J2-L Burger (Jalapeno Juicy Lucy)

Hey everyone!  Sorry we have been M.I.A. lately, but we have been going through some changes.  Tyler has moved into a new bachelor pad with a couple of friends and things have gotten CRAZY!!! Courtney has been going through a gawd awful rotation at school, neurology (blah), and Tyler has been hip deep in accounting homework/quizzes/tests.  These things have kept us away from our quest.  However, we are back in business and now present to you the J2-L Burger.

The J2-L burger stands for "Jalapeno Juicy Lucy."  If you don't know what a juicy lucy is, shame on you.  You have been missing out.  For those of you uniformed, a juicy lucy is a burger stuffed with ooey gooey molten cheese.  In our case, we stuffed our lovely burger with sharp cheddar cheese.  We had to let it cool a bit for fear of burning our tongues and chins, which I believe was a wise choice on our part.  Lest we go to work tomorrow with a burnt chin and having to explain that...

Spicy and sweet, the perfect combination.

I only wish that we had a picture of the flowing cheese that spewed forth from the burgers.  Alas, my friends, I will be sure to photograph the cheese up close and personal with the next burger.  Hopefully it will not be a month before we post again, so expect to drool soon.

J2-L Burger

The Burger:

Angus beef 80:20

Diced jalapenos

Sharp cheddar cheese slice

Garlic powder

Salt and pepper

*To stuff the cheese in the patty,take the patty and divide it in half, and pat out the two halves. Fold the cheese into fourths and stacked it up on one patty and topped it with the other patty.  Then seal the two patty halves together around the cheese stack.  Be sure to seal it up tight or the cheese will leak out!

The Toppings:

Grilled jalapenos

Fried bacon slices

Mayo

Habanero pineapple sauce

Hot sauce

Ranch dressing

The Bun:

Toasted white bun

The Verdict:


Tyler's Take:
6.5 out of 10


I am just going to start out with the fact that I love jalapenos.   I also love burgers.  When you put these two things together you have a delicious combination of oh so good-ness.  Some of you out there in cyber space may be afraid of a little jalapeno being that it produces a fair amount of scoville units, a measurement of heat within food, but this is what I love about this burger.  I have always enjoyed the heat produced by the vast array of peppers out there and a good jalapeno produces just enough bite to make things interesting.  However, for whatever reason I am beginning to believe that central KY is the worst place in the entire world to get jalapenos.  They just never are hot enough around here for me most of the time.  Every now and again you get a burner but for the most part they are not as hot as I wish they were.  However, I digress, step off of my soap box, and set it out on the curb to be picked up by the trash man.  Back to the burger...

I enjoyed the make up of the burger for the vast majority.  The main drawback was the sealing.  A good amount of the cheese was lost during the grilling process which was by all means terrible.  I do not believe that either of us know exactly what happened but we will need a better sealing next time we try a juicy lucy.  I also believe the burger meat itself needed a little more spicing, possibly some paprika to kick the spice up some more.  I will discuss this with The Misses for future spicy burgers.  The jalapeno chopped into the burger was good and I enjoyed that subtlety very much, and was glad that we grilled some to put on top.  The bacon was largely missed from the taste though, which is always sad, so next time we will be sure to not be stingy on the bacon.  I was not sure it was a perfect fit for this type of burger but after eating the burger I think it would have made a welcome addition if it had just "shown up" for me a little more.

Overall all I appreciated the heat but it unfortunately was seriously lacking.  The cheese took a hit on the grill but it still came together overall pretty well for me.  There are several things to improve upon as discussed but with these few changes I think this could be a very spicy and amazing burger to chow down on again.


Courtney's Take:
4 out of 10


I have been preparing to eat this burger for weeks now.  We bought the jalapenos, cheddar, and bacon and were fully prepared to make our next burger, but then we just got so busy.  Life can get in the way sometimes, aka neurology can get in the way of making and eating tasty burgers.  Next month I will be on psychology, so there should be no problem with pumping out new recipes more than once a month.

This burger was just sub-par for me.  The meat wasn't very juicy and all the cheese seemed to seep out of the burger while it was on the grill.  Therefore, it wasn't even a juicy lucy at all!  I did like the jalapeno diced in the burger and the grilled jalapeno on top.  The bacon got lost in the mix of it all, which was very sad, as everyone that knows me knows that I have a love affair with bacon.

We took a different approach with this burger as we used different sauces.  I used the habanero pineapple sauce and mayo, whereas Tyler used a spicy ranch sauce (ranch and hot sauce).  I liked the sauces on mine, though the sweet was somewhat overpowering.  Definitely use less of that next time...

Overall, it has room for improvement.  I do agree with Tyler that the spice factor could definitely be bumped up, and the cheese must be trapped inside the patty so it will flow out when I sink my teeth into it.  You know, I want to have to explain that burn on my chin the next time I make a juicy lucy.  Then all my colleagues would be super jealous that they didn't have a mark on their chin from a delicious cheeseburger, and they would promptly run out and make their own, just like you should!