Pulled Beef Burger with Cayenne Dressing and Pickled Red onions

This pulled beef burger is one of my favorite Sous Vide BBQ-style recipes that I have done over and over with different rubs, toppings and side dishes. It is very easy to experiment with the rubs and BBQ sauces for different flavors and textures. The best part is that you can do this all year around without having to be out in the rain or snow in front of your grill an entire day. Or, if you simply don't have the time for a full day BBQ. You can even do this recipe during weekdays, preparing everything the evening before, and then you only have to build your burger when you come home. You can do the complete burger from scratch, baking the bread, cooking your BBQ sauce and even growing your own salad if you like to. But I choose to give you the key recipe parts that makes this pulled beef burger stunning and will impress everyone you serve this treat to. This recipe contains a larger batch of magic dust rub and you will not use all of it for this recipe, so you can cut it in half if you don’t want to store any remains. However, this rub works very well with any beef you BBQ and it can be stored for a long time. Poor the remains of the rub into a zip lock bag and store dark and dry. Make sure that no moist ever enters the bag and always use a dry spoon to get rub out of the zip lock bag. TIP: There will most likely be much of the ingredients left and the meat can be used for some quick tacos the day after. I usually do one feta cheese and pickled red onions together with a mango/chili salsa taco. Yum!

Author

Per Brage

BBQ and food nerd that loves combining Sous Vide and BBQ to create new and interesting way to enjoy food. Sous Vide is an all-around the year thing, just as firing up a BBQ, which might not be that common in the cold weather of Sweden. You can find my profile on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/perbrage/

Prep Time: 02:00

Recipe Time: 24:00

Temperature : 184.5F / 84.7C

Ingredients

• 3 lb chuck (preferably organic)
• 3 to 6 tablespoons hickory BBQ sauce
• 10 brioche or potato buns
• 1 head of iceberg salad
• 1 pickled cucumber
• 2 tomatoes
• 3.5 tablespoon paprika powder
• 3.5 tablespoon smoked paprika powder
• 3.5 tablespoon table salt (without iodine)
• 3.5 tablespoon ground cumin
• 3.5 tablespoon garlic powder
• 3.5 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons mustard powder
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
• 2 red onions
• 0.5 cups white wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3.5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 0.5 tablespoon kosher chili salt
• 0.5 tablespoon kosher smoked salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 fresh chili
• 1 tablespoon beetroot brine
• 0.5 cups mayonaise
• 1 tablespoon dijoin mustard
• 1 teaspoon ketchup
• 0.5 teaspoon kosher cucumber/dill pickling brine
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (to start with)
• 1 pinch table salt (without iodine)
• 2 pinches black pepper

Directions

1. Set your Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker to 84.7ºC / 184.5ºF
2. Mix paprika powder, smoked paprika powder, table salt, ground cumin, garlic powder, granulated sugar, mustard powder, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper into a fine powder to create the magic dust rub for the chuck.
3. Trim the silver skin and the hard fat (if it is easily accessible) from the chuck, otherwise you will remove it after cooking. Put the chuck in a pot or baking dish, and richly cover it with the magic dust rub all around. If you are smoking the chuck, you should let it rest with the rub for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.
4. Optional step: Fire up your smoker or grill at a really low temperature (75C/167F or lower) and smoke the chuck for 2-3 hours with a bowl of water in the grill using plenty of hickory wood chunks. This step can be skipped.
5. Place the chuck into a vacuum sealed bag using a vacuum sealer and place it in the sous vide container for 24 hrs. Try to drop it in 25 hrs before you want to serve the burgers the next day so you have time to do the finishing touches.

Finishing Steps

1. Use a mortar until the chili and smoked salts resemble table salt. Slice the red onions very thin. Use a mandoline for best result.
2. Mix the vinegars, sugar, bay leaf and salts in in a pot and boil up. Reduce heat slightly and add the sliced red onions and boil for 30 seconds while you add the beetroot brine.
3. Take away from the stove and poor it into a jar. Cut the chili into half (do not remove seeds) and press down on the edge of the jar together with the bay leaf.
4. Let it cool off with the jar lid open before you store it in the fridge for at least 6-8 hrs. The pickled red onions will stay fresh for about 4-6 days in the fridge.

Cayenne dressing (Mix the day before serving)

1. Mix all the mayonnaise, dijon, ketchup, pickling brine, cayenne pepper, table salt and black pepper in a bowl to create the dressing.
2. Play around with more cayenne and brine to your taste. You should really feel the heat from the cayenne, and you know it is perfect when you get a slight cough from the brine. The dressing is supposed be quite spicy and tasty.
3. Store in the refrigerator over night, but make sure to take it out 45 minutes before serving to reach room temperature.

Finishing touches for the pulled beef meat (after cooking)

1. Using a grill tong, gently take out the meat and put it on a baking dish without any liquids in the bag. Use two forks and pull the meat apart, while also removing and large chunks of fat you may find until there is only eatable meat left.
2. Spread another 1 tablespoon of the magic dust rub over the meat and add the hickory BBQ sauce and stir. You want the meat to become sticky and wet, so add 2 tablespoons at the time.

Building the pulled beef burger to serve

1. Slice the tomatoes, and roughly chop the iceberg salad.
2. Optional step: Using your grill or a cast iron grill pan, quickly grill each hamburger top and bottom on both sides to get some color.
3. Build your pulled beef burgers with the buns bottom side with small amounts of cayenne dressing, then build with the iceberg salad, tomato slice, rich amount of pulled beef, pickled red onions and cayenne dressing again (use plenty here) before putting the top lid on it.
4. Serve with coleslaw, fries or any other side dish of your liking, or just eat the pulled beef burger by itself. Enjoy!