By Ole & Shaina Olmanson
This one is for the buffalo wings lovers. My husband could put hot sauce on everything, and burgers are no different. Finally, fed up with his hot sauce dumping ways, I challenged him to make a burger where the hot sauce belonged, complete with celery sticks and blue cheese dipping sauce. He complied.
This burger combines all the flavors and sensations that make buffalo wings so popular. The spicy hot sauce (Frank’s Red Hot here) is cooked onto the meat and contrasted by the refreshing crispness of the celery and cooled by the tangy blue cheese.
They keys to making this burger great are a fresh roll, buttered and toasted to perfection, the celery slaw to provide the crunch and the sauce grilled into the meat so that it permeates the flavor. No need to salt this burger. Buffalo sauce has plenty of salt on its own. Finally, a good, homemade blue cheese spread will always trump bottled blue cheese dressing. This one is easy to toss together in a few minutes and worth the extra effort.
Buffalo Burgers with Blue Cheese Sauce and Celery Slaw
For Burgers:
Ingredients
- 1 pound 85/15 ground beef
- 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce like Frank’s Red Hot
- Celery Slaw (Below)
- Blue Cheese Spread (Below)
- 3 onion rolls/buns
- butter
Directions
- Heat grill to around 400 degrees F. Pat hamburger into 1/3-pound burgers. Place burgers on grill. Baste with hot sauce. Grill burgers on medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Flip and baste again. Grill for another three minutes. Flip and baste. Check for doneness. Remove from grill when desired doneness is reached. Allow to rest under a tinfoil tent while you toast the rolls.
- Butter onion rolls liberally. Grill for 2 minutes until lightly toasted. Remove from heat. Place burger on the bun. Top with celery slaw and spread bun with blue cheese spread. Enjoy.
Celery Slaw:
Ingredients
- 4 stalks celery
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
Directions
- Shred celery stalks with cheese grater or food processor with shredding blade attached. Squeeze excess liquid from celery using a paper towel or clean towel.
Blue Cheese Spread:
Ingredients
- 2 heaping tablespoons blue cheese crumbles
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 small clove garlic, minced
- salt and ground pepper
Directions
- Mix together all ingredients. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
