Bacon cheeseburger bowls
Everything you love about a bacon cheeseburger, piled over crunchy lettuce with a tangy burger sauce and no bun to miss.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $4.69 a serving
- 810 calories
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 6 slices bacon, chopped
- 1½ lb ground beef (85/15)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp yellow mustard
- 3 romaine lettuce, hearts
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- ¼ red onion
- 2 tbsp pickled jalapeños (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ tsp paprika
Each serving has about 810 calories, 46 g protein, 9 g carbs and 65 g fat, and costs about $4.69 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No ground beef? Lean ground beef works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or mexican blend cheese or monterey jack cheese works.
- No yellow mustard? Dijon mustard works.
- No romaine lettuce? Green leaf lettuce or iceberg lettuce or butter lettuce works.
- No red onions? White onions or yellow onions work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar and paprika together in a small bowl and set the burger sauce aside.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
the lettuce, the tomatoes, and the onion, then divide them between 4 bowls.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Put the bacon in a cold large , set it over medium heat, and cook 7 to 8 minutes, now and then, until .
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Medium heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Food safety: Cook bacon until it’s crisp and no longer translucent.
Scoop the bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels, leaving about a tablespoon of fat in the pan.
Medium heat
Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the beef, and break it up. Cook 7 to 8 minutes, until with no pink left.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Let it sit between stirs so it browns instead of steaming.Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
with the salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, scatter the cheddar over the top, cover, and let it for 1 minute.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Low heatTimer: 1 min
Spoon the cheesy beef over the salad, sprinkle with the bacon, and with the burger sauce. Add pickled jalapeños if you like.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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