Summer Recipes: Melanie's Hobo Burgers

So, I’m from New Orleans. During the summer, we have these things called hurricanes – you may have heard of them. They can be pretty rough. Last year, an August hurricane knocked out my power for about 8 days – which wouldn’t have been so bad if the highs weren’t in the 90s…. and if I could have left a window or something open. Oh well.

Needless to say, using your oven, or even your stovetop, isn’t a good idea. It just gets way too hot. So, grill it is! This particular recipe can also be done in the oven, or in a camp fire. Basically, any place you can cook something in aluminum foil.

Hobo Burgers

Makes 4-5 servings (depends on how big you like your burgers!)

Ingredients:

• 1.5lb ground beef
• 4-6 red potatoes (or 2 russet potatoes, or 3-4 golden potatoes) – sliced into thin rounds
• 1 large onion (my personal preference – vidalia onions) – sliced
• Tony Chachere’s – only mandatory if you are from New Orleans!

Optional Ingredients:

• For the burger – breadcrumbs and an egg, seasonings (like onion soup mix, Tony Chachere’s, or whatever you usually put on a burger), cheese (shredded, mixed into the meat), and/or bacon
• Butter or margarine
• Whatever veggies you prefer – baby carrots (cut into matchsticks usually works best), bell peppers, corn, broccoli, peas (also works with frozen veggies)
• Ketchup

Note: If you are making this in the oven, preheat your oven to about 375. If doing it on the grill, make sure to get everything ready to go (I have a charcoal grill, so this takes a little while for me). If you make these in a camp fire, you may want to make a “neck” of some kind, to make it easier to take out the fire.

Directions:

1.Take your ground beef and form it into hamburger patties. If you want to add breadcrumbs and an egg, or cheese, mix it in before making the patties. For any seasonings, it depends on what you use – you can either mix it in (like with the onion soup mix) or just season the top of the burger.

2.Get 4 pieces of aluminum foil (the same number as the patties you have made) and place a burger in the center of each. Make sure the foil will be large enough to go around the whole burger and the veggies. I usually make mine about 10” square.

3.If your meat is on the lean side, you may want to add a little bit of butter or margarine to the packets, to keep everything moist.

4.Divide the potato slices among the different burger packets. I would recommend red potatoes, as they tend to cook faster. Also, slice them as thin as possible, otherwise you may end up with crunchy potatoes.

5.Divide the onion slices among the different burger packets.

6.Add whatever other veggies you like – carrots work well, as do green bell peppers.

7.If you have any Tony’s, liberally douse the entire packet in Tony’s before closing it up.

8.Close the foil packets completely, and fold over the edges, so none of the juices escape.

9.Put the packets on the grill for about 45 minutes to an hour. You can test them by checking the potatoes to see if they are done. If cooking in the oven, you may want to put them on a baking sheet of some kind – sometimes they can leak a little bit.

Once cooked through, dump the entire packet onto a plate (or just eat out of the foil!), add ketchup and enjoy!

– Melanie AAR