Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Pasilla Burgers

Montana is teeming with ranchers and people who love beef. As far as we are concerned, there are 101 ways to eat a burger. We love the “kick” of the wild, wild west so I threw in a pasilla pepper and plenty of cheese to take it up a notch!

Ingredients:

Patties:

6 large pasilla peppers, washed and seeded

8 oz cream cheese

4 oz crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup green onions, finely chopped

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

12 thick slices of bacon

6 big slices of white sharp cheddar cheese

1 large baguette of sourdough, cut 12 slices for buns

1/4 stick of butter for bread slices

Instructions:

Preheat grill to medium-low. Place peppers directly on grill. Grill for approx. 5-6 minutes, turning as needed until entire pepper is lightly blackened. After the peppers are cooked, cut them in half length wise.

To make the patties, first combine and mix the cream cheese, blue cheese, and onions. Next add the ground chuck, salt, and pepper. Mix together lightly and form into 6 patties. Using 1 pepper for each patty, sandwich the patty in between two pepper slices. Next, wrap two slices of bacon around each pepper patty making sure that the entire pepper patty is wrapped in bacon, use toothpicks to hold the bacon in place.

Butter each slice of bread and set aside.

Turn grill up to medium-high. Place two layers of tinfoil on the bottom rack and then place the bacon wrapped pepper patties on the tinfoil. Cover and cook, turning once, approx. 7-10 minutes on each side. Patties are done when bacon and peppers are cooked thoroughly. During the last few minutes, place a slice of white cheddar on each patty and place bread slices along the outside of the rack to toast lightly.

To assemble the burgers, first remove all toothpicks, then place a patty on a bread slice, add the top bread slice and serve.

Makes 6 burgers.