Bacon Cheddar Cheese Stuffed Burgers Recipe - {Plays Well With Butter} (2024)

Would the PWWB Grilling Series really be complete without the most amazing (& foolproof!!) homemade bacon cheeseburger you’ve ever had?? Obviously not, so that’s exactly what we’re doing today. & I honestly couldn’t be more excited.

{ICYMI: Plays Well With Butter isallabout helping you find the confidence to really own your spot behind the grill this summer! You can learn more about our grilling series here.

The backstory (…& things are about to get a little controversial!): in all honesty, this bacon cheddar burger recipe began as a mission to create a juicy lucy burger I’d actually like.

If you’re wondering what a juicy lucy is, it’s a burger with cheese stuffed in the middle. They’re extreeemely popular here in Minnesota, but I think I’m the only Minnesotan who really just doesn’t get the hype. You order a juicy lucy expecting the most outrageously ooey, gooey cheeseburger you’ve ever had in your life, with perfectly melty cheese oozing into every single bite. Sounds amazing, right?

In reality, though, all that gooey cheese somehow disappears! The cheese squirts out after you take your first bite, leaving you with a hamburger that’s miraculously both tough & greasy at the same time. & Also! There’s a giant hole in the middle of it. Um…no thanks.

After trying to make (several) juicy lucy-esque burgers for PWWB, I realized it’s SO much better to simply mix the ingredients together into the patty rather than wrapping the burger patty around a hunk of cheese. The texture of the burger itself ends up beingso much better, there’s no fussiness involved in forming the patties, & there’s a 0% chance that your burger will explode on the grill (which, unfortunately, is a thing when you juicy lucy).

So, by happy accident, that’s exactly how we got here. Bacon Cheddar Cheese Stuffed burgers: the BEST burgers i’ve ever made!

Bacon cheddar cheese stuffed burgers:

The easiest 5-ingredient bacon cheeseburgers, every single bite oozing with gooey, melty cheese & juicy, smoky bacon. Seriously, what more could you want?!

I’m seriously so obsessed with these burgers, & I think the main reason I love them so much is because, really, they’re so simple to make, but MAN, all of the flavors come together SO well. Serious flavor bomb!

Rather than topping these burgers off with a couple of slices of cheese & bacon, you mix some grated cheddar & parcooked bacon bits right into the burger meat (along with my super secret burger ingredient – more on that in a sec!). The bacon bits render into the burger from the inside out, infusing the burgers with smoky bacon flavor & so much extra juiciness. OMG. It’s so good! & that cheese? It melts right into the burger, creating ooey, gooey puddles of cheese in every single bite.

It’s everything I’ve ever wanted out of a juicy lucy burger, with the added benefit that they’re so much easier to make & so much more cost-effective than going out to a fancy burger joint for $15 burgers. Bacocheddarburgers = weeknight dinner magic. ✨

(& I mean…you could still totally top them off with a couple of slices of cheese & bacon. No one here is gonna judge!)

How to make this bacon cheddar cheese stuffed burgers recipe:

These bacon cheddar burgers come together in 3 seriously easy steps:

1. Parcook the bacon. We want the fat to render, but it doesn’t need to cook completely as it will finish cooking in the burgers. You can do this up to 3 days in advance if you’re trying to meal prep!
2. Form the bacon burger patties: add all five ingredients to a mixing bowl, & mix it all together! You want to evenly disperse the ingredients, but don’t overmix the meat, since that’ll result in a tough burger. Form the mixture into 4 patties (I have more deets on exactly how I like to do that below!). Again, if you’re into meal prepping or you’re prepping for a big summer party you can form your patties up to 3 days in advance. & You’re ready to hit the grill!
3. Grill the burgers over direct heat, 3 minutes per side.

So easy, right??

5 tips for making the best grilled burgers:

Grilling up burgers isn’t exactly hard, but there is definitely some technique involved in grilling up agood burger, like the kind of burger you’d order at a restaurant. Here are a few of my favorite “better burger” tips & secrets!

1. Use high-quality beef with good fat content:while I always grab leaner ground meat for my everyday cooking, when it comes to burgers you really want burger meat with a good meat:fat ratio. It’s what makes the burgers so juicy! I like 85%/15% for these bacon cheddar burgers because the bacon inside the burger patties also adds a little extra juciness.
2. & Make sure it’s room temperature! Room temp beef is a lot easier to work with & grills much more evenly than cold ground beef. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to start grilling up dinner, simply pull your ground beef from the fridge to give it the chance to come up to room temp. Easy!
3. Worcestershire sauce. This is my secret ingredient for any homemade burgers! It adds such richness & depth of flavor to the ground beef, & somehow makes it taste even beefier. Sounds crazy, I know, but it’s a thing & it’s so, so good.
4. A burger press. You can read more about this below, I feel really strongly about using one!
5. & Please, please, please, do not press down on your burgers while they grill!I don’t know why there’s such a tendency to press down on burger patties with a spatula while they’re on the grill, but DANG the temptation is real & you gotta do your best to avoid it. By pressing down on the burgers while they cook, you’re actually pushing out all of their juices! It almost guarantees that your burgers will end up dry, & is there anything sadder than a dry little hockey puck of a burger?

How to make the best burger patty:

If you want to make the best burger patty, you’ve got to use a burger press or ring mold to form them!

I’m so not the type of person who believes in having tons of single-use kitchen gadgets lying around, but a burger press or ring mold will take your homemade burger game to the next level. You can press the burger patties more compactly, resulting in restaurant-quality texture and the best grilled burgers. I absolutely swear by it!

Toppings for bacon cheddar cheese stuffed burgers recipe:

Bacon cheddar cheese stuffed burgers are so good they don’t need much, so I stick with the classics when it comes to toppings. Here are some of my favorite apps, snacks, and side dish recipes to serve on the side!

• toasted hamburger buns
• leafy lettuce
• sliced tomato
• sliced onion
• ketchup
• mustard
• or…chipotle mayo!

I love that leafy lettuce adds some freshness & crunch in every bite, & there really isn’t anything better than a couple of juicy summer tomatoes on a grilled burger!

If you want to take things to the next level, toast up your burger buns in the little bit of rendered fat from parcooking the bacon & schmear ’em with some chipotle mayo. This is the kind I’m obsessed with, but you can easily make some homemade by stirring minced chipotle pepper & a little lime juice into your fave mayo. The smokiness of the chipotles complement the smokiness of the grilled bacon burgersso well, plus the little bit of mayo adds a nice creamy, cool element to these burgers.

It’s pretty much summertime perfection, if you ask me!

Be sure to give this Bacon Cheddar Cheese Stuffed Burgers recipe a try soon, & leave a comment &/or give this recipe a rating below whenever you do! & of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Above all, I love hearing from you & looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my absolute favorite thing.

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