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In partnership with Safeway

As summer starts winding down quickly and we begin to think about fall, I get particularly excited because it means the return of some of my favorite sports. And with sports comes a reason to gather with friends and family over great meals and good games. We’re beginning to plan out some tailgate gatherings for early in the football season, and these Tailgating Coca-Cola BBQ Burgers will really hit the spot. A flavorful blend of pork and beef is smashed thin on the griddle and topped with cheese, melted onions, and rich and spicy Coca-Cola BBQ sauce. When served with an ice-cold Coke in the company of friends, it’s sure to fill you up for a cool fall evening of football.

DELICIOUS TAILGATING BURGERS ON DECK

This recipe makes some amazing burgers that you will love sharing with family and friends before a football game this fall. Three main components make up this epic spread.

MELTED COLA ONIONS

Sweet and tender onions are a great topping for burgers. One great way to caramelize them and add a layer of flavor is to add Coca-Cola towards the end of the cook. For this recipe, I sliced one large sweet onion into thin rounds. Then, I sauteed them in a big pan (I wanted lots of surface area) in a couple tablespoons of butter.

I let those go for about 20 minutes and once they are tender and starting to brown, I deglaze the pan with a big splash of Coke. Leave the heat on high and allow the Coca-Cola to come to a boil and reduce by at least half. The sugars in the Coca-Cola caramelize on the onions and you end up with a super tender and sweet onion topping for your burgers.

SPICY COCA-COLA BBQ SAUCE

One of my favorite ways to make a dish unique and homemade is to create a great sauce to go with whatever I’ve grilled. Burgers are no different– they need something saucy to make them epic. For this tailgate cookout, I made a delicious and spicy Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce to pour on the burgers just before serving.

A great thing about making BBQ sauce at home is that it’s very adaptable to the ingredients you have on hand. Every couple of months we stop into our local Safeway store to stock up on pantry and fridge staples that can be used as the base for many of our dishes. This includes soy sauce, Worchestershire sauce, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar and hot sauce. All of these ingredients have a long shelf life in the fridge and are easy to keep stocked in the pantry too. Then, when we’re ready to whip up dinner, the perfect sauce to accompany our grilled meats is easy and quick.

And once you have the basics on hand, you can adjust your flavor profiles of the sauce to meet your interests or what’s available. Different kinds of mustard can add flavor dimension to your sauce. Add a little jarred marinara for a more tomato-forward result. Orange juice can make it a little citrusy, hoisin sauce more Asian-inspired, or blended chipotle peppers can give it a smoky Mexican tilt.

For this particular recipe, we used Coca-Cola Classic as the main liquid for the Spicy Coca-Cola BBQ sauce, because when it’s reduced down it provides a smooth and sweet foundation for amazing flavor. The sugar in the soda caramelizes during the cooking of the BBQ sauce and makes for a sweet, sticky and slightly spicy result. You can adjust the flavor of the sauce– and make it spicier– by adding more hot sauce to your cook.

BEEF AND PORK PATTIES

You might be wondering about the meat blend for these Tailgaiting Coca-Cola BBQ Burgers. I recommend using a 50/50 blend of ground beef and ground pork. Trust me, it’ll make for delicious, tender and flavorful burgers.

Pork and beef combined is a traditional combination of ingredients in most meatball recipes. For these burgers, we don’t recommend adding any additional ingredients or fillers (like egg, breadcrumbs, etc) because the beef and pork blend works so well together. All you need is a little seasoning (we used a steak seasoning) and some elbow grease to mix the two ground meats together.

It’s important to note that because you’re using ground pork in addition to ground beef, these burgers need to be cooked internally to 165*. This ensures that the pork is cooked to a safe temperature while still ensuring that the burgers turn out tender.

Burger patties on the grill — Beef and pork blend

WHAT BLEND OF MEAT FOR THESE TAILGATING BURGERS?

While I normally would suggest an 80/20 ground beef blend for all-beef burgers, I think that using 93/7 ground beef is best for this recipe. Ground pork is naturally fattier ground beef (and I haven’t found differing blends of pork on the market). By combining higher-fat ground pork with more lean ground beef, you will still have very flavorful, juicy and tender burgers without being to greasy.

PRIMARY INGREDIENTS

Burgers

Cola Melted Onions

Spicy Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce

To Serve

Coca-Cola Classic
Signature Select bread and butter pickles
BBQ potato chips

Tailgating Coca-Cola BBQ Burger ingredients

WHY COOKING THESE BURGERS ON THE TRAEGER WORKS

All three components of these burgers were cooked on my Traeger grills. Thanks to the new Timberline XL’s induction burner, we could make the Spicy Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce and the Cola Melted Onions outdoors also. You could certainly make both indoors on the stove and only make the burgers on the grill.

Cooking these burgers on the Traeger is great for many reasons– not only do you get amazing wood-fired flavor from the pellets you use, but the cleanup is easy because you’re cooking outdoors.

For this particular cook, I used my Traeger Ranger portable grill with the cast iron plate. It is the perfect grill for tailgating because it’s compact yet powerful and heats up quickly. In the time it took to make the sauce and onions, my grill was searing hot and ready for some smashed beef and pork patties.

As an alternate solution, you could definitely make the Spicy Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce and the Cola Melted Onions ahead of time and pack them in a cooler for your tailgate party. That would limit the number of steps necessary in making the burgers and streamline your tailgating scene.

STEP-BY-STEP

Assemble your ingredients.
If making the burgers and toppings at the same time, preheat your Traeger grill with a cast iron griddle inside. (Sauce and onions can be made ahead of time)
Thinly slice the sweet onion into ¼ inch discs and set aside. Using the scraps of the onion you didn’t slice, finely dice about 2 tbsp of sweet onion to use for the sauce.
In a saucepan, saute 1 tbsp of butter with the 2 tbsp of chopped onion until translucent and beginning to soften.
To the onion, stir in the brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce and ketchup. Mix to combine and bring to a boil.
Pour in the Coca-Cola and bring the sauce back to a boil.
Allow to cook for about 15 minutes until reduced and sticky.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
In a large shallow pan, melt the remaining butter and add the onion discs. Separate the pieces as necessary to spread onions evenly on the bottom of the pan.
Cook the onions over medium/high heat until beginning to brown, stirring occasionally.
After about 15 minutes of cooking, pour in the Coca-Cola and bring to a boil.
Let the onions keep cooking in the Coke until tender and the soda has reduced by at least half.
Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.
While cooking the onions, make the burger blend.
In a bowl, combine the ground pork and ground beef and season liberally with the steak seasoning.
Using your hands (gloves recommended), combine the meat until uniform in texture.
Divide meat mixture into 8 balls– about the size of your fist.
When the grill and cast iron griddle is very hot, make the burgers.
Spray a light coating of cooking oil on the hot grate.
Working in batches place an even number of meat balls on the griddle, leaving ample space between balls.
Using a flat spatula and a piece of parchment paper, smash the meat balls as thinly as possible. Use a gloved hand to press on the spatula.
Cook the burgers on the first side for about 2 minutes, then flip over.
Top each burger with a slice of cheese and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes.
Toast the buns alongside the burgers.
Pull the burgers and the buns from the grill.
Assemble your burgers by placing two burger patties on a bun, topped with a handful of melted Cola onions. Then pour Spicy Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce on top and finish with the top bun.
Enjoy with chips, pickles and a cold Coca-Cola.

OTHER BURGER RECIPES TO INSPIRE YOU

Here are some burger recipes we’ve enjoyed cooking recently:

Torta Burgers
Pimento Stuffed Cheeseburgers
Ultimate BBQ Burgers
There are also a variety of amazing burger recipes in my cookbook, which you can find here!

Products used in this cook:

Coca-Cola Classic: If you were to ask me what my favorite drink is, there would be no hesitation my response– Coke! So finding creative ways to include Coca-Cola in my cooking is something I love to do. The sugar in the Coke lends itself really well to cooking, making a great addition to spicy BBQ sauce and the sweet kick needed to make melty sauteed onions.

For this recipe, we picked up everything we needed at our local Safeway grocery store. One-stop shopping for everything you’ll need for the ultimate tailgate meal– from produce to drinks.

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