Patti and I have set one night a week just for us. It’s our date night. We usually put something special on our Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, but sometimes we cook inside. We always eat outside on our patio where it is very comfortable with a rainforest theme. Wood burning stove, little lights, candles, lanterns and surround sound. We enjoy a little wine, or strawberry margaritas using frozen strawberries for ice, good food, music and sometimes a dance or two…
We saw the Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings on Facebook and had to have a closer look. The original recipe was by John Thomas of Grilling 24×7, http://www.grilling24x7.com/oring.shtml. My first thought was “What a great burger topper”! So, here is our take on these and a great burger. You’ll see that I made some changes to fit in with what I had in mind. So, we made these for our Date Night and filled them with sautéed garlicky mushrooms. We call them Bacon Rings, what a treat.
Bacon Ring Burger
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: Smoke 1 hour @ 225 degrees (107c) Grill 12 minutes @ 350 degrees (174c)
Grill: Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill
Pellets: Green Mountain Premium Gold Blend
Ingredients: Bacon Ring Burger
- 2 ½ lbs hamburger 80/20
- 1 ½ tsp coarse ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp. GMG Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Rub
- Provolone Cheese
- Condiments of choice
Ingredients: Mushrooms
- ¾ lbs baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 1 Tbsp. minced fresh garlic
- 3 Tbsp. shallots or green onions, sliced
Ingredients: Bacon Rings
- 5 large sweet onion slices
- 1 lb. bacon
- ½ cup Country Bob’s Apple Chipotle Sauce
- GMG Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Rub
- toothpicks
Make your Burgers and Put Them in the Refrigerator
Directions: Bacon Ring Burger
Mix your seasonings together with the hamburger and make your patties. We made 5 out of 2 ½ pounds. Then, place them in the refrigerator. (Burgers hold together better if they go on the grill cold) Sauté the mushrooms and shallots in the butter and set them aside. Put them on the grill when the burgers go on to heat up.
Sauté the Mushrooms and Shallots
Coat the onion rings with the Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce and season with the Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Rub. Wrap each onion ring with 3 strips of bacon and secure with your toothpicks. Yes, 3 strips of bacon. I smoked these for an hour at 225 degrees (107c). Pull them off the grill and turn it up to 350 degrees (174c) for the burgers. We put the burgers on for 6 minutes a side with a quarter turn at 3 minutes. Top with cheese and bacon ring. Then, fill the bacon ring with the mushrooms.
Sauce and Season
Wrap Onion with Bacon
On Our Grill Grates
Cooking Directions: Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill
To prepare the grill for cooking, check your pellet supply – top off or change flavors as needed. Scrape grill grates off. Set the temperature to 450 degrees and press the “Start” button. Give the grill about 15 minutes to reach temperature and the grates to burn clean.
Note: You can set the start temperature anywhere you want. I do 450 (230c) for a quick cleaning burn.
Ready for the Cheese
I like to smoke everything for at least 30 minutes with an hour being even better. After all the Green Mountain wood pellet grill is a awesome smoker so use it for all the wood smoke flavor it will add to your food.
So after the grill comes up to temp and burns clean turn it back down to 225 degrees (107c). Place the bacon wrapped onion rings directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for an hour or so. This is referred to as “Smoking” or “Hot Smoking”, the temperature is 225 degrees (107c).
After an hour, turn the (Temperature Control) up to 350 degrees (174c) and pull the Bacon wrapped onion rings off the grill. When the grill comes up to temperature put your meat back onto the grill. I did this for 3 minutes per side. The burgers I did for 6 minutes aside with a quarter turn at 3 minutes. Top with cheese and bacon ring. Then fill the bacon ring with the mushrooms. Perfect.
U.S.D.A. recommends an internal temp of 165 degrees (74c). We use a Maverick ProTemp Instant Read Thermometer for checking meat temps.
Looking Good
Fill with Mushrooms
Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need to follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees (122c), anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.
About our Recipes
The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.
Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste. Take it and run with it….
