Smash Burgers with Mac Sauce and Lettuce Wraps
Find the full recipe and step by step breakdown below, along with recipe mods and a bunch of notes!
Cheers,
The Big Mac Sauce
Big Mac Sauce just feels like home. I grew up with a lot of fast food in my life. These days, it’s a rarity but I do still love it sometimes.
Making your own big mac sauce is super simple. You just add a bunch of stuff to a pan, let it do it’s thing for a bit and you’re good to go. Most of the ingredients are also shelf stable and/or last forever.
This recipe is from my good friend Charlotte Langley and it is great. It does use ketchup, but I don’t really care sicne it’s so dang tasty!
Smash Burger Basics
The basics to making a great smash burger are simple but important. Below are a few points to help ensure your success!
Start with the best ground beef that you can. I like to go with a higher fat content for flavor and texture but it’s not critical if you prefer a leaner meat. The biggest differentiator that I’ve run into is using fresh ground beef vs vacuum sealed and packaged ground beef. I’ve found the vacuum sealed meat to be more prone to steaming vs meat ground on premises at a grocery store or butcher shop.
Next, separate your meat out into 4oz balls/pucks, being carful not to overwork them. We don’t want to over work the fats which will make it more meatloaf like vs burger like.
Season at the Very End
Season your burger patties at the very end, right before you cook them. You also only season the outside.
I know, you may think that I’m crazy. I grew up with elaborate burger recipes that I swore by and countless others as well. A burger recipe seemed like a place for originality and expression. But I am here to tell you, I do not believe that to be the case. Overworking and seasoning your burgers, adding binders like eggs, breadcrumbs and other sorts of things turns them into little meatloafs, with a more spongy texture.
Instead, give your patties a nice coat of your seasoning of choice right before cooking them, they will have a much more ‘tear away’ bite to them. The flavors are all around grizzle, which at it’s core, is what smash burgers are all about.
Smash Burgers Cook Quick
These are not your thick and juicy outside barbecue burgers. These are small 4oz patties being smashed into a ripping how skillet. They cook quickly. Normally around 90 seconds on one side and and 30ish seconds on the other.
To cook them, get your pan ripping hot and add a touch of vegetable oil or another high temperature and neutral cooking oil. Place one of your seasoned balls in the center of your pan. Then, using some parchment paper squares to prevent sticking and a heavy spatula, press down hard and smash your burger. Make sure to smash it all around and as evenly as you can.
When it’s time to flip, use the backside of the spatula to help separate the patty from the pan. This will also help keep the outside grizzle intact.
The Splash of Water Cheese Trick
When it comes to adding your cheese, you want it to get nice an melty quickly. For this, you’re going to want to use the splash of water cheese trick.
It’s simple, you just put your cheese on your patty, like normal. Then, you give the side of your pan a splash with about 1 tbsp of water. Cover your pan for about 30 seconds, until your cheese is nice and melty. Next move, on to your lettuce wraps.
Why Lettuce Wraps?
While I love all of the wonderful burger bun options around, I do enjoy having a solid and lighter option available. I’ve tried substitutes with heavier leafed greens like collard greens and such but these lettuce wraps are by far my favorite way to go. Here is why…
First off, lettuce wraps are great because they are function-able and easy to hold and maneuver around.
Second, unlike the heavier leafed greens that have a dull and murkier flavor to them like collard green wraps, lettuce wraps are bright, crisp and sweet. Since lettuce itself is a normal topping on burgers, lettuce wraps fit right in flavor wise!
Third, they are a LOT lighter in terms of calories and carbs. Now this might not matter to everyone and I think people overall should have a healthy relationship with food and diet. However, the fact is that as Sami and I get older, we don’t always need all that bread with every meal. They are also a great gluten-free option
So in conclusion, lettuce wraps are practical, taste great and are a gluten-free, light and healthier option is you’re looking to cut calories or carbs.
Types of Lettuce to use for Wraps:
The type of lettuce that you use and how you stack it is a huge part of making a successful lettuce wrap. What we’re really going for is a layered ‘clam shell’ type of shape that can fit snugly in your palm as you eat. This method works great because the layering enables it to hold it’s shape well as you eat and move it around, and also contains a lot of the juices.
I like to use Butter Lettuce or Boston Lettuce. I can’t really tell the difference between the two to be honest but both work great. They are sweet and crisp and have a soft spine. They have a firm but lighter density yet a bendy texture so they don’t snap or fall apart very easily.
Lettuce Wrap Construction:
To assemble your lettuce wraps, stack 8-10 butter lettuce leaves, in an overlapping pattern. This pattern should be about 4 leaves wide, so it will have 2 total layers.
You really want to make sure these overlap about half way over each other as you place them. It will really help hold everything together as you pick it up and start to eat!
Once you have your lettuce placed, spread out about a tablespoon of big mac sauce onto one of the end leaves. Place a burger patty over the big mac sauce. For this recipes I’m following this this with a slice of salted tomato, red onion and pickle slices. See the animated gif below for a visual on the construction process:
Youtube Video:
More recipes and videos on my Youtube Here!
Full Recipe:
Smash Burgers with Mac Sauce and Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Bombine all of the mac sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan. Stir until combined and cook over med/low heat for 10 or 15 minutes until the garlic and onions are cooked. Remove from the heat, cover and let cool in the refrigerator. Note #1: You can batch make a ton of this for more than 2 burgersNote #2: You can also use some plastic wrap and cover the sauce snugly, pressing it into it gently to make sure there is no air stuck in between to help avoid forming a gunky layer on top while it cools.
- Heat a large skillet over high heat and wipe it down with avocado oil or another neutral high temp cooking oil.
- Season your beef balls well with salt and pepper. One at a time, place a ball onto one side of the skillet and press down on it firmly with a heavy spatula or burger press. Note: You can use a square of parchment paper and place it in between the beed and the spatula to avoid any sticking, remove the paper after pressing in the burger. Also, press down as hard as you can, all around the burger to get it as thin as possible.
- Cook for about 90 seconds and flip, being careful to keep all of the grizzle on the burger (using the back of the spatula helps). Put cheese on your patties and cover the pan with a lid, adding about 1 tbsp of water to the pan before you cover it (the steam from the water will help melt the cheese). Cook for about 30 seconds and move to assembly.
- Stack 8 butter lettuce leaves, in an overlapping pattern thats about 4 leaves wide (so it will have 2 layers). You really want to make sure these overlap as it will make it a lot easier to handle while you eat. On one end of the lettuce leaves, spread about a tablespoon of mac sauce. Place a burger over the mac sauce followed by a slice of salted tomato, red onion and pickle slices.
- Fold empty half of the lettuce leaves over, covering the top of the burger. Pick up your burger by grabbing it so that the folded end of the lettuce faces into your palm and the open end of the lettuce is facing out towards you, ready to eat!Note: Check out the video above for a good visual of this, as well as the breakdown in the 'lettuce wraps' section above.
Nutrition
Notes
- Try using Iceberg lettuce for a different texture and more crunch.
- You can also wrap this in some steamed or blanched collard greens for a heartier leaf option. This method also travels well and saves well overnight.
- You can also toss this on a bun or between a couple of slices of toast!
- For a dairy free option, remove the cheese!
- For a vegetarian or vegan option, swap out Beef for a Plant Based option
- For the Mac sauce: Feel free to eye ball these measurements a bit more and to measure with your heart!
- Depending on the size of your lettuce head, use more or less leaves if needed. At the same point, you want to use a solid amount of leaves so that it holds together well and that there is a good amount of crunch.
- A heavy spatula is very handy for this, a burger press is even better!
- Before you start, cut out some burger sized squares out of parchment paper to use during the pressing process to avoid sticking. See in the steps below.
- You can make your own mayo if you like but I like to use Kewpie Brand mayo for this since the sauce has so much going on already.
