Salt and Pepper Burgers with Poblano Cheese Sauce and Pears

Juicy, flavorful burgers are bathed in a homemade poblano cheese sauce and topped with pear slices and lettuce for a craveworthy, restaurant-quality sandwich.

This epic burger is part of a fan-frickin-tastic month-long event hosted by Girl Carnivore, but opinions are always my own! I also wasn’t compensated in any way for participating. This is just for fun.

About 15 years ago, burger places — ones that served creative, well-constructed, flavorful, made-to-order burgers — began popping up left and right. Some kept pretty strictly to the classics while others offered special sauces and more unusual options.

Sure, burger joints had existed before that but this was a new breed — one that narrowly focused on one product and served not much else.

The concept remains popular. From BGR to Smashburger, Five Guys to Wahlburgers, there are dozens of burger places specializing in just that: really good burgers.

More than anything, these burger places ushered in a new time for burger consumption — one that pushed the limits on what burger toppings could include. The effect trickled beyond their walls to local restaurants and national chains too. A favorite burger at a local-to-me place now tops some burgers with bone marrow butter and pork belly. Others are glazed with maple syrup.

Burgers shouldn’t be boring. There’s no need for that. No, they should be exciting creations that tower and delight.

These Salt and Pepper Burgers with Poblano Cheese Sauce and Pears are anything but boring. They are juicy, flavorful creations topped with a flavorful cheese sauce, sweet pear slices and crisp lettuce. They are a sandwich that stands up to its toppings with a toasted bun.

They are, in short, absolutely delightful.

We still love hitting up burger joints when we come across a new one, but these burgers are also a good way to enjoy the burger joint experience at home.

To make these, you’ll want to gather your ingredients. The cooking process is swift, so having all the ingredients gathered, measured and ready to use is essential. There’s even a name for this level of organization: mise en place.

These burgers start with good ground beef. I buy ours from a local farmer who sets up shop at the farmers market. Choose the best ground beef you can get within your budget.

Then you want to make sure to treat it well. Season that ground beef amply with salt and pepper. It’s amazing what those two simple seasonings can do to boost the flavor of ground beef.

Divide the meat into four portions — if you haven’t already — and press them into patty form. It’s okay if the patties end up a little lumpy. Ultimately, you want each patty to be wider than you think it needs to be and about 1/4-inch thick.

Press your thumb into the center. This is supposed to reduce shrinkage, but mostly I find that it makes the burgers shrink evenly

Then you cook them. I often cook burgers in my favorite grill pan on the stove. But they are also delightful on the grill as well — as long as you aren’t out of charcoal or fuel.

It happens to the best of us.

While they are cooking, you need to make a cheese sauce. But this isn’t just any cheese sauce. It’s a poblano cheese sauce and it’s absolutely delightful. Start by making a bechamel — that’s melted butter and flour whisked together and then combined with milk.

To that, add shredded cheddar. I had to use already shredded cheddar because that’s what I had (and cheese is at a premium these days) but freshly shredded is way better. Use that if you have it.

You’ll need one roasted poblano pepper. I had several in a jar in the deep freezer from the farmers market last summer that I took out for using recently. They were delightful in this cheese sauce, as well as in a bean dish I made. But if you don’t have already roasted peppers laying around to use, you can easily roast a poblano pepper at home.

Simply Recipes has a great tutorial to follow.

Now it’s time to build your burger. Start with a toasted bun. I just pop my buns in the toaster, but you could toast yours on the grill or in the oven as well.

Top each one with a burger patty. Then spoon a couple of tablespoons of cheese sauce onto them. You want just enough to cover the top but not so much that it makes the burger super messy.

I mean, it will be a little messy but not crazy messy.

Top the burger with slices of pear and some lettuce. The sweetness of the pear and crispness of the lettuce finishes this off.

So many flavors, textures, contrasts … Yum.

Oh, and serve these burgers with little bowls of extra poblano cheese sauce for dipping. You’ll want to dip the burger in it. And perhaps extra slices of pear or some oven fries.

This is a picture-worthy burger that will remind you of your favorite burger joints without having to leave home. Enjoy!