Smoked Whiskey Burgers

Smoked whiskey burgers are the burgers you have been searching for and have now found. Made with ground chuck roast, topped with some caramelized onion, this mouth watering recipe will leave you looking for more. Without further ado let’s dive into this burger recipe.

Whiskey Burgers Recipe

We are going to start with the whiskey part of this recipe. We are going to take the following ingredients, mix them and then heat over a low simmer until the brown sugar has melted into the liquid. You are going to need the following for the whiskey burger sauce recipe:

  • Whiskey, any name brand you choose but I went with Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey
  • Worchester sauce
  • Minced garlic ( I used minced garlic but you can also go with fresh garlic cloves or powdered garlic. I only usually recommend garlic powder in a pinch)
  • Diced white onion
  • Brown sugar

You are going to take these items and combined into a small sauce pot or cast iron skillet and let them simmer on low. Keep stirring until you get to a point that the brown sugar has dissolved into the rest of the liquid ingredients. After you have reached that point, transfer the contents over to a blender, a small Ninja blender will get the job done. You are then going to blend the ingredients with the intention of chopping the onions and garlic smaller and really getting everything combined. Once that is done, you can put it off to the side while we start on the meat.

Ground Beef For Smoked Whiskey Burgers

For this recipe, I grinded my own beef for the ground beef. I used a chuck roast, that was about 1.75 lbs., which ended up making 5, 5 oz. burgers. I diced up the meat so it could be ground. While dicing it up into chunks, I did take some of the larger pieces of fat out of the chuck. There is already enough marbling and fat in the meat so I felt it was not necessary to include some of the larger pieces of fat. After grinding up the meat, I added the dry ingredients to the meat. You will need the following dry ingredients for the ground beef:

  • salt
  • black pepper
  • FlatIron Hatch Valley pepper flakes
Smoked Whiskey Burgers in the making

In addition to this dry ingredients you will also take the whiskey blend we made earlier and add all of that to the ground beef. You are going to have to get in there with your hands and mix them well together. If it is easier, add the ingredients incrementally and mix together. It should allow for a more even distribution of the ingredients.

Once that is done, we can start forming the burger patties. As I mentioned earlier we will do so in 5 oz. increments. Form however is best, I had a burger mold that I used just to give it some shape but did not do anything crazy. I did not pack the meat to tight when making the patty. Based on how well it comes out, I would recommend you do the same and not pack the burger too tight. Once that is done, put it off to the side. Based on timing, you may need to put it back in the regfrigator.

Caramelized Onion Topping

You will be able to start these onions while the burgers are on the smoker. For the onions you will slice about 3-4 medium sized onions. I suggest doing these in a cast iron skillet. You will want to warm the skillet and cook the onions over medium heat and then you can begin adding the other ingredients. The time to cook these onions is about 45 minutes. Once the cast iron is warmed and ready to go, you will add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and let that warm up.

Once you see the olive oil is warmed, add your onions to the skillet.

You will want to keep stirring this on occasion. After about 10 minutes, add 1 tsp. of salt per onion and 1/2 tsp. of white sugar per onion. After adding, stir it to the onions to mix the salt and sugar in well. Continue to leave the onions on for about a total of 45 minutes. Once you start seeing them turn a golden brown color, with a hint of crisp, you can remove them from the heat.

Caramelized onions just about done and ready to serve

Smoky Whiskey BBQ Burger On A Kettle

So as the heading states, I did this on my Kettle grill. No doubt you can tackle this recipe on your WSM or pellet smoker as well but the Kettle is perfect for these smaller and shorter smokes. We will get the smoker set up for a temperature of 225°, I used some hickory wood and Kingsford briquettes.

Smoked Whiskey Burgers on the Kettle

I tracked the temperature of the Kettle and the burgers with my ThermoPro TP20.

When the Kettle hit the 225° I put the burgers on. We will leave these on for about 45 minutes, until the reach an IT of 135°. Once we hit that IT of 135°, I then moved them, about 2 burgers at a time, over the direct heat of the coals. I then did 2 minutes on each side of the burger over the coals. After the 2 minutes on each side I pulled the burgers.

By now your onions should be ready and you can take your hamburger buns and put your hamburgers together to serve.

Smoked Whiskey Burgers topped with caramelized onions

Smoked Whiskey Burgers Recipe Variations

This recipe calls for the caramelized onions but nothing saying you can’t mix it up either. A couple other suggestions you can add to this burger recipe is, bacon, cheddar cheese or sauteed mushrooms. Any of those would make fantastic compliments to this burger. You could also look at substituting the whiskey for bourbon, I will say I have not done that but it could another variation to the recipe.

If you are looking for some other recipes, here are some suggestions:

Thanks for being here and checking out this Smoked Whiskey Burger recipe. I hope you enjoy it! We always appreciate comments, 5 star recipe ratings and social media shares. As always, keep that smoke rolling!

Smoked Whiskey Burgers

Smoked Whiskey Burgers

Smoked whiskey burgers are the burgers you have been searching for and have now found. Made with ground chuck roast, topped with some caramelized onion, this mouth watering recipe will leave you looking for more. 

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

Whiskey Blend

  • 1/4 cup whiskey
  • 1 tbsp. of minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup of minced onion
  • 1/4 cup of brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp. of Worchester sauce

Caramelized Onions

  • 3-4 medium sized white onions
  • 1 tsp of salt per onion
  • 1/2 tsp. of white sugar per onion
  • 3-4 tbsp. of olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of your skillet

Hamburger Meat

  • 1.5 lbs of chuck roast
  • 1 tsp. of salt
  • 1 tsp. of black pepper
  • 1 tsp. of FlatIron Hatch Valley peppers

Instructions

  1. Dice your chuck roast up and grind the meat. Put aside after having ground it
  2. Combine the ingredients for the whiskey blend and stir until brown sugar has dissolved, over low heat
  3. After brown sugar is dissolved, add combination to a blender and puree. You are likely to still have some pieces of garlic and onion which is fine. Put aside when done.
  4. Start smoker to reach a temperature of 225, using hickory wood.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 605Total Fat: 45gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 32gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 892mgCarbohydrates: 19gFiber: 2gSugar: 13gProtein: 30g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix on 6/29/2022

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