Tyler Florence's Secret For Crispy-Edged And Super Soft Street Burgers - Exclusive
At Miller & Lux — his Michelin-mentioned steakhouse in San Francisco — Tyler Florence serves his high-end hamburgers with truffle fries. At home, you'll meet a different version of the chef, one who kicks back and makes street-food-style burgers on his pancake griddle. (This, the celebrity chef assured Tasting Table in a recent exclusive interview, gives him space to cook up an impressive "eight double patties at a time.")
To create moist, savory, soft burgers with crispy edges, Florence opts to make White Castle-style smash burgers, the keys to which, he tells us, are beef with a "good fat-to-lean ratio" and onions. "It's either minced onion or julienned onion, but you want to put a little bit of onion down first," the chef explained. "The onions are going to create a level of moisture and flavor and savoriness, which is fun."
Have your onions down on the griddle? Now it's time for your burgers, which you'll roll into a ball and drop on top of the onions "as they cook," per Florence. To achieve crispy edges, take out your spatula and "smash it into the onions." That's important, Florence explained, "because what you're trying to create is a quick-cook where the edges get nice and crispy, but the texture of the meat is super soft." Congrats, you've reached the finish line. All that's left is bacon, cheese, and sauce.
Tyler Florence only eats his smash burgers with one kind of cheese
Which sauce you opt for on your street-food-style smash burger is a matter of personal preference, although Tyler Florence recommends animal or barbecue. (He's also a self-proclaimed member of the chili-oil fan club — and if you want a smash burger with a kick to it, why not?)
Cheese, on the other hand, is something the Food Network star has big opinions about. Not all burgers are made equal, especially when it comes to melted milk products, and a smash burger can only accommodate one kind, per the celebrity chef. "You got to go American," Florence affirmed to Tasting Table. "Don't come at me with anything else ... It's got to be the 64 slices of American cheese, single-wrapped. That's what you got to go with, because anything else is going to feel too fancy and silly." A high-end burger is another matter — Florence mentioned using brie at his restaurants — but for a smash burger? Pre-sliced American cheese sounds perfect.
Catch more of Tyler Florence on new episodes of Season 16 of "The Great Food Truck Race," which you can tune into on Sundays on Food Network.