The snow has finally melted, the weather has warmed up and that can only mean one thing, it’s the start of grilling season (in Boston)! My in-laws got us a kick butt Weber Grill for Christmas that we have just been able to assembly and start using. I apologize in advance for all of the amazing keto grilling concoctions I’m planning to post over the coming months. I wanted start out with something truly epic, worthy of the stunt cooking genre. Enter the Beer Can Burger! Note that there is no beer in the actual food, you can use any can like a diet coke but the original recipe all over the internet uses a beer can.
For this recipe, we want to cook the burger over indirect heat and with some smoke. Depending on your style of grill it may have a place to put Smoker Wood Chips, if not, you can make your own little smoker packet. Place the wood chips in the center of some foil. Then fold the sides over. Make several slits on the top of the foil to let the smoke out. Alternatively, if you think you’re going to use your grill to smoke a lot, you can pick up a Stainless Steel Smoker Box that holds the wood chips.As I mentioned before, you want to setup your grill for indirect heat. Start by preheating it to warm up all the various metal parts of the grill. Then lower the heat to 300 degrees and turn on just one of the burners. In my case, this grill has three so I used the far left burner for the direct heat and placed the wood chips on that section. The right section has the burners off and is where we’ll cook the meat.Form the meat into large, equally sized balls. I ground my own meat out of Beef Chuck, Beef Short Rib and Bacon, but you can just buy beef from the store. Note that 5 is completely arbitrary, you can scale this to any size. You do want large balls, at least 10 Oz for this to work. Take your can and smush it into the ball. You want to push it almost all the way down. Then form the meat around the side of the can as shown. Some people said you didn’t need to lube the can but I found that spraying it with Pam helped with the extraction.Then wrap two pieces of bacon around the outside.You then extract the can and you’re left with a bacon wrapped beef bowl that you can put pretty much anything into!Here’s the Beer Can Burgers ready for stuffing!!I fried up a variety of different toppings to put into the burgers but you can put anything you want. From top to bottom, left to right we’ve got Onions, mushrooms, Pepper Jack Cubs, Green Peppers and Brussels Sprouts!Here’s what the inside looked like after I added the ingredients.Then I topped it with some shredded cheddar cheese for good measure.Carefully place the burgers on the grill, close the lid and wait an hour! Resist the urge to open the grill or move the burgers around.Here’s a shot of the finished burger on the grill. Words can’t describe how awesome these turned out!!Here’s an action shot of the burger. As you can see the indirect heat cooking method kept the burger nice and medium rare while melting the cheese and cooking the bacon. Mmmmmm!
- Serves: 5
- Serving size: 1 Burger
- Calories: 963
- Fat: 73g
- Carbohydrates: 8g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 66g
- 50.00 Oz. Ground Beef
- 10 slices Bacon
- 2.50 Oz. Pepper Jack Cheese, cubed
- 2.50 Oz. Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- 150.00 g Sliced Fresh Mushrooms, cooked
- 150.00 g Brussels sprouts, cooked
- 150.00 g Green Peppers, cooked
- 150.00 g Onions, cooked
- Preheat the grill to 300 degrees and setup for indirect heat
- If adding smoke, place a handful of smoker wood chips in a smoker box or some aluminum foil with holes cut out and place over the lit burner
- Divide ground beef into equal portions and form large balls
- Push a can (Doesn't have to be beer) into the ball and smush it
- Using your hand, form the meat around the can, pushing it up and evenly around the can
- Wrap two pieces of bacon around the base of the meat
- Extract the can, fill the hole with anything you want, I used cooked mushrooms, Brussels Sprouts, Green Peppers and Onions
- Top with cheese
- Place on the grill and cook using indirect heat for 1 hour
Weber Spirit E320 Grill Sure, you can cook just about anything in a cast iron pan, but sometimes you just want those seared grill marks on your meat. A grill is the perfect addition to any keto kitchen. |
Stainless Steel Smoker Box Add that extra wood smoked kick to your BBQ without investing in a dedicated smoker! Just add some wood, sit it over the burner on the grill and you’re smoking!! |
Variety of Smoker Wood Chips Grab this variety pack of smoker wood chips to experiment with adding smoke to your grilling experience. Perfect for Pork, Beef and Chicken!! |
You have seriously changed my life with this! We just got a Weber too and my husband is going to be THRILLED to see that you can add smoke flavor via foil packet! I cannot wait for him to make these this weekend! 😀
Hey there, great idea. But I like my burgers well done. How do you suggest cooking it to get it well done? Should I apply more direct heat or just leave it on longer with indirect heat? Thanks.
Hi there, I would also like to know if there is a way to make these burgers well done, or at least more like medium well…..They look fantastic, please let me know if you have discovered away for the above or if I should just experiment on my own with temp and length of time on the grill. Can’t wait to try them!
Thanks!
For those of us without access to a grill (I know, I know) any suggestions on temperature/time for making these in an oven? Thanks for all you do here! 🙂
Closed grill is same as oven. So, 300 degrees for 1 hour is the same in either situation.
ERMAGURSH! I was JUST day dreaming about these running through my mind if they were Keto friendly! The heavens have parted!
Your “stainless steel smoker box” link is actually a link to potato chips.
Is one burger 963 calories?
I like the recipe, went my own way with stuffing though. Question; On the list of ingredients, some of the weights are imperial, the other metric… why?