Don’t spend money on a packaged spice blend for burgers. Mix your own.
One of my family’s favorite meals to BBQ is hamburgers. It’s so unbelievably good; I don’t know why I don’t do it more often.
Probably because good quality ground beef is expensive!
Since that whole pink slime debacle, I’ve been a little more careful about what beef I buy. This means I pay a slightly higher price than I use to. That means we don’t have burgers too often.
But, they sure do love it.
Years ago, I started making my own hamburger buns because it was cheaper and tastier than buying storebought. While the kids will certainly eat any old bun, they love the homemade ones and so do I. There really is no better.
And if you make them in fancy shapes, well, so much the better.
I ran out of sesame seeds, but obviously, you can get all fancy. I brushed the rolls with half and half before baking which gave them a lovely finish.
Often I do something really simple like seasoning the burgers with salt and pepper. I’ve also stuffed the meat mixture with chopped greens that my kids devoured, like these Popeye Burgers. Last week I mixed up a spice blend that I coated the burgers with. Everyone loved it. FishBoy10 raved quite enthusiastically about them; he’s ready for Food Network the way he talks about food.
This seasoning is a cheap and easy way for you to bring flavor to your burgers. Store any leftover spice blend in the cupboard to use on other meats.
Simple Hamburger Spice
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/8 to 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the seasonings.
- Coat hamburger patties generously prior to grilling.
- Store leftover spice mix in a closed container.
Rachel says
This all looks so good, now I know what I want to eat on Mother’s Day. Do you have the bun recipe posted somewhere? I did a recipe search but didn’t find it. The hamburger buns look delicious.
Jessica Fisher says
Here it is! https://goodcheapeats.com/2009/07/homemade-hot-dog-buns/
Ellen says
It’s up now. Thanks for the link….
Kathy says
We LOVE simple grilled hamburgers cooked on a charcoal grill. We use salt and pepper most times but I need to try and change up the spices we use. We buy our hamburger from a local locker plant. They have not pink slime, guarantee all the meat is raised in our county, and since we buy a side at a time it is cheaper than cheap hamburger at the store. There have been a few sales that were cheaper, but way less quality.
Jessica Fisher says
I would love to find a good source of meat. How great that you found one!