This Crispy Upgrade Takes Cheeseburgers To The Next Level

You may have thought America has exhausted every possible way to make a cheeseburger, but you should never doubt our ingenuity when it comes to ground beef. But what if you could have some delicious cheese, and add something that is often lacking from most cheeseburgers — a great crunch? Sounds good right? Well you can do just that by topping your cheeseburgers with a cheese crisp. 

It's not that cheeseburgers made with cheese crisps don't exist at all, it's just that you'd think they'd be everywhere. First off, they are extremely easy to make, as whipping up a lacy, round cheese crisp requires nothing but cheese and heat. For a semi-firm cheese like cheddar or low-moisture mozzarella, all you need to do is cook little nests of shredded cheese in your oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet for six to seven minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and let them cool. It's also easy to make cheese crisps in an air fryer. Second, the heat from cooking them is also going to brown the cheese, adding lots of flavor you wouldn't normally get from a cheeseburger. And, if you are getting crunch in a burger, it's usually coming from pickles or onions, so getting some shatteringly crispy cheese rounds on there adds an entire new dimension to your burger.

What's great, beyond the obvious, is that cheese crisps can be made from almost any type of cheese you want, so they pair with all kinds of different toppings. You can do Parmesan, pepper jack, Swiss, whatever. 

And one more suggestion. Let's say you want cheese, but miss the cheese meltiness you're losing with this. Totally understandable. In that case, just do both. And there are actually two ways to go about this. For one technique, simply save a slice of the cheese you are using instead of shredding it, then make a cheeseburger the way you normally would, before adding the cheese crisp at the end. That's the best of both worlds.

The second technique is more unique, but actually a little bit easier. If you have space in a pan or on a griddle, just cook whole slices of cheese directly on them next to the burger with the cheese melting on it. This won't dry out the cheese quite like the oven will, but it will still form a crispy brown crust on the side touching the pan, and you won't need to go through the trouble of making a separate cheese crisp. Then just use a spatula to scrape up the cheese and flip it onto the burger. You may not think you need another new burger recipe in your life, but you are gonna wanna try this.