you, but at McDonalds, at least back in my day, all of the finished food was put in a microwave just before serving. We would make 6 or 9 double cheeseburgers at a time, wrap them up and slide them into a microwave. The purpose of this was to warm the bun and the toppings and most importantly to melt the cheese! Try it – it is a really nice addition to your meal. I would do maybe 20 seconds per burger. You can also do this right out at the grill by using a disposable aluminum pan. After all the burgers are assembled flip them over (top up) and put six of them in an aluminum tin and put this tin on the grill. Preferably you’ll put the tin in an area of the grill referred to as indirect heat, or an area with no charcoal or gas flame underneath. This will warm the burger in its entirety without burning the bottoms of the buns. Close that grill lid and let the cheese melt and the toppings warm up. This is crucial. It should be a crime to serve a burger on a cold or room temperature bun.

If you are tailgating I like to serve these next to a handful of kettle chips. Kettle chips are a good French fry substitute as they provide the fried greasiness as well as the saltiness of the classic shoestring fry without the fuss of frying at the tailgate.

I had a few extra burger patties left over this night, along with some bacon from breakfast so I also make a bacon triple cheeseburger! Take a look at this bad boy!

2012 update – My photography has gotten a little better over the years so I figured I’d add this photo as well! Tasty!