15 Minute Smashburgers with Fried Onions

Gorgeously juicy and crisp, these 15 minute smashburgers with fried onions make the perfect quick midweek family meal.

Smash It!

I just love a good burger!

Burgers are delicious, versatile, family friendly and perhaps most importantly, really quick to make.

So it’s probably no surprise that you’ll find burger recipes featuring happily in a quick recipe blog. I just love experimenting with all types of home-made burger; whether made from meat, fish, or plant-based. My 15 minute smashburgers with friend onion recipe certainly fits the bill for the perfect quick burger!

Check out another of my quick burger recipes; my 15 minute pork & apple burgers with quick slaw. In fact, any recipe that involves creating a delicious patty with fresh ingredients then frying it off quickly in a pan to create the perfect meal or snack certainly floats my boat! Fishcakes are another great example of this – Have a look at my 10 Minute Salmon and Sweet Chilli Fishcakes and my 10 Minute Thai Green Tuna Fishcakes with Chilli and Lime Mayo for further yummy inspiration.

Now, one of the hottest new trends in the culinary world is the Smashburger. These tasty, meaty treats are gaining in popularity around the world. And it’s not difficult to see why!

But wait a minute, what exactly is a ‘smashburger’ ?? Well, it’s a special way of creating a perfect burger that results in crispy, firm edges whilst at the same time, searing the meat to keep all those lovely juices inside.

It’s thought that smashburgers were actually being created decades ago in the Great Lakes Region of the USA by pressing the meat down on a flat grill at high heat. The US Restaurant, ‘Smashburger’ then opened in 2007 and helped to popularise this fantastic recipe. The company now boasts hundreds of outlets all around the USA and the influence has spread globally – including to right here in the UK.

Best Burgers

So now that we’ve had a look at the (justified) hype surrounding this gorgeously meaty treat, lets have a think about exactly how we can make the perfect 15 minute smashburger with fried onions….

Best Beef

Now of course, to make the perfect 15 minute smashburger with fried onions… we need to start with some minced (ground) beef.

Usually, I’m a fan of using lean minced meat in my recipes. This helps to keep things a little healthier and less greasy. However, this golden rule needs to be broken when it comes to smashburgers! (Or should I say this golden rule needs to be ‘smashed’??)

A lean mince such as one containing only 5% fat will result in a dry and tough burger. You need a higher fat content. Some people advocate using 20-25% fat content beef, but I find that 12% fat beef works perfectly well. A much higher content than this risks the smashburger shrinking too much during the cooking process. And we don’t want teeny burgers, do we ??

The 12% fat content mince seems like a good compromise to me. However, just grab whatever’s available locally to you. As long as it’s not labelled as ‘lean’ then you should be fine.

Fabulously Flat

Now, how on earth do you flatten your burger patty out?

Some people use proper burger presses that you can buy online which I’m sure work well. However, my kitchen is small, so as lovely as a fancy burger press would be to have, it would just be another piece of clutter in my kitchen!

So, I like to keep it really simple. For these 15 minute smashburgers with fried onions all I do is squash the patties down in the pan with the back of a spatula. That’s it! Nothing fancy. What I will say though is that you have to push down much harder than you think you do. I had several failed attempts at first where the resulting burger was just waaaay too chunky to be deemed an acceptably smashed one.

Try and get a large and flat one (preferably without slots in it!) and push, push, push! It should be less than 1 cm thick (0.3 inch) so really thin. Otherwise it just doesn’t cook as quickly as we want and we won’t get those lovely golden crispy bits around the edges. So put some effort it!

OOOOHHH, ONIONS

A final word here on the onions. I can’t think of anything better to top a perfectly juicy smashburger with! Caramelising the onions is actually the most time consuming thing about this 15 minute smashburger recipe… if it wasn’t for the onions, this could easily be made in only 10 minutes.

But the onions just add that ‘wow!’ factor – sweet, soft and crowning the juicy burger perfectly. I wouldn’t be without them!

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO MAKING THE PERFECT 15 MINUTE SMASHBURGERS WITH FRIED ONIONS

Have a look below for a useful guide in making your delicious 15 minute smashburgers with fried onions. There are some handy photos to help guide you along in the process. If you prefer though, you can skip to the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

STEP 1;

To get started, grab a medium sized frying pan. Add 1 tsp vegetable / olive oil and heat over medium/high heat.

STEP 2;

Take one small red onion. Chop the ends off, peel it then slice it thinly. Add this to the pan along with 1/2 teaspoon sugar. You’ll need to stir this regularly as the onions cook and brown. This will take about 6-8 minutes, depending on the size of the onion pieces.

STEP 3;

As the onion cooks, grab a second large frying pan and place this dry over high heat (no oil). Take two burger buns and slice them in half (if not already pre-sliced). Place each bun cut-side down into the dry, hot pan for 1-2 minutes until crisping up and turning a little golden around the edges.

Note that any burger bun will work just fine but I love brioche burger buns covered in sesame seeds. They’re just extra decadent and yummy!

Remove the buns from the pan and set them aside. Remember to be regularly stirring your browning onions all the while.

STEP 4;

Take 250g (9 oz) of beef mince (ground beef). Avoid anything lean / low fat. You need around 10-20% fat content to make the smashburger work best. Pop this beef into a bowl and season generously with salt. With clean hands, give it a good mix then separate the beef into 4 roughly equally sized balls.

STEP 5;

The onions are probably ready by now so remove them from the heat and set aside.

Now it’s time to cook your smashburgers! If you have an especially large frying pan, you may be able to cook all 4 patties at once. If not, then just do 2 at a time.

Place the burgers in the large, hot frying pan and squash them down firmly with the back of a spatula (or any wide, flat implement you have to hand!) You need to press quite firmly to properly flatten them – you’re aiming for less than 1cm (0.3 inches) thickness. You need to keep pressing them down every so often as they cook otherwise they tend to shrink and thicken up.

Cook each patty for around 2 minutes then flip them over. Lay a slice of cheese (I use mild cheddar) on two of the four patties. Cook the patties on the other side for a further 1-2 minutes until golden, sizzling and the cheese is melting around the edges.

STEP 5;

Remove the two cheese-covered patties from the heat and place one on each of the pre-toasted burger bases. Place one plain cooked patty on top of each of the cheese covered patties and pop a generous spoonful of the fried onions on top of this.

STEP 6;

To finish things off, thickly slice one large tomato and pop 1-2 slices on top of each of your burgers and 1-2 pickle slices too if you fancy. Then lay a crisp lettuce leaf on top of this. Crown it all off with a sauce (or sauces) of your choice. (I like to keep it simple with ketchup and mayo!) then pop the bun tops on and you’re all done!