Lite Castle Hamburgers

There have been many variations on the mini-hamburger. I have loved these little flavor bombs since I was a kid living in St. Louis, when my mom and I would go to White Castle as a special treat. During my college years, in the Southeast, we routinely devoured Krystal burgers late into the night while studying and goofing around. Then I graduated, reality set in, and I went about losing weight, never eating another Krystal again.

Recently, a number of bloggers have gone about making their own versions of the fast food mini-burger. The best of these recipes (on the blog A Hamburger Today) goes into tremendous detail about how to replicate the commercial version of the miniburger at home. The problem is that while they've done an excellent job replicating the fast food favorite, at 4 points a piece I'm still not willing to make room for them in my daily routine. I've set about to create burgers that taste better than the store-bought versions and are better for you.

One of my favorite episodes of Good Eats is "The Man Food Show". In this episode, Alton Brown goes about making an interesting version of the mini-burger (you can get the recipe here). He rolls out the meat with a rolling pin in a jelly roll pan, seasons it, and folds it in half before cutting out the burgers and cooking them on a griddle. This seemed like the easiest method of producing the patties.

Rolling out the meat seemed daunting at first, but it was remarkably easy once you get to it. My rolling pin wouldn't fit in a jellyroll pan, so I used a pint glass, being as careful as I could to maintain a constant thickness. AB calls for ground chuck in his recipe, but I used 93% lean ground beef to reduce the fat and calories. I seasoned the burgers sparingly with McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning. I say sparingly because a little of this stuff goes a long way! I cut the slab into 16 patties, each 1 Weight Watchers point. I was off to a good start.

As you can see, I skipped the griddle and used a raging hot cast iron skillet instead. I wanted a deeper sear on my burgers, with a little bit of crusty goodness on each patty.

Alton specifies potato rolls for the buns. Bah! I didn't want to short-change my burgers and decided to add a bit of flavor by using Kings Hawaiian Dinner Rolls. They brought a lot of flavor and deliciously soft texture to the burgers. To reduce the bread to meat ratio, I cut the middle third of the rolls out leaving just a 1/2" top and bottom. This also reduced the points of each bun from 2 to 1.

Finally, I topped each burger with some finely chopped and sauteed Vidalia onions, 1/3 of a slice of light American cheese, and a VERY thin layer of light mayo on the bottom bun . Voila! A 3 point miniburger! Ok, so it's not a home run, but oh the flavor...

The King's Hawaiian roll added an incredible richness to the burger. I think all four flavors (burger, cheese, bun and onions) worked in harmony to create a mini-burger of truly superb quality, well worth the investment in time (which really wasn't significant) and effort.

One last word on portion control. Normally, Krystals are ordered by the dozen and consumed in a beast-like fashion. I made these burgers for lunch, so Jenny and I each had 2 and a bit of fruit on the side. No, it's no feast, but if you slow down and savor the burgers, they're quite satisfying!

Lite Castle Hamburgers

1 lb. Lean Ground Beef (7% fat)
1 tbsp. McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
16 Kings Hawaiian Dinner Rolls, cut as described
above
1 med Vidalia Onion, finely diced
5 1/3 slices 2% Milkfat American Cheese
Light Mayonaise
Olive Oil

Sautee onions in lightly oiled non-stick or cast iron skillet and set
aside. In a hot cast iron skillet, brown meat patties on both sides until deeply seared. Place cheese on top of each patty and allow to melt.

Spread a thin layer of light mayonaise on the bottoms of each roll.
Top with burger patty and onions.