Grilled Honey Barbecue Sauce & Jalapeño Cheeseburger – Fire it Up for Some Heat!

Sometimes when the craving arrives, it’s nice to fire up my charcoal grill with lump hardwood charcoal and have some good ‘ole All American Cheeseburgers! Yes indeed! Sit back and smell that ground beef cooking to perfection with a cold one is a great U-S of A traditon. Hell, I think it’s in the Geneva convention?!?! From time to time, I like to throw a twist on my cheeseburger by stuffing it with chopped Jalapeño, bbq honey sauce, Worcestershire sauce and cover it with Monterrey Jack peppercorn cheese…that’s a whole lot of good right there! Today I’m sharing my Grilled BBQ Honey Sauce Jalapeño Cheeseburger with sweet potato steak fries, grilled to our (my) liking! It’s got some spice and kick to tickle your tongue but some sweetness to bring you burger paradise in your mouth!

To get started take your ground beef and add it to a large bowl with some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then chop the jalapeño pepper finely and remove the seeds and add to bowl. Touch off with some honey barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and a little olive oil and then make your patties (and don’t worry if a seed or two gets into the ground beef, you can totally redeem yourself with extra honey barbecue sauce). For the buns, I use a loaf of ciabatta that’s cut into 4 quarters and sliced which are large enough to fit the tasty and spicy burgers to be! For the sweet potato steak fries, I clean them and then cut into large quarters, slicing thick strips from those quarters to create the steak fries appearance. Then put on a large cooking sheet and season with dried thyme and rosemary, then garlic powder, olive oil and salt and pepper.

Now we’re ready to fire up the grill, so start 2 chimney starters with lump hardwood charcoal and some mesquite wood chunks and/or chips (not soaked). Once the wood charcoal is a nice grey color, dump into the fire pit and throw those grates on. Use a half cut onion with a long fork-tong to grease the grates, and then throw those barbecue jalapeño burgers and sweet potato steak fries on there! I try to sear the burgers for a few minutes over high heat on both sides before moving to a medium-heat zone. For the sweet potato steak fries, they’ll need to cook a little longer so keep them over a hotter part of the grill but be sure to keep tabs on them, they’ll burn quickly if you’re not aware. Once the burgers are almost done, add slices of Monterrey Jack peppercorn cheese on top and place the ciabatta quarters on the grill. Once the cheese melts, it’s time to eat!

Feel free to throw whatever toppings you like on your Grilled BBQ Jalapeño Cheeseburger. I personally like some spicy mustard, red onion, and a slice of tomato on mine and as for a cold beverage? I chose Mexican royalty, Corona and all together, it was a tasty meal! So there you have it, Grilled BBQ Jalapeño Cheeseburger and Sweet Potato Steak Fries recipe from Paggi Pazzo, spice it up!

Grilled Honey BBQ and Jalapeño Cheeseburger Recipe

Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 hour
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 ciabatta bread
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 slices Monterrey jack peppercorn cheese
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey barbecue sauce
• 1 jalapeño pepper
• 1/2 small onion
• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Cooking Directions

1. Clean ground beef and add to bowl, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
2. Chop jalapeño pepper into fine little bits and add to ground beef, then add olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, and honey barbecue sauce then use hands to mesh all ingredients together
3. On a plate, create flat patties of the ground beef from bowl and then cover with plastic wrap (refrigerate if not planning on cooking the burgers immediately)
4. Cut ciabatta into 4 quarter pieces that can be sliced and made into hamburger rolls
5. For sweet potatoes, clean and use a large butcher knife to cut potatoes into thick strips (be careful doing so and use a cutting board and appropriate safety precautions as potato can be difficult to cut into)
6. Place thick strips onto a large plate or cooking sheet and sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, and thyme
7. Fill 1 chimney starter with lump hardwood charcoal and mesquite wood chunks (not soaked), then ignite with paper towel dressed olive oil under starter
8. Once wood charcoal turns grey, add to grill pit
9. Take 1/2 onion and use tong fork to dress grates, sliding back and forth until almost burned (you can even leave the onion to continue to cook on the grill as a topping)
10. Add jalapeño, honey bbq sauce burgers to grill and sear over high heat zone for 2-3 minutes per side, then move to a medium-heat zone and let cook for 10 minutes per side for medium well-to-well done (6-8 minutes for medium rare-to-medium)
11. Add sweet potato steak fries onto grates and cook 5-7 minutes per side over high heat or until fries begin to darken (obviously before they turn black and burn)
12. Then move sweet potato fries to medium zone to cook for another 5 minutes per side
13. Once burgers are almost done, add Monterrey peppercorn jack cheese until it begins to melt and place sliced ciabatta bread on grill to provide a nice crunchy texture (2 minutes)
14. Remove jalapeño, honey barbecue sauce cheeseburgers and place in ciabbata rolls (add any additional condiments that you desire) and remove sweet potato steak fries and dress lightly with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper
15. Ready to serve!