Sliders Three Ways

     For our weekly meal with Matt, I decided to make sliders and salt potatoes. On the way home I decided I wouldn’t pick up salt potatoes and that we had a ton of chips to eat instead. But while at work I decided to make sliders three different ways. So the meal turned into sliders three ways and a variety of chips. I came up with cheddar/bacon and American/pickle for the sliders quickly but the third style took a bit of thinking. The problem with sliders is they can’t hold much because of their size to whatever you do choose to top them with, needs to be small or cut down to fit on top. Ultimately I decided to go with mozzarella/pizza sauce. I wanted to add pepperoni as well but I didn’t have any at home. I ended up with three sliders of each variety for a total of nine. Here are the ingredients if you want to try making any of these:

Slider buns

1 pound 80/20 ground beef

Salt and pepper

½ cup cheddar cheese

2 strips bacon, crumbles

½ cup mozzarella cheese

¼ cup pizza sauce

1 ½ slices American cheese

3 pickle slices

     Cook the bacon in a pan first and crumble it up, set this aside. While the bacon cooks, toast the insides of the top and bottom buns in a pan or on a griddle until golden brown. Place them open on each plate to make transferring the burgers to the buns easier. Take the ground beef and roll it into golf ball sized balls and then press them to about 1 inch in thickness. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the tops of the burgers and then add them top side down into the pan and then sprinkle more salt and pepper on the other side. Let them cook on a medium high heat for about 2 minutes and then flip them over. Immediately start topping these with the cheeses, dividing the amount listed over the three sliders. I add an ice cube to the pan and cover it with a large bowl, this helps melt the cheese quickly. Cook it this way for another two minute and they will be in between medium well and well. Obviously cook them for less time if you want them a little less done. Move them burgers to the buns and top with the other ingredient. I got them ready on the counter beforehand so I could finish them up quickly.

     It was nice to have a variety of smaller burgers because I normally get bored with the same taste throughout a larger burger. We all liked each burger but there was some discussion on which was the favorite. Christine liked the American cheese with pickle on top while Matt and I were both taken with the mozzarella and pizza sauce burger. The cheddar bacon burger was good but we’ve all had it before, so the sauce topped one was the star of the night. If it had just been tomato sauce I don’t think the burger would have been as good. But because I used left over pizza sauce from the pizza we had the night before, I think that made a huge difference. If you read my post about the pizza you might remember me saying I’d eat that sauce with a spoon, so I think the sauce is just that good to make the burger be great. I don’t know if I could eat a whole burger with those toppings but there is only one way to find out.

Rating: Yummy - Three burgers were three times the fun.