Courtesy of Burger Photo Contest Winner, Omar Franco
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

For the burger

• ½ pound (228 g) pork butt or roast*
• 10 ounces (285 g) certified Angus ground chuck
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 ounces (60 ml) Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce (or your favorite)
• 1 ounce (28.5 g) gorgonzola picante
• 2 fresh jalapeno peppers
• 2 (or more) cups (480 ml) high smoke point oil for frying
• 2 pieces focaccia bread
• 1 tablespoon (14 g) butter

For the onion rings

• 2 cups (200 g) all purpose bleached flour
• ½ tablespoon (7.5 ml) Spanish paprika
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) cayenne pepper
• 2 ½ tablespoons (37.5 ml) kosher salt
• ½ cup (75 g) cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) baking powder
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking soda
• 15 ounces (450 ml) pale ale (or beer of choice)
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced into ¼-inch (0.6 cm) slices

DIRECTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 140F/60C.*
2. Put the pork* into a small (quart/0.9 liter) cooking pouch, add the barbecue sauce and vacuum seal the pouch.
3. Submerge in the water bath and cook for 1 (or up to 2) days.
4. After the pork has cooked at least 1 day, season the chuck burger with salt and pepper. Form the burger into two patties and put them into a cooking pouch (don’t seal it) and into the freezer for a few hours to become firm for sealing. When they’re quite firm, vacuum seal the pouch.
5. Drop the temperature of the water bath to 130F/54.5C (adding ice water or ice cubes will speed the process.)
6. Submerge the burgers alongside the pork to cook for at least 1 hour.
7. Meanwhile, prepare the onion ring batter and fry the onion rings.
   1. Heat at least 2 inches of oil to 350F/176C in a heavy skillet.
   2. Salt and pepper the onion slices and dust them liberally with some of the flour.
   3. In a bowl, mix the remaining flour and all the other batter ingredients together, until there are no lumps. It should be a pancake batter consistency. Let it rest a few minutes.
   4. Dip the onion slices into the batter and fry them in the hot oil until golden, about 2 to 4 minutes.
   5. When all onion slices have been fried, toss in the fresh jalapeno, just to blister the skin.
8. When the burgers are nearly cooked, heat a grill, grill pan or broiler to high heat and quickly sear the burgers to char the surface slightly.
9. Split the focaccia, butter the cut sides, and sear the buttered side along with the burgers.

To serve:

1. Put the bottom focaccia pieces onto the plate.
2. Brush with some barbecue sauce.
3. Follow with the patties, more sauce, the pork meat, and gorgonzola crumbles.
4. Add an onion ring and the fried jalapeno and top with the other focaccia half.
5. Serve with more onion rings.

*If you have left over sous vide cooked pork butt or shoulder, this is a great use for it!