Mini Cheeseburgers (aka Sliders)

A friend had made these recently for a party and she said they were a huge success, so I thought they would be great for Ian’s 2nd birthday party. They’ll be the perfect size for his little hands and the adults can enjoy them as well. However, since I haven’t made them before, I tried them out for dinner tonight and I didn’t get what I was expecting.

Don’t get me wrong, the mini cheeseburgers (aka sliders) came out beautifully, but you really need to dice the onions finely and don’t add too many more. I did what I normally do, not measure the onions, and I had added way to many for this recipe. Granted, the recipe says to add 1 medium onion and I had half an onion to use, plus I was using 2 lbs of beef instead of 1-1/2, but it still came out way too oniony. Plus, I didn’t dice them up fine enough. Usually it doesn’t bother us if the onions are finely chopped, but that made a difference this time around.

That’s another thing, I did change the amount of beef for this recipe. I like it with 2 pounds of beef instead of 1-1/2. With the way the beef shrinks when it’s cooked, the 2 pounds gave it more substance. There was more to the sliders. I’m almost tempted to double the cheese amount since I love cheese, but that’s a personal thing and honestly, what cheese was there was fine.

While this is technically an appetizer, you could also use this recipe for dinner to. It’s something different than the normal cheeseburgers or meatloaf and it adds a little more pizazz to the table. Plus, these burgers were the perfect size for Ian’s hands. When I normally make cheeseburgers for dinner, I generally make a few “nugget sized” ones for Ian and have to figure out what to do about a bun. With this, the buns are already figured out and he’s eating the same size as we are.

As of right now, I’m still planning on using this recipe for his birthday party on Saturday, but I’m going to have to double the recipe if I’m going to try and feed 15 people. While I’m still going to have other food as well, there was four of us at dinner tonight and we ate 20 of the 24 sliders by ourselves. I’m so going to need more for Saturday.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, about 1 cup finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 lb lean ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
6 slices American cheese
8 hot dog buns
24 hamburger dill pickle slices (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Finely chop onion and parsley. Combine beef, onion, parsley, garlic and salt in a bowl; mix well. Press beef mixture evenly over bottom of a large bar pan. Bake 10-12 minutes or until beef is no longer pink.
Meanwhile, cut cheese into quarters; set aside. Slice buns apart neatly at seams (do not separate tops from bottoms). Trim about 1/4 inch from each bun end to square off ends (discard trimmings). cut buns into thirds for a total of 24 square mini buns, set aside.
Remove bar pan from oven. Pour off juices, if necessary, and place on a cooling rack. Cut beef mixture into 24 squares using a pizza cutter. Top each burger with one pickle and one piece of cheese. Place one bun top onto each burger; top with one bun bottom. Cover bar pan with aluminum foil and bake 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted and buns are warm.
To serve, place one burger with bun top onto one bun bottom using a mini spatula. Repeat with remaining burgers and bun bottoms. Serve immediately.

Yield: 24 mini burgers

Nutritional Information (serving size is 2 burgers): Calories 220; Total Fat 10g; Saturated Fat 6g; Cholesterol 45mg; Carbohydrate 15g; Proein 17g; Sodium 540mg; Fiber 1g