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+ servings

Green Chile Cheeseburger Recipe

Servings 4 burgers

Ingredients

  • 1-1.5 lbs of 80% lean ground beef
  • Salt and pepper
  • Monterey Jack cheese
  • Soft kaiser rolls
  • 3 Poblano peppers grilled, seeds removed
  • 2 Tomatillos quartered and pan fried in oil until soft
  • ½ of a serrano chile pepper
  • ½ of a habanero pepper
  • 2 Cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 2 T cilantro

Instructions

  • Start this one by grilling the chili peppers. I coat them lightly in olive oil and toss them right over medium high heat. A couple minutes on each side and you'll have some nice char marks. Recent update: The photo here shows only the poblano peppers on the grill. However, toss all of the chili peppers on the grill and char them all.
  • After all of the sides are charred take the peppers off the grill and put them in a bowl. Tightly seal the bowl. This will steam the skin a bit and make the grilled skin easy to remove.
  • After about 5-10 minutes the skin should come right off by scraping a knife along the side. Cut out the seeds and discard.
  • Cut the tomatillos into quarters and toss them into a couple of tablespoons of olive oil on a medium hot skillet. This will help soften the tomatillos. Assemble the garlic and cilantro...
  • ... and toss it all into a food processor with the rest of the peppers.
  • At some salt and pepper if you want.
  • Now you have the green chile sauce ready. You can put this in the fridge or move right along with the next step. I use 80% lean ground beef and pack the patties together very lightly. Treat them like meatballs. It's ok if they almost fall apart, you will be rewarded with a soft and juicy burger! I put salt and pepper all over each burger. You can also push a little dimple into the top of the burger so it doesn't bubble up into the size of a softball.
  • Set the grill to medium high or so heat, whatever heat you feel comfortable grilling burgers. Right after you flip them over put some Monterey Jack cheese slices on top. This will get the cheese really melted. You don't want to overcook your burger while you try to melt some cheese.
  • I topped the burgers with about 2 T of the green chile sauce. This seemed to really coat the burger well!

Notes

After making this burger a few times I learned a few things which may have made reading the above instructions a bit confusing. Tomatillos tend to be firm and sort of crunchy so I now cut them and pan fry them in a bit of olive oil. This softens them significantly. I now also grill all of the peppers, not just the poblanos. This also helps soften the green chili sauce as a grilled pepper is must softer and more tender than a firm uncooked chili.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g