Ingredients
Equipment
Method
To make your big mac sauce
- 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.
To assemble lettuce wraps:
- 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.
To handle:
- 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
Mods:
- 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.