Smoky Honey Apple BBQ Sauce Burgers

We love a good burger, but we don’t love them made traditionally with the common toppings of ketchup, mustard, pickles, mayo, cheese and relish. We love ours with our homemade smoky honey apple barbeque sauce.

We also love our burgers to be made with a quality ground chuck beef that contains about 20 percent fat so they stay meaty. Choosing the right bun is also important and we always choose brioche ones because they are buttery, soft and airy.

What ingredients are necessary for making the burgers?

Ground Chuck Beef: To make the burgers, again you will need some quality ground chuck beef with about 20 percent fat. You can find beef like this at butcher shops or whole food grocery stores.

You will want about two to three pounds of the beef, or premade ground chuck patties. We usually get the premade ground chuck patties because they seem to remain nice a thick and full of juicy flavor.

If you do want to make the burger patties yourself simply cut the ground chuck beef into four equal sections and press and shape each section into burgers.

Next, you will want to cook these beef patties on a cast iron skillet pan or grill for about 7 to 10 minutes per side.

You can also sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper onto the burger to add a bit of flavor, but the sauce we are going to make and use on them will add plenty of flavor.

Sweet Yellow Onions: Another ingredient you will need to make these burgers is two large finely sliced up sweet onions. Once you have these onions sliced up you are going to want to sauté them in a tablespoon of butter in a pan on top of the stove on high heat until they are caramelized. This process takes about 10 minutes.

After, just remove the pan of caramelized onions from the stovetop until you are ready to put the burgers together.

Brioche Hamburger Buns: Again, the best hamburger buns to use with these burgers are brioche hamburger buns because of their soft airy texture and buttery flavor.

You can find these types of buns at any bakery, but if you aren’t a fan of these kinds of buns you can use whatever kind of hamburger buns you prefer. However, if you do get the brioche hamburger buns you will want to slightly toast them so they don’t become soggy fast when the juicy burgers and sauce hit them.

Smokey Honey Apple BBQ Sauce: There is nothing better on top of a burger than the homemade smoky honey apple BBQ sauce.

To make it you will need about a cup of ketchup, teaspoon of onion powder, teaspoon of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon of cumin, tablespoon of chili powder, ½ cup of honey, ½ cup of brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon of allspice, ¼ cup of apple cider, and a teaspoon of salt.

Once you have all these ingredients you place them into a saucepan and bring them to a bubbly on medium to high heat. Once the sauce becomes bubbly the sugar should be dissolved and the sauce will be infused with all the spices and flavors you have put into it.

You can adjust the flavor of the sauce by adding more of the ingredients you desire to have in it, but we love ours sweet and full of apple flavor.

Anyways, once the sauce reaches a bubbling point remove it from the stovetop burner quickly and allow it to cool right in the pan it is in for about 30 minutes.

After, you can carefully pour the sauce into a jar so it is easier to serve up.

How do you assemble the smoky honey apple BBQ sauce burger?

1. Slice open the buns and toss the cooked ground chuck burgers onto the bottom buns.
2. Top eat burger with some sautéed onions and smoky honey apple BBQ sauce.
3. Place the top of the buns onto the burgers and eat them up for a tasty meal with some of your favorite side dishes. Our favorites are steak fries or onion rings. Sometimes we just do a dill pickle. You could do potato salad or pasta salad. Do whatever side dish you fancy.

​
What are some other toppings you can add to these burgers that help add additional tasty flavor? 

Now these burgers with just the caramelized onions and homemade smoky honey apple BBQ sauce taste just amazing like that, but if you do want to jazz them up a bit you could add toppings such as:

• Coleslaw
• Sautéed red or green bell peppers
• Crisp butter lettuce
• Slices of cheese such as swiss, pepper jack or mozzarella
• Thin slices of granny or honey crisp apple
• Slices of crispy bacon

​
Is there a healthier way to make these burgers?

If you want to make these burgers healthier you literally have to switch out the type of meat you use to ground chicken or ground turkey. This will cut calories and make the burgers leaner with less calories and fat.

However, these burgers do taste the best made with beef. You can also cut calories by skipping out of the buns, but seriously what good is a burger without a bun.

If for some reason you do have a gluten allergy go ahead and use a gluten free bun instead, or you just been trying to avoid gluten filled breads use a gluten free one instead.

Just keep in mind the gluten free kind do tend to be stiffer and dryer and this can give the burger a not so great flavor and texture.

With that said, gluten free buns tend to have less calories, which do make the burgers slightly healthier.

What are some end thoughts to keep in mind? 

These smoky honey apple BBQ sauce burgers are great for nights when you are looking for a quick burger meal, or for backyard cookouts where you looking to feed and please a crowd.

You will want to make extra smoky honey apple BBQ sauce because you will find that your friends and love ones will want to dip their burgers in each sauce or other treats you have at the backyard bash as well.

Most importantly, take the time to make these burgers properly and take the time to eat them enjoyable.

You deserve a tasty burger meal that will satisfy your taste buds and your tummy