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Ground Pork patties smashed onto a hot, flat-top griddle, simply seasoned and then fried to get those crispy edges. While cooking, the ground pork smash burgers are infused with fresh onion. We top with cheese and all the typical accouterments to make one of the best damn burgers you will ever try. Scroll down for the onion trick alone.
I absolutely LOVE burgers. And ever since I got the flat top on the back deck, we make smash burgers a lot. This got me thinking about an event at the American Royal about 10 years ago sponsored by one of the major pork vendors. I met a chef there named Jean-Paul Bourgeois who was making these amazing pork smash burgers. It was one of the best burgers of my life.
I remember him telling me about how he chose the blend for the grind with three different components from the pig. Jowl being one of them. And while I love jowl (check out my JLT recipe), I couldn’t remember the other two nor the percentages of each. I’ve stayed in touch with Jean-Paul and probably should’ve just reached out and asked, but I didn’t and thus never recreated the pork burger until the day I smashed these beauties out onto my griddle. I also smashed multiples after I got done cooking, if you get my meaning.
I found out that ground pork smash burgers are amazing, even with just bulk sausage from my grocery store. Not the ground breakfast sausage – bulk ground pork. We want to control the seasoning.
And while I’m sure more than a few of you are thinking, “Yeah, if I don’t have any other options, I’ll settle for pork burgers.” If you ever taste these, you won’t be thinking, “I’d still rather have a beef burger.” You’re going to be thinking, “Who needs beef burgers?” Seriously.
Also, full disclosure, this recipe is sponsored by the Missouri Pork Producers Association. I’m so glad they did. Because these burgs were a HUGE hit with my family and we will be doing these again because we saved about 30% buying ground pork over 80/20 ground beef.
Think I’m kidding. Here’s the pork I bought:
Right next to the ground pork was the typical beef that I buy when making smash burgers:
And take a close up look at this finished product:
OK then, let’s get started.
Ground Pork Smash Burgers Ingredients
- 3 lbs ground pork
- Olive oil
- 1 onion, sliced thin
- Salt, pepper, garlic seasoning (SPG)
- Cheese
- Cheeseburger accouterments
Other Gear Needed
- Flat edge spatula
- Burger patty papers
- Burger press
I bought the pork in one-pound packages. Which makes it fairly easy to make into 4-ounce portions:
Slice the pound of pork straight down the middle both vertically and horizontally. Then form each portion into a ball:
Crank up the grill to north of 450F.
While the flat top is warming up, slice some onions:
Once the griddle is hot, drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle a little onion:
The Onion Trick
The onion will infuse flavor into the meat as the slices of onions sizzle between the pork and the cast-iron griddle. As the onions cook, they will release their delicious oils. Those oils will go straight into the ground meat and thus, punch a ticket to Flavortown.
Time to Grill Up Some Smash Burgers
Let’s get at it.
Leave the patty paper on the pork. Now grab that patty smasher and give it a squish:
Leave the patty paper on, which makes it easier to extricate the smasher from the patty. Once it is flattened out, slide the patty smasher to the side and it will release the patty from its grip.
Is Ground Pork Leaner than Beef?
When I make smash burgers with an 80/20 beef blend, I have to leave the patty paper for 90-120 seconds to keep the burgers from shrinking back up. These pork patties don’t shrink up. In fact, they are far leaner than that 80/20 blend. So much so, I don’t have to put any oil down for ground beef. I didn’t with my first batch of these and the onions burnt before the pork browned and released from the griddle. I had to work hard to scrape them off the griddle.
When I make 80/20 beef smash burgers, I have to leave the patty paper on after smashing to keep the thin burgers from constricting and thickening back up. With this ground pork, the patties didn’t constrict and thicken at all.
So for those thinking these are fattier than beef, I would argue they are leaner than 80/20 beef.
Now, back to the recipe.
For round 2, I added the oil to the griddle and my onions came out great and my burgs released easily from the hot metal
After flipping, sprinkle the tops of those ground pork patties with some SPG seasoning:
Once the smash burgers are browned nicely on the bottom, use that flat edge spatula to flip them:
Toast up some buns and and add your cheese to the patties. While the cheese melts, the buns will toast:
Time to assemble the ground pork smash burgers.
I went with a triple decker with Sriracha mayo, red (and yellow) tomato, and lettuce on toasty buns. Because who doesn’t love toasty buns?
I’ll show this again. Is this pork or beef?
One last pic other than what is down below the recipe card:
Ground Pork Smash Burgers Breakdown
My kids mowed these down. And I mean mowed them down. I made 12 patties and had zero left. I sliced that triple burg in half and my 10 year old jumped all over it. While I could type a novel raving about these, they say a picture is worth a thousand words:
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Smash Burgers Recipe Card
Ground Pork Smash Burgers
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Ground pork Enough to make 12 patties
- Olive oil
- 1 onion Sliced thin
- Salt, pepper, garlic seasoning
- Burger buns
- Sliced cheese
- Your favorite burger accouterments
Instructions
- Crank up the flat top griddle to 450F.
- While the grill heats up, separate out the ground pork into 4 ounce portions. Also, carve an onion into thin slices
- Once the griddle is up to temp, drizzle a little olive oil down and spread it around with the back of the spatula. Lay down a few slices of onion, and pick up a 4-ounce portion of ground pork with a sheet of patty paper. Place the ground pork directly over the slices of onion, leaving the patty paper on top of the meat. Smash the pork down with a patty smasher and slide it back leaving the patty and the paper. Pull the patty paper off and season the top of the burger with SPG seasoning. Repeat this process for as many smash burgers you planning on doing this round.
- Once the ground pork patty is nicely browned, flip over and season on the other side. Once it browns on the other side, add cheese to melt. While cheese is melting, toast the cut side of the buns.
- Once the cheese has melted and the buns are toasty, assemble your ground pork smash burgers.
Video
Extra pics
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