Often, my wife (semi-jokingly) accuses me of wanting to put fresh pineapple on everything. These baby pineapple smash burgers on Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls just sounded so good, I couldn’t help myself.
The recipe below is designed to make 6 small, slider-sized baby pineapple smash burgers.
Baby Pineapple Smash Burgers on Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 slices of bacon, cooked to crispy and drained on paper towels
- 12 slider-sized pieces of lettuce
- 6 slider-sized slices of fresh pineapple, drained on paper towels
- 24 slices of red onion, cut 1/8” thick (less than ¼ of a red onion)
- Zest of ½ lime
- Juice of ½ lime
- 6 oz freshly-ground beef with 30% fat, rolled roughly into 6 uniformly-sized balls
- A small pinch of kosher salt (1/4 – ½ tsp) for the burger balls
- 6-12 slider-sized slices of American cheese, depending on how much cheese you would like
- 6 Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls, cut in half horizontally
- 3 Tbsp salted butter, softened
- 6 tsp mayonnaise
Instructions
- Cook your bacon to crispy (or however you like it cooked), and set aside to drain on paper towels.
- Prepare your washed lettuce leaves by cutting them into the shape of your Hawaiian dinner rolls.
- Quickly sear the sliced pineapple on high heat in a nonstick sauce pan until they turn golden-brown on one side.
- Remove pineapple from heat and drain on a paper towel.
- Combine the sliced red onion with the lime zest and lime juice and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
- *Before you cook your patties, make sure you have buttered and toasted your Hawaiian rolls.
- Butter your Hawaiian rolls with ½ of a tablespoon of butter spread on the inside of each half Hawaiian roll.
- Grill the Hawaiian rolls on the buttered and flat side until nice and golden brown.
- Set buttered and griddled Hawaiian rolls aside for assembly when the burgers are done cooking.
- When you are ready to grill your burgers, turn your saute pan onto medium-high heat, and wait for it to heat up for a few minutes.
- *You may want to cook your tiny beef patties two at a time, or even one at a time, so you don’t overcook them.
- Salt your burger balls, and place them onto the hot pan (with no added cooking fat) and cook them for ten seconds.
- Scrape them off the cooking surface and flip them over onto the completely uncooked opposite side.
- Press down into the burgers using a flat spatula until the patties are roughly ¼” in thickness.
- Flip burgers after they have cooked for another 30 seconds.
- Quickly add the American cheese and cook for another 15 seconds.
- Remove from heat and assemble the Baby Pineapple Smash Burgers on Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.
- Spread a very light layer of mayonnaise on your toasted Hawaiian sweet rolls.
- Break both of your crispy bacon slices into three pieces each. Each slider will get 1/3 of a slice of crispy bacon.
- Add the burger patties to your Hawaiian sweet roll bottom, followed by pineapple, topped with the pickled drained red onions, topped with the lettuce and a small piece of crispy bacon, and then cap it with the top of the Hawaiian sweet roll.
- Enjoy while they are still warm!