Cuban Burger

This week's burger was one of my favorites. A Cuban sandwich inspired burger. I grilled the burger over high heat with a little salt and pepper coating. The burger had perfect grill marks when I flipped it after about six minutes. Then I put two thinly sliced pieces of swiss cheese and closed the grill cover to melt the cheese while I prepared the rest of the burger. I always like to initially grill the burger with the cover open to form a high heat from below to sear the meat and then close the cover to create an oven like effect to melt the cheese and to finish the burger. I chose a Ciabatta bun for the Cuban burger to make it more like a sandwich. The sauce for the burger was equal parts mayo, Dijon mustard, and chipotle mustard. After mixing the sauce in a mixing bowl I added it to both sides of the ciabatta and covered the bottom with two pieces of smoked jamon and two flat "sandwich stackers" dill pickles. After the burger was ready and the cheese was melted I then took the burger off of the grill and placed it on the ciabatta. I then returned the entire sandwich to the grill and used my heavy duty cast iron skillet to act as a press. I placed the heavy skillet on the sandwich and closed the grille cover over it. I then flipped the burger and did the same on the other side. When it was done after about 4 minutes on each side I had a panini like burger in between a pressed ciabatta bread sauced with a chipotle cream sauce and topped with smoked jamon, swiss cheese, and dill pickles. The sandwich was killer. Definitely the best one so far on this burger trip. You could taste the sauce with just a little kick and the ham was very tasty and didn't overpower the fact that it was a burger at all. I also just love ciabatta bread with the hard exterior to add some texture and the tasty interior and it is just a great sandwich bread. Overall this burger is moved to the top of my list as a great burger with Cuban flavors to die for. I know I have lots of fans so if you have any suggestions please e-mail them to me. See you next week with another burger.