This healthy burger recipe is topped with pastrami, cheese, special sauce and caramelized onions. Burger perfection!
- 1 1/4 pounds Grass fed ground beef or ground chuck or sirloin, chicken or turkey
- 4 Slices Gruyere cheese
- 1/2 Cup Caramelized Onions notes below if you don't have caramelized onions on hand
- 4 Slices Thick cut pastrami about 1/4 pound
- 12 Slices Bread and butter pickles optional
- 1/2 Cup Russian dressing bottled or homemade
- 4 Good quality buns or potato buns
- 1 Tablespoon Unsalted butter
- 4 pinches kosher salt and pepper
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If you don’t already have caramelized onions (I keep them frozen all the time), then you’ll have to start by cutting 2 large sweet onions into thin slices. Add 1 Tablespoon oil to a cast iron pan and heat over medium heat. Add onion slices and cook until starting to caramelize, about 20 minutes.
Stir often and add pinches of salt as the onions cook.
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While onions caramelize, gather all your other ingredients.
Using a 1/2 cup scoop, lightly form your burgers into a loose ball. Refrigerate until ready to cook.
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Halve the buns. Once the onions are done and removed to a plate, carefully wipe the pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter, then grill the buns, cut side down, until nice and golden.
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Using a clean paper towel, wipe out cast iron pan and then set over medium-high heat. (If you used a different pan for the onions then you’ll want to preheat the cast iron for about 10 minutes). Once hot, brush pan with just a little oil to lightly cover the surface.
Immediately place burgers onto the hot surface and squash to ¼” thickness with the bottom of a wide glass, oiled on the bottom to keep the burger from sticking.
Season by sprinkling a large pinch of kosher salt on each burger and a small pinch of freshly ground pepper.
Cook for about 3 minutes first side, flip. Cook for a minute, top with slice of cheese and cook for another minute. Remove to plate or continue to cook to your desired doneness.
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Toss the pastrami slices in the hot pan for a few seconds to heat through. Just about 10-15 seconds each side. Remove to plate.
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To assemble the burger:
Start with the grilled, buttered bottom bun. Spread with a tablespoon of Russian dressing. Then the caramelized onions, pastrami, 3 pickle slices and finally the cheese burger. Spread another tablespoon Russian dressing on the top bun. And now you have a masterpiece.
Notes: The General Muir original burger is part ground brisket and part short rib. Delicious combo. I substitute grass fed ground beef because I always have that on hand.
Assembly: It may seem backward to you that I put the “toppings” on the bottom. This is a messy burger and the heaviness from the actual burger patty keeps most of the toppings on the bun instead of sliding off the top of the burger into your lap.
The General Muir uses a double stacked burger. I find it hard to get the burger thin enough to make a double stack. If you choose to serve two burger patties, place the caramelized onions between the two patties. It’s just a little bit less messy.
Want to make your burger special? Make your own special sauce from this recipe. Easy and only takes a few minutes with ingredients you probably already have.
Don’t have Pastrami? Then use cooked bacon.
Time Savers: You can form the burger patties, make the homemade Russian dressing and caramelized onions the day before. The burger patties and caramelized onions can be made anytime and frozen.
When removing the caramelized onions, burgers and pastrami to a plate, I like to keep paper plates around for easy clean up. Otherwise keep a large baking tray around and put all the cooked ingredients on that. I also put the other toppings on a paper plate as well, meaning the cheese and pickles.
Pastrami slices aren’t huge, they should measure roughly 2” X 4”, they won’t cover the burger completely.