This special caesar salad burger is like a salad on a bun, but way, way better! Lean ground beef is seasoned with Parmesan, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce, then cooked and served on a bed of lettuce tossed with a homemade cream Caesar sauce and topped with more delicious sauce, all on a crouton-style bun!
In my recent recipe review session, one for a Caesar salad burger caught my attention, only to lead to disappointment when the “recipe” was to add Caesar dressing to a burger. Since I was intrigued, I used my Google-Fu to see what other recipes were out there. Most of them were the same: just put Caesar dressing on a burger.
Then I saw this post about a Caesar salad burger that made Caesar mayo, but, again, it was just dressing on a plain burger. So I got to thinking about how I would do a Caesar burger, and this is what I came up with.
First, a Caesar burger should have a Caesar salad on the bun, not just sauce and lettuce. Second, the burger patty should have that same lip-smacking twang as the dressing but be more subtle to complement the sauce, not overpower it. I also think a dressing is too thin and will become messy when heated by the burger patty, so it should be more of a sauce.
I started by adapting my Caesar salad dressing into a thicker sauce by substituting sour cream for the egg and olive oil. This doesn’t have the anchovy, but I think it still has the flavor of a classic Caesar.
The sauce still got deliciously drippy once it warmed up, but it was still controllable. I knew it was good when Mr. O and I didn’t say anything other than yummy noises while eating these. So I had one for breakfast the next day, which was still just as tasty.
Special Caesar Salad Burger Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 4 teaspoons garlic - minced and divided
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper - divided, and more to taste
- 1⅓ pound ground beef (minced beef) - lean
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese - freshly grated, divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder - to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, ¼ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of black pepper, and ⅛ teaspoon of cayenne. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, gently mix the ground beef, ½ cup of Parmesan, the remaining 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, the remaining 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, remaining ½ teaspoon of black pepper, and the remaining ⅛ teaspoon of cayenne. Shape into 4 ¾-inch thick patties.
- Let set while heating a large nonstick skillet or griddle over med-high heat.
- Cook the burgers on one side for 5 to 6 minutes, then flip, cooking 4 to 5 minutes more.
- While the burgers cook, split the buns in half and brush each half with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and bake on a rimmed baking sheet for 5 to 7 minutes until just starting to brown. Remove from the oven.
- Toss the lettuce with ½ of the sauce and the remaining ½ cup of Parmesan.
- On the bottom halves of each bun, pile on a handful of the dressed lettuce (you will like to have lettuce leftover) and top with a burger patty. Spoon on some of the remaining sauce and add the bun tops.