South of the Bayou Burger with Tiger Sauce Glaze, Crispy Onion Straws and Creole Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

Creole Mayonnaise:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp chili sauce
1 tbsp Creole mustard or other coarsely-grained mustard
1 tbsp minced green onion
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Tiger Sauce Glaze:
2/3 cup Try Me Tiger Sauce
2 tbsp Lea & Perrins’ Worchestershire Sauce

Crispy Onion Straws:
1 large Vidalia onion
1 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp Tabasco pepper sauce
2 tbsp creole seasoning
1 cup all purpose flour
4 cups peanut oil

Patties:
2 lbs ground chuck
1/4 lb smoked Andouille sausage or Chorizo sausage (skin discarded)
2 tbsp fresh minced garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Tabasco chipotle pepper sauce
2 tbsp anchovy paste
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tbsp smoked sweet paprika

Vegetable oil for brushing on grill rack
6 quality seeded buns or sandwich rolls, split
6 Romaine lettuce leaves
6 slices pepper jack cheese
6 large tomato slices
12 slices applewood smoked bacon
1/2 cup melted butter

Instructions:

Prepare a medium hot fire in a charcoal grill with a cover or preheat a gas grill to medium high.

To prepare onion straws, add buttermilk, Tabasco sauce, and 1 tbsp creole seasoning in bowl. Cut Vidalia onion in half and then slice each half very thin. Add to buttermilk mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate. In another bowl, add flour and 1 tbsp creole seasoning and mix well together. Set aside.

To make the creole mayonnaise, add together in a small bowl the mayonnaise, chili sauce, creole mustard, green onion and cayenne pepper. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate.

To make the Tiger Sauce glaze add Try Me Tiger Sauce and Lea & Perrins’ Worchestershire sauce in bowl and set aside.

To make the patties, cut the sausage into 1″ pieces and chop finely in food processor. Add sausage to ground beef along with the rest of the patty ingredients. Mix together, handling meat mixture as little as possible. Form into six equal patties. Cover and refrigerate.

Heat a heavy nonstick fireproof skillet on the grill. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Wrap in foil to keep warm. Clean skillet and prepare to use for frying onion straws.

To cook onion straws, add oil to the heavy nonstick fireproof skillet and heat to 375 degrees. Dredge onions into flour. Tap off excess flour and add onions to hot oil. Fry onions, stirring lightly and turning once or twice until golden brown. Remove onions from grease with mesh skimmer and place on paper towels to drain. Wrap loosely in aluminum foil and set aside.

Brush vegetable oil on the grill rack. Place patties on the rack. Cover and cook, turning once and basting each side with glaze. Cook approximately 5 minutes per side or until cooked to preference. During last few minutes of grilling patties, spread bread with melted butter and place cut side down on outer edges of grill rack to toast lightly. Just before removing burgers from grill, add slice of pepper jack cheese to each patty until melted.

To assemble the burgers, spread creole mayonnaise over cut sides of grilled buns. On each bun bottom, place a slice of lettuce, tomato, patty with cheese side up and bacon pieces followed by the onion straws. Add top bun.