After receiving Richard’s wonderful chile package, I browsed through his chile recipes (i.e. most of his recipes 😉 ) to get ideas of what to do with those chiles. His recipe for Chihuahua Cheese Stuffed Porcine Chipotle Burgers struck my fancy, so I decided to give it a try. I’ve never seen Chihuahua cheese around here, and I didn’t look forward to inquiring because everyone would think I was talking about a yappy little dog rather than cheese. So I decided to use sardinian pecorino because that is what I had.
I had never heard of chipotle chiles before, so I did not know that they are in fact smoked jalapeños. The flavor of the pork burger with the pickled chipotles mixed into the patties was simply amazing! We both loved it. The smoky flavor of the chipotles worked really well. I will definitely prepare these burgers again and then I will try grilling them on a charcoal fire because I expect that will take them over the top. Thanks Richard, not only for the great gift but also for this delicious recipe!
Ingredients
For 2 burgers
350 grams (.75 lbs) ground pork shoulder
2 pickled chipotles, minced
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground oregano
1/4 tsp ground coriander seeds
1/2 tsp salt
80 grams (3 oz) grated cheese of your choice
Preparation
Combine all the ingredients except for the cheese in a bowl. Wear gloves to avoid getting the hot peppers first on your hands and then on other body parts, which can be very unpleasant.
Mix with your hands until the mixture is homogeneous.
Put 1/4 of the mixture in a ring mold.
Add half the grated cheese.
Cover with another 1/4 of the meat mixture.
Now press down the sides of the meat to close in the cheese so it won’t leak when you grill the burgers. (The picture is not very clear as this is hard to show with my left hand — my right hand was needed to take the photo.)
Grill until the core temperature reaches 60C/140F, about 3 minutes per side.
Rotate the burgers to get nice grill marks.
Serve with your favorite condiments. Leave a comment on Richard’s blog telling him how much you like this 🙂
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
You also need to try chipotles canned in adobo sauce. They’re not pickled, but full of flavor, smoke, and hotness! Great recipe!!!
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I’ll have to see if I can find those around here. I have found a source for dried chipotles, so I can make my own.
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I was also surprised that pecorino melted so well! good to know.
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This is pecorino siciliano. Like pecorino toscano, it has more flavor, is less salty and is not as dry as most pecorino romano. It also melts more easily.
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very good to know, not that i could get it here…
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Manchego may be an acceptable substitute (depending on the manchego…)
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good idea. the young ones probably melt better than the aged.
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Now the easiest way to keep the kids (although I’m sad to say they are rapidly becoming people rather than kids) happy is to produce burgers stuffed with cheese – its always a winner!
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It makes my ‘kid’ Kees happy, too 😉
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Its great if you make them in secret and then when they bite into them they find cheese.. Mind you it only works once!
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Next time you could put in some veggies 😉
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Those do look good… I’m bookmarking this. I will start using my BBQ this week sometime (finally!)
Are Chipotles not well known in the Netherlands? They have become really popular on this side of the Pond over the last 5 – 10 years. It would be hard to find a Pub style eatery that doesn’t have chipotle in at least one dish.
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Now that I’ll look out for them, perhaps I’ll see them more often. I remember that happening when we started driving a convertible. We suddenly saw them everywhere.
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Love those burgers Stefan. I cooked a second Richard recipe last weekend, using beef short ribs. Post to follow, if I ever get time to write it up.
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With this weather I have plenty of time to spend behind my screen 😉
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Love the cumin/coriander/oregano addition. Well, what I have at home is pork/chicken and I’ll have to tweak with the cheese, but the chipotles will be real as they are quite popular Down Under . . . . Thanks for the idea . . .
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Great to read you like it 🙂
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Hi, Stefan. Glad you liked the burgers enough to post them and thanks for the shout out. We are really tickled you are enjoying the chiles. Note, peppers are the fresh ones you buy in the market or direct from the farm, i.e. fresh bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, etc. Once they are dried, they are referred to as chiles. Chili is some stew made by some poor spanish speaking Texan devised to cover up the taste of rancid meat. 😮 Now, you know. 🙂
I noticed your pork seems much redder in color than what we have available commercially here. It’s always interesting to see the differences in the same meat/veggie/dish in different locales. I’m curious what makes the difference but at the same time, knowing what we do with our food source, I may not want to know. ;:
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Thanks for the exposé on the differences between peppers, chiles, and chili, Richard. I wasn’t sure about those because those terms seem to be mixed up by everyone.
I’ve seen campaigns in the US referring to pork as “the other white meat”, which may be why they try to breed it that way. The pork I use is semi-organic and it’s from the shoulder, which is a darker color than for instance the loin.
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These burgers do sound terrific, Stefan. Love the spice combo and the hidden layer of cheese. Richard chose his chili recipients well. 🙂
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