Cast Iron Skillet Cheeseburgers

After making these cast iron skillet cheeseburgers, you’ll never want to make them on the grill again! They’re tender, flavorful and never dry!

Yesterday, we shared with you our new BFF in the condiment department – classic burger sauce – and now we're going to share with you the memorable cheeseburgers that were slathered in it! Seriously, these are going to amaze you!

At our house, burgers are typically reserved for warm weather and grilling; it’s pretty much the only time that we make them. A couple of weeks ago, our husband was reading the Wall Street Journal and handed us the lifestyle section, which had a massive feature article about how burgers should be cooked in a cast iron skillet for maximum flavor, NOT the grill. We were intrigued, and since burgers and fries have been one of our only cravings during this pregnancy, no one needed to twist our arm to put it to the test.

We had only eaten skillet burgers once before – our mother-in-law made bacon cheeseburgers in a skillet and they were memorable. She actually fried the bacon first, then cooked the burgers in the bacon grease, mmmm! At the time, it never occurred to us to try it that way, and it was so long ago, we forgot about it, and we continued to just grill our burgers.

The Wall Street Journal article didn’t include a recipe, so we started poking around our favorite place for go-to recipes like that – Cook’s Illustrated. They had a recipe for old-fashioned burgers that were, in fact, cooked in a skillet. DONE. Off to the store we went for the meat and we cooked up the burgers for our parents and our sister to watch the hockey game last weekend. They were a massive hit, to say the least.

There are a couple keys to making the burgers memorable:

• The combination of sirloin and short ribs provides the reliable combination of fat and tenderness. While the recipe calls for pulsing the meat in a food processor at home, if you have a great meat department or butcher, they can do a coarse grind for you, which will save you time and mess!
• The shaping method – by not packing the patties tight, you keep the burgers from drying out and becoming tough.

We're totally sold on making burgers in the cast iron skillet from now on… while you can’t make as many at one time if you’re feeding a crowd, they take such little time to cook that it’s not a hassle at all. We doubled the recipe below and had them all made in about 10 minutes. We covered the first batch loosely in foil, and no one got a cold burger!

And because burgers weren’t meant to go it alone, here are some ideas on what to serve with them:

Creamy Coleslaw // Beer-Battered Onion Rings // From-scratch French Fries // Macaroni Salad // Best Ever Potato Salad

Watch How to Make Cast Iron Skillet Cheeseburgers:

One year ago: Date Energy Bites
Five years ago: Broccoli Salad
Eight years ago: Cheddar Corn Chowder

• Yield: 4 cheeseburgers
• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 5 minutes
• Total: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 10 ounces ( 283.5 g ) sirloin steak tips, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 6 ounces ( 170.1 g ) boneless beef short ribs, cut into 1-inch chunks
• Kosher salt
• Ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salted butter
• 4 slices American cheese

To serve/garnish:

• Toasted hamburger buns, melt some butter in the skillet and place the buns cut-side down until lightly browned
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Bacon,!!
• Sliced onion
• Pickles
• Burger sauce

Method

1. Place beef chunks on baking sheet in single layer, leaving ½-inch of space around each chunk. Freeze meat until firm and starting to harden around edges but still pliable, 15 to 25 minutes.
2. Place half of meat in food processor and pulse until meat is coarsely ground, 10 to 15 one-second pulses, stopping and redistributing meat around bowl as necessary to ensure beef is evenly ground. Transfer meat to baking sheet, overturning bowl and without directly touching meat. Repeat grinding with remaining meat. Spread meat over sheet and discard any long strands of gristle or large chunks of hard meat or fat.
3. Gently separate ground meat into 4 equal mounds. Without picking meat up, with your fingers gently shape each mound into loose patty 1/2 inch thick and 4 inches in diameter, leaving edges and surface ragged. Season top of each patty with salt and pepper. Using spatula, flip patties and season other side. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.
4. Place large cast iron skillet over high heat; add butter and heat until foaming. Transfer burgers to skillet and cook without moving for 3 minutes. Using spatula, flip burgers over and cook for 1 minute. Top each patty with slice of cheese and continue to cook until cheese is melted, about 1 minute longer. Remove burgers from the skillet and serve immediately on soft hamburger buns and toppings and condiments of choice.