I interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you the best burger ever. I have been so excited to share the rest of my dinner party menu, and don’t worry I will come back to that tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait to share this burger recipe with you. We had these for dinner last night and they were amaze-pants!!!

I have been thinking about burgers a lot lately. After all, they are my husband’s favorite food group. And it’s long been a favorite for cooking show competitions, taken on recently by Food Network Star and my beloved Master Chef. Plus I’m sure you are all getting ready for summer BBQs and Forth of July Parties (yes we will still find an excuse to celebrate America’s independence here in London, as sacrilege as that may be). The key to these cooking challenges, as with feeding friends and family, is being crowd friendly but not safe and boring. So I decided to make a play on a bacon cheeseburger by making an oniony bacon spread, a marmalade if you will, to top a classic beef burger.

To start, I crisp up some of the bacon then add the rest so that the fats slowly cook out while caramelizing the onions.

Then adding tomato paste and brown sugar to make a glaze, plus bourbon to deglaze and sherry vinegar for acidity. Just simmer until it becomes sticky and salty and the best burger topping EVER!

Of course you also have to have the burger. For mine I use a lean ground beef with salt, pepper, and steak seasoning, grilled to medium. By the way, we really need to get our act together and get our outdoor grill fixed. The smoke alarm in our house has been going off on a nightly basis lately.

Melting some cheddar on top of the bacon marmalade on top of the burgers helps hold everything together.

Then I serve these burgers up with some fries and a cucumber tomato salad for a great BBQ!

Cheddar Cheeseburgers with Bacon Marmalade

Makes 6 burgers

2 lbs. ground beef

1 tsp. steak seasoning

6 slices sharp cheddar cheese

Bacon marmalade, recipe follows

6 hamburger buns, toasted

Heat a grill or grill pan. Preheat the broiler of your oven.

Sprinkle the ground beef with steak seasoning, salt and cracked black pepper. Form the beef into 6 burger patties (1/2-inch-thick). Grill until desired level of doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium.

Place each burger on a baking sheet and top with bacon marmalade and a slice of cheddar cheese. Place under broiler for about 2 minutes until the cheese has melted. Serve on the toasted hamburger buns.

Bacon Marmalade

10 oz. smoked streaky bacon

1 tsp. olive oil

2 red onions, diced

3 Tbs. tomato paste

3 Tbs. brown sugar

3 Tbs. bourbon

2 Tbs. sherry vinegar

Cut the bacon into ½ inch pieces. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add half the bacon and crisp for 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the remaining bacon and the onions. Continue to cook over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the tomato paste and brown sugar cooking for 3 minutes until a glaze starts to form. Deglaze the pan with the bourbon, add the vinegar and bring to a very low simmer for 5-10 minutes until the bacon becomes very syrupy but before the liquid cooks off.