Garlic Potato Chip Stacked Bacon Burger

The title of this recipe is a mouthful, literally, and boy was it ever delicious. I came up with this idea for a burger for a couple of reasons. One, and probably most importantly, is that my oldest kid has some interesting eating habits. For instance whenever I order out sandwiches from Jimmy John’s, he will order a plain sub, just ham and bread, and yes, they always give me that look and ask, ‘really, just plain ham and bread?”, and when I bring it home, he takes off the ham and just eats that, then loads up his plain sub roll with the bag of chips and has a chip sandwich.

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Don’t get me wrong, a chip sandwich on its own is pretty darn awesome, but as I am always trying to get my kids to try new things, I thought I would take his idea of a chip sandwich and convert that into one of his favorite burgers. Yes, his favorite burger is a plain burger, stacked with bacon. No cheese. No condiments. No nothing.

So this led me to make this really awesome burger creation, and sure, I loaded mine up differently than I did my oldest child, and my middle son, but what did shine besides the delicious burger was the crisp, yet tender, homemade garlic chips.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 3 large russet potatoes, cleaned, skin on
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed
• Ground chuck, made into your preferred size burger patty
• Generous amount of salt
• Generous amount of cracked black pepper
• Thick cut bacon, cooked, bacon grease reserved
• Thick style burger buns, proportionate to your patty, and thick enough to trap any juices
• Carmelized onions, optional
• 2 slices of American cheese, per burger

If you have a mandoline (highly recommend if you do not have one), use it, and set it to about a 1/4 inch thick. If you do not have one, don’t worry. This will give you an opportunity to work with your knife skills. The point is slice the potato lengthwise, so use a very long knife, a knife longer than your potato, cutting into about 1/4 inch thick. Keep the skin on. I’m a big believer in skin on. Add all of your slices to a large bowl, and cover with cold water as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

As the potato slices soak, cook your bacon in a large cast iron skillet. Add the garlic to a skillet and add in the oil. Cook on medium to low heat, being gentle to not burn the garlic. Your goal is to extract the great garlic flavor into the oil. After about 10 minutes, remove the garlic cloves and discard, and turn off the heat. Your bacon should be finishing up now, so once it is cooked, remove to a paper lined plate to drain any oil. Turn the heat off of the bacon skillet as well, but reserve the bacon fat. Yes, we are going to cook the burgers in the fat.

Caramelize your onions if you are using them.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Drain the water from the potatoes and lay them on a large towel. Cover with another towel and gently pat them to dry. Next, add a wire rack onto a large cookie sheet. If you do not have a wire wrack, don’t worry. Use parchment paper instead. Brush the garlic oil on both sides of the potato slices, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place in the oven to cook for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, and maybe even 10 minutes into the cooking, take a peak on them. The last thing you want are burnt chips. Flip over, then raise the heat to 400 degrees, cooking for another 10 minutes of so, and once again, keeping your eye on them. If some are cooking faster than others, remove them from the oven and place on a plate. Continue until all of the chips are done.

Next, make your patties. I like to mix a small bowl of salt and pepper together, then generously sprinkle a plate with the mixture. Once my patty is made, I can set it onto the plate, absorbing the salt and pepper, then season the top. I’m always generous when it comes to seasoning the top and bottom as it helps build a nice crust, which I really love.

Bring the bacon fat up to a medium to high heat. Add in your burger patty(s) and cover with a splatter screen if you have one. Cook to your desired doneness, flipping on both sides. I prefer a medium on my burgers. Before you reach your doneness, add bacon slices, caramelized onions, then top with the cheese. The cheese will begin to melt down, covering the onions and bacon for another added surprise.

Before serving, slice your buns, and add into the warm oven. To plate, add the cheeseburger to the bottom bun, and stack with a handful of the homemade garlic chips, then top with the top bun.

This burger will grab your attention, and those around you. It is stacked with perfection. With both hands, grab that burger, give a light squeeze, and wrap your mouth around it. Crunchy and garlicky from the chips, then the really juicy burger along with the smokey sweetness from the bacon and onions, really complete the burger. Super great, and now I am glad my kid opened my eyes to a chip sandwich. Who knew? The big question is, which is better the pretzel burger, the cheese crisp burger, or this bad boy? Hope you enjoy.