My wife fell in love with the Tropical Heat smash burger at Sonic. This was my attempt to do it at home. It is, surprisingly, cheaper to make at home. I need to work on the pineapple jalapeno glaze a bit but it’s a very solid burger.
Cost per person: $5.25 using 73/27 ground beef.
I always make that available pawn request. Otherwise multiple times a week I’d be wasting time.
First, you got to wait until the temperature gets in the 50s Fahrenheit. Cold smoke whole bunch of cheese and make sure there’s some pepper jack in there. I recommend applewood and about 2 to 3 hours. Use a smoke tube and pellets so that it is a nice clean smoke. You’re not looking to blacken the cheese. You’re looking to gently touch it with the smoke. Vacuum seal that and don’t touch any of the cheese for at least 2 weeks.
This is what I did for the jalapeno pineapple but it’s not how I would do it again. Mince up some pineapple and jalapeno, seeds included. I went about 50/50 one pepper and one peppers worth of pineapple. Take about a quarter cup of pineapple juice and put it in a pan over medium heat. Reduce until it’s just barely a syrup. Y’all know when this happens because it’s going to go from bubbles like water to bubbles like a sugar. Pour the syrup over the chopped peppers and jalapeno.
In the future I’ll make a chutney and can it up in advance for use later on.
The rest is standard burger assembly.