We all love a good juicy burger from time to time; piled high with our choice of favorite toppings…Sublime! Bean burgers, turkey burgers, grass fed Angus and the like. However, what do fast food chains put into their burgers to make them “fast?” Perish the thought!

Food is meant to be presented in its most natural state, correct? Mass production does not make friends with the masses on any level, for the most part…simply makes it “quick.” However, at what cost? Mostly bland or altered flavor, in my opinion. Solution! Make your own at home! The way the franchise founding fathers intended! Here’s my version of one of America’s most popular fast food classics. The taste? It’s how it was meant to be…

a little history...

In 1954, in Miami, Florida, James McLamore and David Edgerton built the first Burger King Restaurant. By 1991 more than 6,400 Burger King Stores could be found in forty countries and all fifty states. Making BK the country’s second -largest fast-food chain with McDonalds being the largest

For many, their favorite menu item is a flame-broiled hamburger conceived by the partners on a business trip from Orlando to Miami in 1957. Dubbed the “Whopper,” this sandwich is overwhelmingly popular; it is said that Burger King sells more that 540 million annually and with more than 1,023 different combinations of the eight-or-so ingredients, including a vegetarian version, you really can “have it your way.”

Here’s the Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 large sesame-seed hamburger bun

1/4 pound ground beef

A sprinkle of salt

3 dill pickle slices

1 teaspoon catsup

3 to 4 onion rings (or raw onion slices–I don’t remember the onion rings, but this sounds great!)

2 tomato slices

1/4 cup chopped lettuce

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

2 slices of American cheese if you want a “Whopper with Cheese”

Directions:

Preheat a barbecue grill on high.

Toast both halves of the bun, face down, in a hot skillet. Set aside.

Form the beef into a thin patty slightly larger than the bun.

Lightly salt the hamburger patty and cook on the barbecue grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Build & Stack from the bottom up in this order:

bottom bun

hamburger patty (add cheese slices if using)

pickles

catsup

onion rings

tomatoes

lettuce

mayonnaise

top bun

Serves 1 & 640 calories respectively 

burger king photo source: topsecretrecipes