4th of July Grilling Spectacular

Happy Fourth of July!!

For the holiday’s I like to do a big post with great food.  Since this is the summer and the 4th of July is such a big grilling day, I decided to make burgers and fries.  Not just any burgers, firecracker burgers.  Not just any fries, sour cream and chive fries.  This was going to be the best grilling day ever.

Firecracker Burgers

Sour Cream and Chive Fries

Spicy Chipotle Ketchup

Cutting the French Fries

The first step is cut the potatoes and get them soaking.  You need to let the fries soak for at least 30 minutes in cold water before you fry them.  This will help remove some of the starch so that your fries don’t stick together.

To create the fries, peel the potatoes.  Then using a mandolin or a sharp knife, cut the potatoes into strips.  I cut the potato into vertical strips, then rotated the potato and cut the strips into fries.

After you cut the potatoes place them immediately in the water to keep them from changing colors. After you finish cutting the potatoes change the water in the bowl. Replace the water with cold water.

Making the Firecracker Burger Patties

Place the hamburger meat into a large bowl.

Dice up the jalapeños and the habenero and place in the large bowl.

Now add the chili powder, salt, pepper, chipotle hot sauce and the worcestershire sauce.

Mix by hand until combined. You don’t have to mix it until the peppers are evenly distributed. Actually having some bites with peppers and some without was rather refreshing. Plus, it was a lot of fun to see how spicy each bite was going to be.

Split the meat into quarters. This will make it so that you can make four patties.

Take a fourth of the meat and roll into a ball. Place the ball on a piece of wax paper. Fold the wax paper over the meat and press down to form perfect patties. Place the wax paper covered patties in the refrigerator until you are ready to grill them.

Spicy Chipotle Ketchup

This is super easy. Mix the ketchup, chipotle hot sauce, chili powder and salt in a bowl. That is it. Super easy and super tasty.

Making the Sour Cream and Chive Fries

Preheat your oil to 320 degrees.  Blanche the fries in the low temperature oil for 3 minutes.  This will cook the insides of the fries.

Cook in small batches and after 3 minutes remove the fries when they are pale and a little translucent.  Place the fries on some paper towels to drain while you cook the rest of the fries.

Now that you have all of the fries blanched turn the heat of the fryer up to 375.  When the fryer is preheated start coating the fries.  To make the sour cream and chive fries, you need to lightly batter them.  Sounds like overkill, I know, but it is awesome.

To make the batter, place the flour and 2 tbs of chives in a dish.  Mix thoroughly and set aside.

In another bowl mix the sour cream, milk, dash of salt and remaining 4 tbs of chives.

Place some of the fries in the flour mixture.  Coat them the best you can.  Dust off the excess flour.

Now coat the dusted fries in the sourcream mixture.

I know this sounds tedious, but you need to place the fries in the fryer once at a time.  Otherwise they will stick.  A way around this would be to place the fries once dipped in the batter on a tray and individually freezing them.  Then when you are ready you can dump a bunch in the fryer at once.

Fry for 2-3 minutes at 375 degrees, until the fries are golden brown.  Remove from the fryer and drain on a rack or paper towels.  Once removed lightly dust the fries with salt.

Grilling the burger

Preheat your grill on high for at least 15 minutes before you place the burgers on the grates.  This will allow you to get the best grill marks.  Place the patties directly over the heat and grill for 5-7 minutes on the first side.

Flip and grill for another 6 minutes.  This all depends on the doneness that you like.  For medium I usually cook for about 6 minutes on each side.  The second side may take a little less than 6 minutes.

With about a minute left cooking on the second side add the cheese and toast the buns.

To assemble the burger place the burger on the base of the toasted bun.  On the top half of the bun layer on the chipotle ketchup, letuce, tomato and onion.

Serve the hamburger with a side of fries and chipotle ketchup for dipping.

This burger was amazing and the fries were absolutely delicious.  I did not incorporate the peppers evenly in the burger and it worked out.  Some bites were spicy and some were not as spicy and served as a nice break from the heat.  The name for the burger was very accurate.  It was full of fire and some bites exploded with heat.  The fries were crispy and delicious.  If you have never made fries from scratch they are amazing.  You will never buy the frozen ones again.

Happy Fourth of July!  I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend.

-Rex