There are those who will think this post is utter blasphemy. That's ok. For those of us who will try anything once, this is worth trying. Cooking a hamburger in an Instant Pot may seem like a crazy idea. Everyone knows a burger is best grilled, right? That may be true, but what if you don't have a grill? What if all you have in your freezer is some frozen ground beef patties and people are hungry? Then what?
The Instant Pot to the rescue!
As I've said before, the Instant Pot is a great tool for busy families. You can cook meat from frozen so the question "What's for dinner?" becomes less scary to answer. You can literally pull something out of the freezer and in many cases, have a delicious dinner on the table in an hour or less.
That was my issue the night I decided to try hamburgers in my Instant Pot. I looked on Youtube and found a video. The next thing I knew, I was pulling the hamburger patties out of the freezer and getting to work.
I decided to wrap these burgers in foil because I was afraid they'd fall apart if they were just stacked on top of each other in the Instant Pot. I added some dehydrated onion(you could just chop some fresh) and salt and pepper to the frozen patties and wrapped it in foil.
I had seven frozen burgers, so I did this seven times.
I put my trivet in the Instant Pot and added 1 cup of water. I added the burgers on top of the trivet in two stacks. All seven fit easily. I could have fit a few more. I set it for Manual 20 minutes.
I let the pot do a natural release. It only took about 10 minutes.
I took them out and took them out of the foil. This was the hardest part of the whole thing. Make sure you put them in a deep dish or pan to catch the grease that collects in the foil packet while cooking.
I put them under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and brown the buns.
There you have it. An Instant Pot hamburger. How did they taste? They were very juicy and flavorful. Everyone here really liked them. My husband went back for seconds. This is not a grilled burger, so don't expect that. I know that White Castle steams their burgers, so you may wind up with a similar taste and consistency. I've never had a White Castle burger(shocking, I know!) so I can't vouch for that, but the next time I make these, I'll have to let my BIL try one out. He loves White Castle and he'll tell me what he thinks!
I went into this little experiment not expecting much, but the burgers turned out juicy and flavorful. I'll definitely make them again. In fact, my college age son just asked me earlier when I'm going to make them again!
Instant Pot Hamburgers
Ingredients:
Frozen Hamburger Patties
Onion (dehydrated or fresh)
Salt
Pepper
Tomato, lettuce, onion(other toppings for burgers)
Directions:
Sprinkle frozen patties with salt, pepper and add onion.
Wrap in foil.
Place trivet in Instant Pot.
Add 1 Cup Water
Set Instant Pot to Manual. Cook for 20 minutes.
Naturally release pressure.
Remove patties from foil.
Place on buns
Enjoy!
