How to Make a Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger at Home

[00:00] There's a reason why Five Guys doesn't taste like any other fast food burger. And it's not the topping, and it's not the bun. For the longest time, I've wondered what exactly they do to make their burgers so tender and satisfying.

[00:13] And I've come to realize one specific thing they do on the grill that no one talks about. How do I know this? I watch training videos. From the formation of the patties, to how they are cooked, how they're assembled, and even how they're wrapped,

[00:25] it's the little details that allow Five Guys to set itself apart. And today I'm showing you how it's done, and more specifically, how I order my burger. This is the Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger at Home.

[00:38] Now the first thing is the beef, and they use 80-20 chuck. I've got some prime chuck here, the best freshly ground ground beef I could find at the market. And we're going with 3.5 ounce patties.

[00:52] And see how loose the fibers of the meat are? That's important. Then what we're going to do is just gently roll it into a ball. No pressure. We're going to put it on a parchment on a sheet tray right over here.

[01:04] That's why fresh ground beef is important, because otherwise you get that industrial stuff. It's packed tightly. You're never going to get a tender burger out of it. Again, being very gentle, very light, barely having it bind together.

[01:16] Then you take another one. The way they stack it on top of each other, and then they smash it into patties. patties. It's not technically a smash burger. There's a smash involved, and the smash is also sort of what makes it special. Now, of course, you can just take the patty and just smash it

[01:32] into a little patty like that. Burger patties are prepped. You're going to go in the fridge until we're ready to cook them. Now, to me, a Five Guys burger is like not really fitting into

[01:45] a fast food burger. My favorites have food burgers in and out, but one of my favorite burgers in general anywhere for any circumstance is a five guys burger. One of the reasons is fun toppings and with those toppings there's a lot of different variety you can have and personally I'm a bacon

[02:02] cheeseburger guy with jalapenos and cooked onions and remember a cheeseburger is two patties a little cheeseburger is one patty. We're going to go with the regular cheeseburger and cut enough onions for about two burgers Run the knife along those lines running across the onion We just going to give them a dice

[02:24] For me, it's very rare you see jalapeno offered at a burger spot. We're going to go in, thinly sliced jalapeno. Then, of course, we need bacon. Now, we're going to be using a griddle. Besides the burgers, we just need to cook the bacon nice and crisp.

[02:38] And since I like to cook bacon in a cold pan or oven and get this on the flat top while the griddle heats up, it's going to cook up bacon so when the onions and bacon are done, you can cook up burgers no problem. Now, as I've shown you over the last eight years, I'm a bit of a stickler for quality ingredients.

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[04:20] That's $50 off plus free shipping at goodshop.com backslash YouTube. Use the code 50NACS. The link's going to be down in the description. First up is to get half of the griddle onto the heat You can also use a pan for this of course Get it on medium heat and then we going to place the bacon on the cold pan That cold pan allows that fat to render

[04:41] So by the time that fat's rendered, the bacon is also crispy. Bit of a foolproof trick for bacon. We're going to keep an eye on those while we get started on our onions. Get a pan on medium-high heat and add a little bit of butter to the pan.

[04:53] Once that butter starts sizzling, then we can go ahead and add in our diced onions. Season with salt, and we're just going to let those cook down. get nice and caramelized, nice and soft and aromatic. After a few minutes, one side of

[05:06] the bacon should be getting slightly brown. We can give them a flip. Top guys are cooking a little slower, so I'll let them go a little longer. Remember, there's no heat from here on out. One thing to note about the bacon at Five Guys is it's definitely more on the

[05:21] crispier side. I actually think Five Guys deep fries their bacon, but, you know, we're not going to do that. Now, whenever you think some are done, you can transfer them off the griddle and let them drain on a paper towel. Our onions are looking good. They're brown,

[05:35] they're caramelized, they've softened. Once the onions are cooked, we're going to get them into a bowl. For the buns, we've got a potato sesame seed roll. They make their buns custom to them, so for us, sort of making our own, this is going to be basically the best thing you're

[05:50] going to get on the market. Something that's not going to kind of crumble under all the pressure of the ingredients. And then, very importantly, we're going to need a foil sheet. First step is to toast the buns. Now, Five Guys actually uses two griddles, one for the burger patties

[06:05] and then one at a lower temperature for the buns. And we got our griddle at around 325. That should be enough to nice and gently brown the buns. When we get our burgers on, we're going to raise the heat. Once the buns are toasted, we prep the buns. On both sides,

[06:20] I like to go with ketchup. They do three rounds. Next up, yellow mustard. If you don't like yellow mustard, just trust. I don't like yellow mustard either, but it does something. Two circles. We'll go on with the jalapenos first.

[06:32] They always put a decent amount on. Next, the onions. And then on the bottom bun again, we're building everything. Usually a good amount of bacon on there. On here, you would put the wet stuff, like the lettuce, the pickles, the tomatoes, if you're using those.

[06:48] Then the patty goes on here and close it up Now we cook the burgers First up make sure our flat top nice and hot at least around 400 degrees Now we going to do two patties First patty, a gentle press just to flatten out that surface.

[07:03] Same thing with the next patty. Now here's the very specific process. We let that sit on that side for 30 seconds. We're first creating a sear on that first side.

[07:17] We're not going to salt it just yet. We're going to give them the flip. And this is when we're going to smash it. You're almost going to take that sear and then break it apart. And this is what I believe contributes to that incredible tenderness.

[07:29] And we're not smashing them super flat. We're just shaping them. We're spreading it out, breaking that crust up. Then we're going to move it back to the hot spot.

[07:41] Now we're going to season with salt. We're going to cook it on that side for another 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, flip, cook for another 30 seconds, and then add the cheese to one patty.

[07:57] After 30 seconds, add one patty on top of the cheese, and that's ready to be served. Then it gets placed right on top of the bacon, put a top on, and then we need the final step,

[08:10] which is to wrap it in the foil. This is going to almost rest it, steam the bun, make everything sort of homogenous. It's sort of the iconic aspect of these burgers.

[08:25] Just a few minutes, and that's what a Five Guys burger looks like when you open it. Cheese sort of frayed at the edges from sticking to the foil.

[08:41] That's pretty damn close. I love a Shake Shack in and out. All those kind of fast food style burgers. But this scratch is a different itch. All the flavors, the sauces, the textures. It's nice.

[08:53] The recipe is going to be down in the description. That's all that I have today. I'll see you next time. Until then, take care of yourself. And go feed yourself.