Smokey beef sliders
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 8 delicious sliders
Ingredients
For the burger patty:
  • 400g beef mince
  • ½ tsp mild Indian curry powder
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tbsp worchestershire sauce
  • ½ tbsp dijon mustard
  • freshly ground black pepper
To assemble the burgers:
  • 8 slider buns
  • 150g smoked cheddar cheese
  • 8 rashers streaky bacon
  • 8 iceberg lettuce leaves
  • mayonnaise
  • tomato sauce or relish
  • margarine or butter
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients for the burger patties into a large, strong mixing bowl and mix well with your hands. Once combined, pick up the entire mixture and throw it back down in to the bowl with some force. Do this over and over for about 10 minutes until the texture has changed (it will be much smoother than raw mince) and the mixture is holding together well on its own.
  2. Divide the mince into 8 portions and roll into balls. Place the balls on to a sheet of greaseproof paper.Beef sliders
  3. Place another sheet of greaseproof paper of top of the balls and press the balls down gently with your hand. Take a rolling pin and roll it over the top of the second sheet of paper until the balls have formed patties about twice as big as you want them to be when cooked. No matter what I do I can't stop mince shrinking when I cook it...Beef sliders
  4. Next, prep your other burger ingredients:- Slice your slider buns in half horizontally and spread both halves with margarine or butter- Wash the lettuce leaves and give them a spin in a salad spinner or pat dry with paper towels.- Slice the smoked cheddar into 2 slices per slider- Cut each bacon rasher in half
  5. Heat a hot plate or barbecue until hot. Drizzle with a little oil and then cook your burger patties until browned, around 4 minutes on each side. Cook the bacon on the same hot plate until crisp. When the burgers and bacon are cooked, lay two pieces of bacon on top of each burger, then lay two slices of cheese over the bacon. Cook for a few minutes until the cheese begins to melt.
  6. Lightly toast the slider buns - I usually do this on the grill side of the barbecue, it only takes a couple of minutes.
  7. Finally, assemble your burgers. Spread a little tomato sauce or relish on the bottom half of each slider, then top with a burger, bacon and cheese. Lay a lettuce leaf on top. Spread the top half of the slider bun with mayonnaise and top off the burger. Devour.
Notes
I always find when I'm making burgers using beef mince that if I use the best quality mince, and therefore the most expensive, it never has as much beef flavour as I would like. I think its probably because top quality beef mince is very lean and when it comes to meat, the flavour is in the fat. Its a balance between decent meat and flavour so I compromise and use the second best mince available at the butcher, usually topside mince. Its still leaner than really cheap mince but has just enough fat to give the meat a great beefy flavour.

You can make the mince mixture for these yummy little morsels well in advance if you like, and then its just a matter of cooking the burgers so they make a really quick meal. The shaped patties would store well, covered, in the fridge for a couple of days before cooking.
Recipe by The Fare Sage at https://www.thefaresage.com/smokey-beef-sliders/