Buffalo Sauce Burgers Stuffed With Blue Cheese

By GaylaJ
 Buffalo sauce, a mixture of melted butter and hot sauce, is a big claim to food fame for Buffalo, New York. It is normally served on fried chicken wings (Buffalo wings), but this burger is a great variation of the theme. The recipe is adapted from one published in my local newspaper and credited to David Joachim, author of The Tailgater's Cookbook. It was included in a feature on tailgating, and the idea was to get these ready to grill at home, then grill them at your tailgating affair. The original recipe called for either ground buffalo or ground beef. Since ground buffalo is not available where I live, I used ground beef. I forgot to notice how long prep took, so the time given is a guess. I served these on PaulaG's Sourdough Hamburger Buns--they are excellent and I highly recommend them.

• 4 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces
• ¹⁄₃ cup mild hot sauce (they mentioned Durkee, I used Frank's RedHot)
• ¹⁄₂ cup finely crumbled blue cheese
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (you may want to use less if you're not a big fan of garlic)
• 2 lbs 85% lean ground beef or 2 lbs ground buffalo meat
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon celery seed
• ¹⁄₃ cup finely chopped onion
• 6 hamburger buns, split

To Make:

1. Melt butter and whisk in hot sauce.
2. Mix blue cheese and garlic in a small bowl.
3. Using your hands, gently mix beef (or buffalo), celery seed, onion and 1/4 cup hot sauce mixture in a medium bowl until blended. Form into 12 patties, using a light touch; the patties should be about 4 1/2 inches in diameter and no more than 1/2 inch thick.
4. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of cheese-garlic mixture in center of 6 patties, then top with remaining patties and press together, sealing edges.
5. Cover and refrigerate until ready to grill. (Even if you aren't making these ahead of time, I think they hold together better after a little chill time).
6. Heat grill to medium and oil grate.
7. Grill burgers about 4-5 minutes on each side, or until cooked to taste. (I'll only eat ground beef cooked well, so I cooked a bit longer.) Brush with remaining hot sauce mixture during last 2 minutes of cooking. Toast buns if you like.
8. (I couldn't think of many traditional condiments I wanted on this burger, so I just ate mine with extra buffalo sauce and lettuce).