Simple Bacon and Cheese Patty Melts (pix)

Had a pound of hamburger meat with no buns. We did have some white sandwich bread though, so we went with some simple patty melts for tonight's dinner. Nothing fancy, but it hit the spot.

My pet peeve is a burger that is so thick that it turns into a big meatball that doesn't even fill the bun. I always try to make them on the thin side, and big around, that way you fill the bun and you can bite into it without breaking your jaw. I usually make my patties 1/3 pound each, flatten them out fairly wide and then put a dimple in the middle. But tonight I was making patty melts, and I wanted a double layer of meat so that I could also have a double layer of cheese. So I made these 1/4 pound each, and then used a rolling pin and ziplock bag to flatten them out nice and wide.



After I flattened them out, I seasoned them and put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up.



They don't take long to grill up this way either...



Topped with some bacon.



I'm usually not one for baked sweet potatoes, but I found tonight that if I season them like I do sweet potato french fries, then they aren't half bad. Seasoned it with some butter, salt and pepper, and shredded parmesan.



The patty melt was awesome. I loved the buttery and crispy bite of grilling it up like a grilled cheese sandwich.



Simple meal, but really good... I think I'll skip picking up buns on a more regular basis. They usually go bad before I can finish them up anyways. And there's nothing like the buttery goodness of a grilled cheese pattymelt.

Excellent and scrumptious looking, Dyal! I also applaud your sense to break out the rolling pin, and I relate to all you say about the virtues of thin patties. This one deserves a wave!--

I'm a fan of thin patties as well. Excellent job with this meal!

Thin is the only way to go for a patty melt. A patty melt with grilled onions on rye bread was one of my favorite burgers for a very long time. Nice job and a great choice on the sweet taters.

Oh man, Dyal!! Those look so good. I think some drool just dripped on my keyboard.

Thx, y'all! Forgot to mention that even though they were thin, they stayed plenty juicy. I made sure to grill them up fairly quickly. They still had a little bit of pink in the middle actually. Wish I had one right now.

Man they look great!!

Those look really tasty! (I'd eat one, even though I had a huge lunch an hour or so ago. )

To keep a burger from 'balling up', press a divot (maybe 1/8" to 1/4" deep) in one side of the burger with a diameter about equal to the radius of the burger. (And you thought that geometry class wasn't useful! ) I forget exactly why it works but it does. (Something about keeping the protein from tightening up or something...)

Take care,

Derek

Man those are still stuck in my head. We're doing burgers tonight and I think mine is going to be a patty melt. Did you grill the burgers, then put them between the bread and "grill" them like a grilled cheese? Or how do you do the bread?

Ground up 3 lbs of chuck last night for the burgers. Didn't like the fat content of the chuck, so I ground up some bacon along with it. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

Griffin wrote:

Man those are still stuck in my head. We're doing burgers tonight and I think mine is going to be a patty melt. Did you grill the burgers, then put them between the bread and "grill" them like a grilled cheese? Or how do you do the bread?

Ground up 3 lbs of chuck last night for the burgers. Didn't like the fat content of the chuck, so I ground up some bacon along with it. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

I just used the BGE for the burgers. After they were done, I took them inside. Got a dry pan and toasted up one side (the inside) of the slices of white bread so that the juiciness of the patties wouldn't make the bread soggy. Then sandwiched the patties, bacon, ketchup, mayo, mustard, and pickles together. Then buttered the outside of the bread and grilled it in the pan like you would an ordinary grilled cheese. It was gooood!

Can't wait to see how yours turns out too!

Simple but I bet pretty awesome. I like the thin burgers.