One of my attempts at creating a Chipotle Butter Burger using 95/5 grass-fed ground beef. This one came out too dry. The applewood smoked gouda cheese on top helped to salvage this dinner.

It’s grilling season, which means it’s time to experiment and create the most awesome, badass burger. Last year we couldn’t get enough of the guacamole burger (guacamole was inside the burger!). This year I’m working with 2 key ingredients – chipotle peppers and butter.

Oh yeah! My own butter burger.

My first couple of attempts didn’t work out as planned. Either there was too much fat in the ground beef (I use 73% or 80%) or too little (93% and 95% don’t have much flavor to me).

Too much fat (I can’t believe this low carber is typing “too much fat!”) triggers lots of flare-ups on the grill. The meat ended up as tough as a hockey puck. Yuck!

Too little and it taste like cardboard.

Maybe when I hit the sweet spot I should call it the Goldilocks Burger. Heh! 

Yep, I’m adding butter, chipotle peppers and raw onion to my ground beef in the hunt for this summer’s perfect grilled burger.

This weekend I’m adding a 3^rd key ingredient: the first cut chuck blade roast. The first cut includes a lot of the “eye” muscle from the rib steak. The grinding includes different cuts of cow and has a wonderful flavor. Unfortunately my go to grocery store rarely carries it. But yesterday I did spot it at Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as I like to call them) when picking up some pork belly.

So this weekend I do battle in my kitchen. This summer’s perfect burger is at hand. I can almost taste it now.