BBQ sliders

This week's burger came about in two ways. First, my mother in law bought me a Billy May's slider maker. For those of you who haven't seen this on the late night infomercials it is sort of like a cupcake pan with a press. You can use it on the stove top. Sliders are all the rage the last couple of years. These small burgers are on every restaurant menu from the average chain to a high end restaurant. I recently saw Bobby Flay endorse a 50 dollar slider made with Kobe beef and all top of the line ingredients. To start my slider I mixed the grass fed ground beef with organic cheddar cheese and an organic egg. Again, I have made my new year's resolution to buy all my meat and produce organically. Then I mixed in the seasoning which was salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes, and hot smoked paprika. After I hand mixed the patties then I formed into little balls. There is no need to flatten them as you would for a full size burger because the slider maker presses them down into the uniform shape. My wife Ann suggested that I make my sliders as you would a pulled pork sandwich. I really liked this idea because I love a pulled pork. So I decided to season my burger with the typical pulled pork style dry rub which is garlic, paprika, and garlic. Then we used a barbecue sauce and some cole slaw to top the burger. We just bought some store made cole slaw. It had a sweet flavor which was good for the smoky and spicy burger. For the BBQ sauce I used my favorite store bought sauce which is K.C. original and mixed it with a chipotle mustard. To prepare the sliders I put a small amount of a habanero butter into the pan. Then I preheated the pan before I put the meat into it. Then I pressed the top down and cooked the burgers nicely on both sides without flipping. The buns were nice and soft and we slathered the top with the chipotle BBQ sauce. Then when the burger was finished we topped the burger itself with a bit of a sweet cole slaw for a delicious slider. It had a smoky flavor with a little bit of late heat in the throat after you swallow. Overall the burger really did taste just like a pulled pork sandwich. If I only had a nice piece of corn bread then it really would have been a meal. But this burger was yet another success. As you can see above even one of my dogs, Millie, was excited for these little burgers. I can't believe it but I only have 10 burgers to go. I am looking forward to next week. Another type of slider might definitely be in my future. If you have any suggestions please send them my way.