Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

Time will pass and seasons will come and go, so to will football season inevitably end for every fan base...some sooner than others. Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh Steelers and their fans, the season has ended at the hands of a New England Patriots butt whoopin'. As hard as it is to admit, the better team clearly won....with that said...LETS GO PENS!!

Whenever I watch big games, like the Steelers/Patriots AFC Championship game, I always make a point to make something absolutely delicious. So that whatever the outcome of the game, at least I still win because I had something delicious...well that's my silver lining logic. So, in true fashion, I made this delicious Bacon Cheeseburger soup! What really makes this soup fantastic is layering the bacon flavor through the entire cooking process. This flavor layering can be achieved in lots of recipes, especially when using a fat (i.e. butter, oil, bacon fat, etc). In this example, I rendered fat from both the ground beef and bacon. I then saved that rendered fat and used it through the entire recipe. I used the golden delicious fat to saute the mirepoix, as well as, the base for the roux. Layering or building flavor, especially in soup, is definitely a great way to elevate any dish. With that said, lets check out this delicious recipe!

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Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

Prep time: 45m | Cook time: 30min | Total time: 1hr 15min | Yield: 8 servings (2 1/4 quart)

Ingredients

1/2 lbs ground beef
4 slices bacon, 1" chop
3/4 cup onion, chopped
3/4 cup carrots, shredded
3/4 cup celery, diced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
1-3/4 pounds peeled potatoes, cubed (about 4 cups)
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 package (16-ounce) Velvetta cheese, cubed
1-1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/4 cup sour cream

Cooking Directions

1. In a dutch oven over medium heat, cook and crumble beef until no longer pink; drain and set aside. In the dutch oven, add chopped bacon and cook until crispy and bacon fat is rendered. Place mesh sieve over a bowl and drain bacon, separating the bacon bits from fat. Set both the fat and cooked bacon aside. In same dutch oven, add 1 tablespoon bacon fat over medium heat. Saute onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley until tender, about 10 minutes. Add potatoes, beef and chicken stock; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender, 10-12 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of bacon fat until shimmering. Add flour; cook and stir until bubbly, 3-5 minutes. Add roux to the soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cheese, milk, salt, pepper, and worchestershire sauce; cook until cheese melts. Remove from heat; blend in sour cream.
3. To service, top soup with shredded cheddar cheese, cooked bacon bits, and sliced scallions.

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Of course when throwing a Super Bowl Party (or should I say Soup-er Bowl Party...ba doom ching!) you may want to keep food out to snack on during the game. It is crucial that hot foods at above 135F and cold foods don't exceed 41F. Always check these temperatures every 2 hours to maintain proper food safety protocol. The best way to monitor food temperatures? Thermapen of course! I use mine pretty much every time I cook. It's incredibly accurate, easy to ready, fast, and most importantly durable. 

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Slow Cooker Chili

Holy cow...I just realized I haven't created a blog post since May 11th...SHAME ON ME!! While there is no excuse for not blogging for 8 months, it's not like I have been sitting around on my butt doing nothing. So, lets see what has been happening?? Probably the biggest deterrent for maintaining my blog is just being a father. I have literally never done anything as rewarding as being a dad and it has just been so much fun watching my little boy grow up...he just turned 1 year old on the 6th and I still just can't get over that.

Lets see, what else has come up...ohh yeah...I got a new job in August! I am now a Territory Manager for the second largest, and best, broadline food distributor in the country, US Foods. It definitely felt time to make a change and the opportunity presented itself, so I jumped at it and absolutely love my decision. Given my love for food, cooking, and the restaurant industry....it just fits my personality so well. 

Not too much else has come up, except for 2016 ended up being a great sports year, and great year in general for me. The Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup, Penn State Football beat Ohio State and won the Big 10 Championship (Which I attended and it might have been the greatest sporting event that I have attended). One thing that hasn't changed is that I am still cooking like crazy and the good news is I probably have 8 months worth of blogging material ready to share! So without further ado, lets talk about this Slow Cooker Chili recipe. There isn't anything crazy about this recipe, but it is a goodie and is perfect for this time of year. One thing that I did discover is, like pasta, cooking the veggies, beef, and spices all together in a pan and then letting them meld over night before throwing it all in the crockpot really intensifies the flavors. So, if you have time, I recommend doing that to really elevate this recipe. Good luck and let me know what you think!

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Slow Cooker Chili

Prep time: 45m | Cook time: 6-8hrs | Total time: 45min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium yellow onions, medium dice
1 medium red bell pepper, medium dice
6 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 lbs lean ground beef
1.5 tsp kosher salt, plus more as needed
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pickled jalapenos or green chilies, drained
2 Tbsp cornmeal

Cooking Directions

1. In a large sauce pan heated over medium-high heat, add the vegetable oil. Cook the ground beef until browned. Add in the diced onions and red pepper, cooking until softened. Then add in the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and salt; cooking until fragerant. Optional: Let the spiced meat and veggie mixture cool, then store in a container and refrigerate overnight.
2. Add the spiced meat mixture, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and kidney beans to a crock pot. Cook for 6 hours on high or 8 hours on low.
3. Stir in the pickled jalapenos, cornmeal, and season with salt as need. Serve with cheese, thinly sliced scalions, and sour cream.

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Smash Burger

I tell you what, I think I have settled on my most favorite way to cook a cheeseburger. I've tried it all, grilled, sous vide, fried, forming patties by press, forming patties by hand...But, the one that I feel trumps it all, is the smash burger. Why?

1. I get a fantastic crust (maillard reaction) on the outside of the burger. Grilling, while not a bad cooking method, tends to flare up and sometimes you get overcooked/burnt spots if you aren't extremely careful. "But, Eric, I want to cook my burgers on my grill!" Look at my picture! I used my Baking Steel as a griddle on my grill (Baking Steel even has a griddle version), added a few chunks of cherry wood to give it a smokey flavor, and I got a fantastic grill flavor. What a lot of people don't realize about grilling is the reason why you get the char flavor from grilling is because fat drips onto the hot coals or flavorizer bars, burns and smokes. That's where that grilled flavor comes from. So how do we get that flavor if the food isn't on the grill grates? Just spray some fat onto the coals or flavorizer bars and BOOM you get smokey goodness. In this case I used some wood, worked great and I got a smoke flavor. 
2. My burgers don't turn into giant, awkward, meatballs. I know, you're supposed to add a dimple to your burger patty to counteract the meatball effect. My problem adding the dimple is, what does that do your doneness? You have even thickness everywhere else, except for the center, wouldn't you imagine that the center would overcook? Smash burgers I start out as basically meatballs, get a crust on both sides and smash it down. Ever since I started doing this, I have never had a burger meatball back up. They stay in patty form!
3. You don't over work the meat. People tend to add a bunch of stuff to their ground beef, mix it up, portion out the patties, form the patties. By the end, the strains of ground beef are compressed, and can lead to a dense burger. The smash burger, yes you roll into a ball, but the inside stays nice and lose, leaving to a very juicy and flavorful burger. Then, on top of that, since we get a beautiful crust on the burger from the griddle, we get a burger that doesn't fall apart. You bite into the crust and get a very juicy and flavorful burger, rather than one that may be dense, dry, and falling apart.

Step 1:

Gently form portioned ground beef into balls. Don't over work them, just press them enough to form them. These are 1/2 Lbs burgers, you can use this technique with whatever size burger you want, I made sliders this way as well! Season with salt and pepper on the tops. 

Step 2:

After preheating your Baking Steel, Griddle, or Saute pan over medium high heat. Put the season side down on to the grill. Then season the other side with salt and pepper. Let it sear for a minute or two. (I also put a couple slices of onion onto the griddle, caramelized onions are the Bee's Knees!

Step 3:

Using a pair of tongs, flip meatballs over and sear the other side for a few minutes until crust is formed. 

Step 4:

With a metal spatula, smash burger down into a patty. Once one side is fully seared, flip and completely sear the other side. Cook to your desired doneness and make sure to check the temp with a Thermapen Mk4. Top with cheese (if you wish) and serve!

One of my favorite kitchen tools and an essential tool in the kitchen is a Thermapen. If you are looking for a highly accurate, fast, and sturdy thermometer for the kitchen. This is the one you want!

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