What is an Oklahoma Onion Smashburger?
Oklahoma Onion Burger is the best kind of burger. A burger that was created in about 1926 and sold for 5 cents at a diner on route 66 in El Reno, Oklahoma during the depression, this burger was dubbed the depression burger in the beginning before becoming known as the Oklahoma fried onion burger.
It’s the simplest of burgers and only requires a few ingredients and it is so very tasty. Ground beef seasoned with only salt and topped with a pile of extremely thin sliced sweet onions that are mashed and cooked into the meat. Topped with American cheese, pickles and yellow mustard between two warmed hamburger buns. Since onions were cheap and meat was expensive, a half shredded onion atop a 3 ounce meat patty made the burger look bigger, while adding a tremendous amount of flavor.
This is super simple. I recently moved out of state and was asked by somebody what exactly “Oklahoma cuisine” is. I answered that it’s mostly southern-style food, but that we had a few dishes that stuck out to me as especially Oklahoman: Oklahoma onion burger, Arbuckle Mountain fruit pies, pecan pie, chicken fried steak, fried okra, Texas-style adjacent barbecue, etc. (fully understanding that, besides the onion burger, none of these are especially unique to Oklahoma).
These onions are brown and delicious, but the high heat cooks them much more on the outside and still leaves some of that regular onion dip along with the sweet. A batch of caramelized onions cooked low and slow is much more consistently cooked through and imo practically dessert-sweet.
Ingredients for Burger Bliss
- 2, 2.5 oz loose packed balls of 80/20 beef
- 1/2 regular onion, sliced as thin as I could
- Salt, pepper
- 2 slices American cheese
- Bun
- Mustard
- Garlic mayo
- 1 tbs. Canola oil
The essential components that create burger perfection
- Grab a cheap benriner mandoline online.
- Glove
- Meat Slicer
- Pan
- Warming rack
- Parchment paper
- Spatula
- Hot cast Iron Skillet
- Sharp Knife
High-quality beef: The star of the show
You can use any high quality fresh meat. Either Beef or mutton. Beef would be preferably.
- The secret weapon: Grilled onions
The secret weapon of the Onions is Onion Slice or Sharp Knife.
Equipping Your Culinary Arsenal
- Must-have tools for Oklahoma Onion Smashburger mastery
Any metal frying pan or flat bottomed pan which is used for frying or cooking food.
- Temperature precision with a trusty meat thermometer
The Art of Oklahoma Onion Smashburger Creation
To make an Oklahoma-style smash burger with fried onions, the ground beef is shaped into a ball, seasoned generously with salt and pepper, topped with a giant mound of paper-thin sliced onions, and then smashed onto a screaming-hot griddle using a grill press or large metal spatula.
Honestly, making that may, I would pre-smash them. Use parchment paper to separate the patties, then just slap one at a time onto the grill. Saves your arms from wild amounts of grease splatter, keeps you from having to smash each one while the others are cooking, etc.
Wafer thin onions smashed into the patty as it cooks on the grill. Essentially caramelized onion inside the patty. Cook it about a minute on one side and flip. Add cheese and cook until the onions look good.
Sauce the buns, leave burgers as long as I can bear, then assemble.
It’s a must try for anyone who loves onions. Comes out amazing.
I’m about to critique you. This is one of the best looking smash burgers I’ve seen. The way the cheese cascades down the patties is a thing of beauty. The sizing is perfect and doesn’t look like it will be too filling. What a fantastic looking burger, I hope you enjoyed it. Critique done
Slicing Onions: Mandoline vs. Knife
The onions are sliced much thinner (you could use a box grater) and smashed into the patty. IIRC, the grills in El Reno throw the onions down first to let some steam escape and get some color, then smash the patty on top.
I love practicing my knife skills on onions but for this fast cook, the mandolin can’t be beat. I’ve probably used mine once or twice a week minimum for a few years, might be time to upgrade. Get one for this burger and pickled red onions and you will be very happy you invested.
Your Burger, Your Way: Recipe Alternatives
Depends on the topping I would say. If you want something with a bit of texture then don’t cook it with the patty (I.e. onion, other veggies). But I usually put the mushrooms, onions, and herbs in with the patties.
The Joy of Oklahoma Onion Smash Burgers
The only difference is we layered the onions on the griddle first then smashed the ball of beef into it to make the patty. After a bit the fats from the meat caramelized the onions then we flipped it to cook the other side in the fat and onion oils. Some salt, pepper, cheese and butter toasted buns and you were ready to go!
Fact is… there are rights and wrongs to burger making. You can have your own tastes, that’s fine, but there’s a lot of science here and when it comes to getting the most out of ground beef, getting it in its single, purest, most beefy form… Well, there’s science to tell you how. And when we see people telling others how to make a burger that will give you meatloaf, we can’t help but cry foul. We love meat loaf. Really. But meatloaf goes over here and burgers go over there.
The difference is the beef is first broken down into small bits and then formed into balls for the grill that are not-too-tightly pressed together (lightly packed like a snowball). they USED to have these special pressed for the grill (think giant cookie cutter lookin ass thing) that were a special shape and you would use them to press the meat to the grill and sear it, though at my store we had what was basically a giant George foreman that would drop a big heated metal block on top of the grill and do about the same thing (though in my opinion it didn’t work nearly as good as the hand smashers). but any who, pressing them down in such a way sears them to the grill which i guess locks in flavor or whatever and then you use a sharpened spatula to scrape them off without ruining the sear (which is actually not easy). so in summary, burgers are smashed to the grill to sear and then scraped off
The Smashburger Chronicles: What is a Smash Burger?
Smash burgers are super thin and pressed down with a cold spatula in order to make as many crispy spots as you can within the meat.
A smash Burger is a way to make the most bang for your buck with less meat and smashing it on the flat top just after putting it down. A regular burger is juicy and thicker as you aren’t supposed to smash burgers at all once they’re on the heating surface.
Directions:
- Heat the Blackstone on medium high heat. Add the oil and spread with a spatula.
- Form the ground meat into 3-4 ounce ball shapes (do not over work) and place onto the hot flat top griddle.
- Season with salt and top with all of the onions.
- Using a heavy spatula or burger press, press the onions into the burger until the burger is very thin.
- When you start to see a pool of fluid on top of the burgers, flip and top with the slice of cheese and crown of the burger bun to allow for the aroma of all those onions to flavor the bun.
- Warm the bottom bun (not toast) on the griddle top then spread on some mustard and pickle chips, if using. and add the cooked onion burger and the top bun.
- Serve with fries or potato chips.
Adding Some Kick: Onion and Peppers Smashed Burgers
It’s not a chemical reaction happening, it’s just that they both add flavor to each other while they cook – the onion juices get into the burger and add flavor to it and the burger juices get into the onions and add flavor to them. So both ingredients now have a different flavor than if you cooked them separately and combined them afterwards.
The same ingredients and flavors will be present in your mouth either way, but you’re going to taste and experience them differently based on whether they were already combined together or were slightly separated.
It’s fairly common knowledge that you shouldn’t salt your burger until its about to be grilled, but at least in my personal experience it still negatively affects the texture even it I wait until the last second to season. I’ve found a solution to adding a taste of salt while still maintaining optimal textures. I salt my onions.
I make an Oklahoma fried onion burger, or at least my take on it so this might not work with other styles of burger, but here is what I do. After I’ve chopped my onions I liberally salt them to start sucking out the moisture. After letting them sit for a few minutes I squeeze them out removing as much water as I can, and most of the salt along with it. From there I cook it in a fairly typical fried onion burger style. Between the residual salt on the onions, and the salt from the cheese it gives all the saltiness I need, and as an added bonus the onions fry up better after drying them up.
NOTE:
Pre seasoning can give burgers a grainy texture, especially if you’re starting with frozen ground. This is especially important for this style because the smash with the incorporated onions makes the patties steam inside while searing on the outside which can also result in a grainy texture.
Temperature Matters: Meat Thermometer Recommendations
550°F plus cast iron skillet.
Monitor temp with a temp gun. Full blast is bound to smoke. You only need to maintain 400-450
I get the cook top up to about 425 and throw on some onions or other veggies. The cold veggies usually bring the temp down and adjust till the cooking temp is riding at 400. After I pull the veggies off I quickly put down more canola oil and throw the burgers on. Parchment paper on top of the raw meat so it doesn’t stick to your spatula and smash then down. Then wait till they start to brown on the top side before you flip. You should be smashing them down so thin that you think there’s no way they will stay together. They cook and shrink and come back together.
