What do you make when you’re torn between wanting a good old-fashioned home-cooked comfort meal, and wanting a summertime burger?  Combine the two into one! 

I just didn’t want to do the whole meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggie, biscuit thing, you know? It was disgustingly hot and humid, and I had the A/C off. No way was I going the entire “Sunday dinner” route. But I still wanted something really, really good, comforting, and I had gravy on the brain. 

Since we’re both burger lovers, I thought to take my Salisbury Steak recipe and turn it into a spectacular restaurant-style burger instead! A nice, big, juicy, tender burger, smothered with mushroom gravy……oh, yes, I can see it. 😉  

But that didn’t sound like quite enough. I’m an admitted cheeseaholic, and what would a burger be without some cheese melted over the top?!

We had mozzarella and swiss. That was a no-brainer! I opted for the swiss thinking that it would pair well with the mushrooms and onions!

And oh yes indeedy did it ever! 

And speaking of onions, though my Salisbury Steak recipe uniquely uses French Onion Soup to really get that whole “salisbury steak” taste, I knew that I would definitely be wanting more! 

So, since we had some nice, sweet Vidalia onions, I decided to caramelize some and just add them to the top as a nice condiment in place of the usual mayo or steak sauce.

Since it was already going to be smothered with gravy, I knew that regular condiments weren’t going to be needed at all.  

The onions went perfectly with this, so don’t skip this step! They’re so easy to make, just plan on taking your time and have fun with this! 😀  

Though mashed potatoes really could’ve been served with this and been perfectly fine, I still thought that mashed potatoes with a burger sounded a tad odd. Is it just me? I just couldn’t see it.

So I just opted for my simple French Onion Oven-Roasted Potatoes that went into the oven, practically make themselves, and were out of the way. 😉 Talk about a match made in heaven! They were made for each other! 😀

I honestly could’ve served this in a restaurant and made customers very happy! I know I’d order it! 😉

They really were awesome, though! We can’t wait to have the leftovers again tonight, that I imagine will be even better today! 😉  

I hope you give this a try the next time you’re hankering for some comfort food but don’t want to mess with making 10 different things on a hot, summer day!  

Though this is a tad time consuming, there’s nothing hard about it at all. Everything comes together beautifully and it’s well worth the little bit of extra time!

Have a wonderful day all, and I’ll see you next week! 😀  

Yield: 4-6

Restaurant-Style Salisbury Steak Burgers with Swiss Cheese Smothered in Cremini Mushroom & Caramelized Onion Gravy

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Ingredients

For Caramelized Onions:

• 1 large vidalia onion, halved and sliced
• 2 Tbl. butter
• 1 Tbl. EVOO
• 1 Tbl. vegetable oil
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• [br]

For Salisbury Steak Patties:

• 2 lbs. 80-85% lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup Hellmann's mayo
• 1/4 cup French Onion Soup from a 10 1/2 oz. can of Campbell's (undiluted)
• 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. A1 Steak Sauce
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2 cup dried Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp. coarse ground black pepper (plus more for sprinkling patties)
• 1/2-1 Tbl. vegetable oil for frying
• [br]

For Mushroom and Onion Gravy:

• 1 (8 oz.) cont. fresh sliced cremini mushrooms
• rest of can of French Onion Soup
• 2 packets Brown Gravy Mix (I used 2 McCormick's 30% Less Sodium 0.87 oz. packets)
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
• [br]

Rest of Ingredients:

• 4-6 hamburger buns
• 4-6 slices swiss cheese
• lettuce or kale leaves
• 4-6 Tbl. butter
• garlic powder

Instructions

For Caramelized Onions:

In large frying pan, melt butter and oils over medium heat, and onions, salt and pepper. Toss to coat and sauté, stirring minimally, over low heat for 25-30 minutes until caramelized. Remove with slotted spoon to drain, and place into bowl. Set aside. *Leave oils and butter in pan.

For Salisbury Steak Patties:

In large bowl, place ground beef breaking up. Add rest of ingredients sprinkling in evenly. Mix well with hands to incorporate and evenly distribute ingredients. Pat into a large round mound, smoothing. Cover and chill.

For Mushroom and Onion Gravy:

Add mushrooms and rest of can of French Onion Soup to frying pan with oils. Stir to coat mushrooms and sauté over med-low heat for 5 minutes. Add cold water, scrape bits from bottom of pan. Stir in gravy packets, garlic powder and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring, over medium-high heat, turn down to medium, and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. Continue simmering and stirring over low heat for 2-3 more minutes to further thicken cooking out excess liquid. Remove from heat and let rest. (*Gravy will thicken even more after sitting.)

To Finish:

Form meat mixture into 4-6 large patties placing onto waxed paper. Make sure the edges and tops are nice and smooth and not cracked. (*I made four large restaurant-sized patties and this worked extremely well. *Burgers shrink while cooking.) Pepper tops generously.

In another large frying pan with lid, heat 1/2 Tbl. vegetable oil over medium heat, tear waxed paper separating patties and invert 2-3 patties into pan peeling back waxed paper carefully. *I cooked two at a time doing it in two batches. Place into pan, pepper tops, cover with lid, turn down heat to med-low/low, and slow-fry for 8-10 minutes. Turn and fry again, covered, for 8-10 minutes longer. (You want to fry and "bake" them at the same time to cook the insides without over-browning them on the outside.) Remove to plate when done. Top with slices of swiss cheese, loosely cover to rest and melt cheese. (I used a metal dome lid for this.)

Heat broiler. Butter insides of buns and sprinkle with garlic powder. Broil until lightly toasted.

Top bottom buns with kale or lettuce, top with a cheesed patty, ladle mushroom gravy over, and top with a nice pinch of caramelized onions. Serve hot with my Oven-Roasted French Onion Potatoes, steak fries or tater tots.