What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’?

How about serving something totally new and different for this year’s Labor Day picnic?  Are you sitting there saying, “What in the world is a slider!?!?!  And what is a Chip-Odell?”  A slider is just a really small burger.  And a chipotle (pronounced chip-oat-lee) is a smoked jalapeno pepper.  It has some heat, but not quite as much as a raw jalapeno does.  But don’t worry, this doesn’t have actual chipotles in it, just some ground up into the spice blend we’ll use.

These little burgers were made for a “finger foods/appetizers” party.  There was not even a tiny crumb left!  I think Ankle Biter #1 ate like 87 of them by himself!  Well, not really, maybe just 47 or something like that.  He’s my “try anything if it doesn’t try to eat me first” kid.  And sometimes I think even if it DID try to eat him first, he’d give it a run for its money!  All that to say, these may be little in size, but they’re not little in flavor!  They pack a punch that will make your tastebuds sing!

I’m actually going to give you two recipes today.  The first is for the little slider buns.  You don’t HAVE to make your own buns.  You can certainly by small rolls.  But these little buns are FANTASTIC!  So if you want to make your own little buns for these, you’ll need:

All-Purpose or Bread Flour, a packet of yeast, salt, butter, an egg, honey and some warm water.

If you’ve never made any yeast dough before, don’t worry.  It’s really not all that hard.  If you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the bread hook, you’re literally a few minutes away from some fantastic dough.  If you have to mix it by hand, it will take a little longer, but fresh bread is SO worth the time and effort!

Pour the water into the mixing bowl and add the room temperature butter.

Add the egg.  It’s not a bad idea to go ahead and beat the egg before adding it.  I just didn’t do that particular step.

Add the salt.

Then pour in the honey.

Put your dough hook on and give this a little mix.

Add the flour now.

Finally, add the yeast and turn the mixer on.  Let the mixer knead the dough for about 10 minutes on a low speed setting.  And forgive me for failing to take a photo of the finished dough.    I just forgot to grab the camera because I was trying to get the little buns ready.

Divide the dough into halves and you should be able to get 6 little buns from each half.  Cover them with a clean kitchen towel and allow them to double in size before baking.

Once they are doubled in size, bake in a pre-heated 350° oven about 25 minutes.  Set them aside while you’re making the slider patties up for the grill.

For the sliders, you’ll need:

Some ground chuck, garlic, fresh-cracked pepper, and Grill Master Cinnamon Chipotle Rub.

This stuff is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!!!  I’ve used it on chicken, pork, in ground beef……….no matter what I use it on or in, it just makes a flavor explosion!  It’s fairly inexpensive and can be found in the spice aisle of most grocery stores.

Start out by putting your ground beef in a mixing bowl.

Now add the garlic.

Throw in the fresh-cracked pepper.

Add the Cinnamon Chipotle rub.  If you’re sitting there thinking, “CINNAMON?  In my BURGER? EWWWWWWWWWWWW!”  Don’t worry.  It’s a very subtle flavor profile underneath that chipotle.  It’s not a super “in your face” cinnamon flavor.  Now mix the meat and spices up together.

And make small patties.  Make them about the same size as your buns that you’ve got rising.

Lay them out on your hot grill.  And please ignore the fact that mine desperately needed to be cleaned!

Give them a flip and cook on the other side.

While the burgers are grilling, go back inside and make your caramelized onions.

Start by thinly slicing a sweet onion into rings.  Make sure they are very thin because the sliders are so small, thick ones just one stay on very well.

Lookee here!  See this?  That’s bacon grease.  If you don’t have bacon grease, you can start out with some butter and oil to do this step.

Melt the bacon grease (or your butter and oil) and get the skillet screaming hot.

Add the onions to the hot skillet.  And stir around until………….

Oh my heavens!  This is like the most amazing smelling thing in the world, right here!!!!  They’re just about ready.  So that means you can build your sliders now.

I apparently failed to take photos of the slider assembly.  Sorry about that!  It’s super simple though.  Just slice the buns in half, put a slider on each bun, top with the caramelized onions and cheese of choice.  I used pepper jack cheese.

See?

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!  SO SO SO good!

Slider Buns

*  3 cups all-purpose or bread flour

*  1 cup warm water

*  1 packet yeast

*  3/4 tsp. salt

*  1/4 cup honey

*  1/4 cup butter

*  1 egg

Pour water into a mixing bowl.  Add butter, salt, egg and honey.  Turn mixer on and incorporate ingredients together.  Add flour and yeast.  Turn mixer on low speed until dough forms a ball.  Knead on low 10 minutes.  Separate dough into two equal size balls, then pinch off dough into 6 equal size balls from each half.  Form into a flat disk.  Place on a baking stone (or cookie sheet.)  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm environment so dough can rise.  Allow dough to double in size before baking.  Bake in a 350° oven approximately 25 minutes.  Allow to cool. Once cool, slice each bun in half.

Chipotle Sliders

*  1 pound ground chuck/round/sirloin

*  1 Tbsp. minced garlic

*  fresh cracked black pepper to taste

*  1/4 cup Cinnamon Chipotle rub

*  1 large sweet onion

*  cheese of choice

Mix meat with spices.  Form into small patties.  Make sure to flatten them well so they cook evenly.  Grill approximately 5 minutes on each side.  This will depend on how thick your burgers are and how done you like your burgers.

Peel and slice onion into very thin rings.  Heat oil and butter or bacon grease in a skillet.  Add onions once skillet is very hot.  Cook until the natural sugars begin to cook out of the onion and they begin to caramelize.  Set aside.

Place a slider onto a bun.  Top with a spoonful of caramelized onions.  Add cheese slice of choice to the top of the onions and then place the top of the bun onto each slider.  Serve hot.

And make your whole family happy, happy, HAPPY!!!!

I wanted to give you a little twist on the old grilled burger.  These go over well with kids!  They’re small and “cute” so kids really enjoy them.

They’re also extremely versatile.  When I made these, I also did some with bleu cheese in them instead of the chipotle spice.  Then I topped with a little more blue cheese when they came off the grill.  They were a huge hit too!  You could mix up various spice blends and cheeses to create several different sliders for the plate.  Give ‘em a whirl and let me know how you spiced yours up!

Have a great day!

Filed under: Appetizers, Beef, Breads, Grilling, Main Dishes, Recipes, Uncategorized