Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: It’s Taco Tuesday. Do you know what that means? We are going to be making some tacos for dinner. These are going to be ground beef tacos, and I have a little PSA before we get started. Did you know that you can make tacos without buying that spice packet from the grocery store? If you have a well-stocked spice cabinet, you can totally make tacos. 

This is a great budget-friendly dinner, one pound of ground beef, some taco shells, maybe some toppings, salsa, and your spice cabinet, and you have dinner made in under 30 minutes.

Tips and Tricks: Before we get to making this recipe, let me go over a couple of tips that I have for you when you’re making homemade ground beef tacos. First of all, is your ground beef. I recommend that you use 85/15 ground beef. If you have 80/20, it will totally work. I just find sometimes 80/20 in tacos can get a little bit greasy. The 85/15, or even 90/10 still has enough fat to be flavorful, but not so much fat that you’re going to have greasy taco meat. I recommend 80/20 for hamburgers, but that’s because some of the grease is going to drain out of your hamburger into the grill. Whereas with taco meat and stuff, you’re actually sauteing it in a pan and it’s cooking in its own fat. Which is actually flavor and delicious, but too much is not good. So 85/15 is my recommendation here. 

Number two, this is a piece of equipment that I love and I use way more than I thought I would. I am not one who likes equipment in the kitchen just to have equipment. I like things that I use often. I’m not even sure of the technical name of this piece of equipment. I call it a meat masher, and it basically looks like a four-pronged spatula. It has a cross, and you literally can mash the meat up and crumble the meat really well. It works great for sausage which can sometimes be hard to crumble. 

Ground Beef Tacos Recipe: Let’s get onto this recipe. So you’re going to want to take a large skillet over medium heat and add some oil to that pan about a tablespoon of olive oil or vegetable oil will work as well. Now once that’s hot, you’re going to add one pound of ground beef and get to crumbling that while it browns and cooks through. While that cooks, I recommend mixing up your seasoning in a little bowl. What you’re going to need for that is one teaspoon each of chili powder and cumin, half a teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and dried oregano. A quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika, and then three-quarters teaspoon of kosher salt, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. If you like a little spice, you could certainly add some red pepper flakes in there or some cayenne pepper. 

Now mix that together with a fork and set that aside for just a minute. Go back to the ground beef and drain off any excess grease that has been collected in the pan. Then you’re going to stir in one and a half tablespoons of tomato paste. Get that coated on all of the ground beef, and then you’re going to sprinkle in your seasoning. Again, stir around the pan, and get everything nice and coated. Pour in a third a cup of water, and then just let that simmer for about two minutes and it will get nice, syrupy isn’t the right word, it gets nice and kind of thick and coats the ground beef and makes it look like taco meat. Now you’re going to remove that from the heat and it’s time to make your tacos.

So however you like your tacos, hard shell, soft shell, lettuce, cheese, sour cream. Salsa, guacamole. I’ve got a great salsa and guacamole recipe that I will link in the show notes for you. But however you like it, set it all out and let everybody make their own tacos. 

Now, as far as side dishes, if it’s a busy night, put out some chips, salsa, and guacamole and call it good. If you want it more of a full Mexican-style dinner, I’ve got a great recipe for 15-minute refried beans, which let me tell you, the secret to really good refried beans is using a can of whole pinto beans and a can of refried beans. Mix it together. So good. Then I also have a great recipe for Mexican rice that I will also link in the show notes for you.

That does it for Ground Beef Tacos pretty easily, right? Of course, I will link the full principle recipe for the Ground Beef Tacos in the show notes for you so you can easily find it when you’re ready to make them. 

That does it for today. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That way, all of our new episodes will show up right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Hello. Hello. Let’s make some dinner. It’s about dinnertime and I am getting ready to put together dinner. I thought I would come on here and talk about what we are making tonight.

We are having Parmesan Tilapia. If you need a quick and easy dinner idea that doesn’t taste or feel quick and easy, this is it. It’s ready in 15 minutes from start to finish. I have some great side dish ideas that I’ll give you at the end that will also be ready in 15 minutes. 

Some of the ingredients that you’re going to want to make sure that you have on hand for this recipe are tilapia filets, fresh Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, softened butter, a lemon, capers, just some normal spices from your spice cabinet. There is one spice that you may not have, and that is dried dill weed. You’ll definitely want to grab that because the dill is perfect in that Parmesan sauce. If you like a little hot sauce, you can also make sure that you have some Tabasco or Chululo or whatever your favorite hot sauce is.

Tips and Tricks: Some equipment that you need to make sure you have to make this recipe is a rimmed baking sheet, foil, and then some kind of non-stick cooking spray. All right, let’s go over some tips for this recipe. Now, if you’re buying tilapia filets, you’ll want to buy something that is about six to eight ounces in size for each filet. When I buy my tilapia filets frozen, if I can remember, I will put them in the fridge the day before and let them thaw in there. But if you’re like me, you always forget about it. We need quick thaw methods over here at this house. For a quick thaw, what you want to do is fill up either a bowl or your sink with just room temperature water, keep that tilapia in its original packaging, and place it right down in that water. Leave it for about 10 to 15 minutes, then switch the water out again and let it sit in there for another 10 to 15 minutes, and it should be nice and thawed for you to use in this recipe. 

Another tip I have for you is the lemon. When you have a recipe that calls for the zest and the juice of a lemon, you always want to make sure that you zest first. Then cut it in half and squeeze the juice. 

Parmesan Tilapia Recipe: All right, let’s get started with this recipe. It actually comes together very quickly. So you want to do a few prep things before you actually start cooking your tilapia. The first thing is to preheat your oven broiler to 500 or 550 degrees and move that oven rack to one of the top two positions, so it’s anywhere from like six to 10 inches from that broiler heating element.

Next, you want to go ahead and mix up that Parmesan sauce that’s going to go on top of the tilapia. In a small bowl, you’re going to stir together half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese, three tablespoons of each one of these – mayonnaise, sour cream, and butter. Then you want zest of about half of the lemon, one and a half tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and one and a half tablespoons of capers. A three-quarter teaspoon of onion powder, half a teaspoon of kosher salt, and half a teaspoon of dried dill weed. Half a teaspoon of hot sauce if you like it spicy. Okay, it’s not going to be super spicy. It just adds a nice little tang or kick to the sauce and then finishes with a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. Give that all a mix and then set that aside. You don’t need that quite yet. 

Now you’re going to want to prepare your rimmed baking sheet by covering it with foil and then spraying it generously with some type of non-stick cooking spray. Then go ahead and lay the tilapia filets on the baking sheet so they are not overlapping or touching. Pop that under the broiler for about three minutes. Then you’re going to pull it out of the oven and flip those filets over. Now you need the Parmesan sauce. You’re going to grab that Parmesan sauce and divide it evenly across all four filets and then spread it to the edges of each piece of fish. Then return it to the broiler for about another four or five minutes and it’s done.

That is it. That is the whole entire recipe. Isn’t it crazy? Your fish will be nice and flaky. The Parmesan sauce gets kind of golden in spots. Now if some of it starts to seep off of the fish when it comes out of the oven, you can just kind of spoon that back over the fish. 

For side dishes, when I am serving Parmesan tilapia, I like to add usually some type of vegetable and some type of starch. For the vegetable, I just love to do an oven-roasted asparagus. You could even pop it in the oven when the tilapia is in there. My oven-roasted asparagus is cooked at 400 degrees for 12 minutes, but since you have that broiler on, you could probably get it cooked in, I don’t know, like eight minutes. 

Then I also like to serve a couscous on the side. If you’ve never made couscous, it’s ready in about eight minutes because you just boil some broth or water. Pop that couscous in there, remove it from the heat and let it sit covered for five minutes. That’s it. It’s done. 

So as you can see, all of these dishes are really done and ready in 15 minutes. You’re going to have an amazing dinner. I will place the links for the full printable recipes for the Parmesan tilapia and the oven roasted asparagus, so they will be easy for you to find right in the show notes. 

If these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner helping you get dinner on the table, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. It will just make it easier for you to find our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, make your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Calling all potheads. Okay, we’re not talking about marijuana today. We are talking about our lovely instant pots. Do you have an Instant Pot and do you love it? I am obsessed with mine when I first got it though, I will be honest, I felt like I was going to blow up my entire house and everybody in it. So the first couple times I actually made anything in my instant pot, I made everybody leave the kitchen and I would peek around the corner and see how much time I had left and then forget it about the very first time I had to turn that pressure valve and all the pressure flew out like a shotgun. So scared. But really, once you get everything figured out, the Instant Pot is such an amazing kitchen tool. You can cook huge pieces of meat, like pork loin or pork shoulder in such a short amount of time. Or even we love to make beef stew in it because that beef stew meat that is super inexpensive, cooks down incredibly tender in your instant pot.

Tips and Tricks: Today we are not making any of those recipes Today we are making Instant Pot Pulled Barbecue Chicken. If you are a meal prepper, you like to cook a large batch of something on the weekend and have it for your busy week ahead. If you want to cook something in the morning so that it’s ready for dinner at night, this is an excellent recipe because it keeps really well in the fridge.

Or if you want to make it and pop it in the freezer, It keeps really well in the freezer for about three months. But if you are just in time for dinner and you want to make pulled barbecue chicken sandwiches, it’s ready in about 30 minutes from start to finish. 

I bet you already have most of the ingredients you need to make this recipe. Oe thing you’re going to definitely want to make sure you have is one and a half to two pounds of fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts. You could also add in some thighs if you like a little dark meat. On this recipe, I have ingredients to make basically like a barbecue dry rub for your chicken. If you have one already that you like to use, just plan to use that. You don’t need to make your own. It’s not crucial part of the recipe. But if you do want to use my recipe, you’ll wanna make sure that you have brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder, smoked paprika. Then for the liquid in the pot, we’re going to do either water or chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, and some crushed garlic cloves.

One tip that I want to give you on the chicken, we are picky about our chicken in this house because I’ve had too many experiences with chicken that had a weird texture, was kind of grizzly or tasted weird, and we were just done with it. What I found is the very best chicken is called air chilled chicken, and that’s not a brand. It is a method. Anytime you can find a chicken that says air chilled right on the front of the package, that’s going to be one of your very best options for flavor and texture. 

Instant Pot BBQ Chicken Recipe: All right, let’s get on with the recipe. You’ll want to take your chicken breasts and if you have extra large chicken breasts, go ahead and cut them into four pieces. If it’s more of a normal or small sized chicken breast, then just cut each piece in half. Then you’re going to want to make your barbecue dry rub. Like I said before, if you already have one that you like, go ahead and use that. But if you do not in a little bowl, you’re going to want to mix together one teaspoon of brown sugar, one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt, one teaspoon of both black pepper and garlic powder, half a teaspoon of onion powder, and a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika. Give that a really good mix and then sprinkle that on all sides of the chicken. I like to press it onto the chicken a little bit so that it adheres really well. 

Now inside of the Instant Pot, you’ll pour one cup of water, or you can use chicken broth, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, half a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, and then three or four cloves of crushed fresh garlic. Go ahead and place that seasoned chicken right down in that liquid and then pop the lid of the instant pot on. Turn that pressure valve on the top to seal and set your instant pot to cook on high pressure, normal heat for eight minutes.

At the end of that eight minutes, you’ll do something called a five minute natural release, and that is just where the pot stops heating up. The pressure starts to dissipate and the pot will start to count back up in time. Once it reaches five, you’ll finish releasing the pressure with a quick release by turning that pressure valve on the top of the pot to vent.

Go ahead and remove the chicken pieces from the pot and you’re gonna get to either pulling or shredding. This is an excellent kitchen tip that I use every single time. To shred my warm chicken, I will put it in my stand mixer with the paddle attachment and run it for about 25 seconds. It shreds the chicken perfectly. You may have one or two pieces that you need to shred with a fork, but otherwise it works like a charm. I’m telling you, this is not a kitchen hack that doesn’t work. I promise you it works because I use it every single time. 

Now at this point, if you want to pop your chicken in the freezer, go ahead and put it in a freezer safe bag or container and put it in there for three months. If you’re saving this for dinner for later, you can put it just as is with a little bit of that liquid from the pot in a container, and pop it in the fridge for up to four days. But if you’re just in time for dinner, then you’re going to want to mix your shredded chicken with about a half to three quarters cup of your family’s favorite barbecue sauce.

Then you can pile high on buns with all of your favorite sandwich toppings. For barbecue chicken sandwiches, we love to do either pickles, pickled jalapenos, pepperoncinis, or some type of creamy coleslaw piled high on top of that pulled chicken. 

For side dishes. It really depends on what kind of night it is. So if it’s a busy weeknight, the side dishes may look like chips and raw veggies with ranch dip. If I have a little more time, then we love an instant pot potato salad and baked beans to go with our barbecue sandwiches. 

As always, I will link all of these recipes right in the show notes for you, including the full printable recipe for the instant pop pulled barbecue chicken. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That way you can find all of the future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Welcome, welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner. We are getting near the end of the school year and we’re sliding right into summer. So I am looking for all of those easy recipes that I know that my whole family will eat, and the recipe that I’m making tonight is one that I know the whole family will eat. We’re talking about Garlic Butter Steak Bites. They’re super garlicky, and buttery and delicious, and they’re budget conscious. It’ll be like you’re having filet minion on a sirloin budget.

One of the nice things about this recipe is it’s considered a skillet recipe. So you’ve got one pan that you’re going to cook all of these steak bites in. Then if you wanna worry about some side dishes, we can talk about those at the end. It’s also a dinner that you will have ready and on the table in under 30 minutes.

Tips and Tricks: A few ingredients you want to make sure you have are olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, butter, plenty of fresh garlic. Fresh rosemary, which actually, if rosemary is not your favorite flavor, you could certainly sub out fresh thyme in its place. Then lastly, your worcestershire sauce and a top sirloin steak.

Now, top sirloin is a very lean cut of beef that has a really nice beefy flavor. The only thing is that since it’s more of a lean cut of beef, you do not want to cook this to well done. We’re talking like medium rare to medium at the most. If that’s not your jam, if you’re like, I better not see any pink on the inside of my beef, then you need to skip this recipe and move on to something else.

This top sirloin, when you cook it to a medium rare or medium, it’s going to eat more like a filet than a sirloin. If you have followed me in the past, then you know that I love Aldi. I’m not being paid to talk about Aldi. I just love to go to Aldi. I feel like I can save quite a bit of money there. They actually have really, really nice sirloin steaks. They are nice and large. You can get them like two, two and a half pounds, and they’re not full of gristle. They just have some nice beef fat on them. They are perfect for this recipe. 

Garlic Butter Steak Bites Recipe: Let’s get into making this recipe. You’re going to start by cutting your steak into about one inch, one and a half inch sized pieces. Now if you do have any gristle or large pieces of fat left on your steak, then go ahead and cut that away and discard. Season all of the steak pieces with some kosher salt and black pepper. If you have a cast iron or non-stick skillet, that’s what you’re going to want to use. Place it over medium high heat and add one to two tablespoons of either olive oil or vegetable oil. Both of those have a high enough smoking point to get a nice sear on your steak pieces. 

Another tip for this recipe is that you’re going to want to cook your steak in batches. When you crowd a skillet or a pan or a sheet pan, you actually will start to steam whatever it is that you’re cooking instead of sauteing or browning. 

So with this recipe, you’re probably going to want to cook your steak in three, maybe four batches, but it still goes really quickly. Once that oil is nice and hot in the pan, you’ll lay your first batch of steak bites into the oil and let it cook for about one minute. Then you can flip it, cook it for an additional minute, and then finish for about 30 seconds and you can either stir it around the pan or brown, another side. But about two and a half minutes is all you need to cook these steak bites to about a medium rare. Then you’ll just go ahead and take that batch out of the pan, set it aside on just a plate or whatever you have to the side. Then if you need to add more oil to the pan, go ahead and do that and continue with that process, cooking all of the rest of the steak bites. 

After you have cooked all of the steak bites, go ahead and turn that heat down to about a medium low. You’re going to add the butter with the chopped garlic and rosemary and saute that around the pan for just a couple minutes. Then you’re going to take the steak pieces and any juices that collected on the plate and add it back into the pan, stir it around. Finish with one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and stir it again and it’s time to eat. That’s it. 

When I serve these steak bites, I like to keep it pretty classic with a starch and a vegetable. Now you’ve got that skillet that you just cooked all of those steak bites in. What I like to do is add a little bit more oil and some fresh green beans, saute those, add a little garlic at the end and some kosher salt. Serve those on the side. I actually have a recipe on moms dinner.net for skillet garlic green beans that I will link in the show notes for you. 

The next recipe that I recommend is a side dish is next level, people. Next level. It is from my friend Lori over at the food blog, Josie and Nina, and they are crispy oven potatoes. So you’re just taking new potatoes or red potatoes and you’re slicing them in half. You put them on a sheet pan with, it’s almost a whole stick of butter, so it obviously they’re going to be really good. If you’re on any kind of diet, that might not be the recipe for you, but I’m telling you it is worth it for these potatoes. You pop them in the oven. They come out tender and buttery on the inside, but the outside has this crispiness that is just, it’ll blow your mind. It’ll be one of your new favorite side dishes. So I’m going to go ahead and link those in the show notes as well. 

Besides those two recipes, I will also link the full printable recipe for the garlic butter steak bites. The recipe will serve four to five people.

That does it for today. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That way, all of our future episodes will be easy to find right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. However, I wish I was being paid by Aldi, so if you got the hookup, send them my way.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

There’s one recipe we’ve made. What’s it called again? Oh yeah, we love that one. I can’t even talk about this recipe without my mouthwatering. Okay. Those are some of the things that people say to me when they talk about this recipe. It’s called Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet, and it’s what we’re making for dinner today. This is probably one of the most talked about recipes on momsdinner.net. If I’m at a dinner party or I run into somebody at the grocery store, this is usually the recipe that is brought up when we talk about Mom’s Dinner.

I think there’s a couple reasons why people love this recipe so much. Number one, it’s ready in about 30 minutes, so it’s a really quick dinner to make. Number two, it is considered a skillet meal, and not only is it just made in one pan, the whole recipe together is its own dinner, so it’s not like you have to have any kind of side dishes. You can just eat the Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet and it covers all of your bases. 

Tips and Tricks: All right, some of the ingredients that you want to make sure you have on hand to make this dinner. Now, these are ingredients that you might not already have. A shallot, fresh garlic, a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth. Capers, Orzo pasta. Then you’ll need one pound of a medium to large sized shrimp. For this recipe, I like to use a raw peeled and de-veined shrimp. Whether or not the tail is on, that’s totally up to you. You’ll also need kalamata olives, fresh basil, and feta cheese. So I think from those ingredients you kind of get an idea of what this recipe is all about.

I also wanna give you a couple tips on a few of the ingredients. The feta cheese will probably be available in a couple different options in the grocery store. What I recommend is that you buy the block of feta cheese instead of the, it’s pre crumbled feta cheese that usually comes in a little container. The block feta cheese is going to be more flavorful and creamier and tangier and brinier. It’s going to be way better than that pre-crumbled cheese. 

The other tip that I wanna give you is for the shrimp. If you are buying frozen shrimp and you forgot to thaw it, because who remembers to thaw meat? I always forget. If you need to do a quick thaw on your shrimp, my best advice is to fill up either a bowl or the sink with a room temperature water, submerge the shrimp in its package. Now, if you’ve already taken it out of its package, then go ahead and put it in a Ziploc baggie, submerge it in that water, and let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then swap out the water with some more room temperature water, pop that shrimp back in there, in the package for about another 10 to 15 minutes. You keep doing this until that shrimp is thawed, and that’s considered a quick thaw method. 

Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet Recipe: Let’s get into making this recipe one piece of equipment that you’re going to want to have to make this, is a large non-stick skillet, preferably with a lid. Pop that over medium heat, and you’re going to add in three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Once that’s nice and shimmery and hot, you’re going to add a half a cup of finally chopped shallots. Saute that around the pan for about two to three minutes. Then you’ll stir in three garlic cloves that have been chopped or minced, one and a half teaspoons of sugar. One teaspoon each of kosher salt and dried oregano. Half a teaspoon of black pepper and a quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir that around the pan and you’ll begin to smell it and it smells so good. 

Then you’re going to add 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with the juice. Do not drain those tomatoes. Add one cup of chicken broth and two tablespoons of capers. Then you’re going to stir in one cup of that dried orzo pasta. Stir it around the pan so that it’s kind of nestled down into the liquid, so it begins to cook. You’re going to let that simmer for about 10 minutes, and you’ll want to make sure that you stir it occasionally just so that orzo doesn’t cook to the bottom of the pan. 

It’s time to add the shrimp. Go ahead and nestle one pound of medium to large size shrimp down into the liquid that’s in the pan. Then cover the pan. This is where you’re gonna need that lid. If your pan does not have a lid, you could also use foil or just like a sheet pan that you place over top. 

Let that simmer for about four minutes until the shrimp are cooked through. Now you’re going to remove that pan from the heat completely and add in mega flavor. I need to add like the background sound. That’s like boo boo boo, mega flavor. All right, here we go. Here we go. All right. All right, so add in a half a cup of chopped kalamata olives. A third a cup of fresh basil that’s been chopped. Then crumble in your six ounce block of feta cheese. 

Then pop the lid back on and let that just sit together for about two minutes, and your dinner is ready. It’s time to eat. 

When I serve this dish, I like to just spoon it into bowls rustic style and serve either warmed up pita or warmed up ciabatta bread on the side. If you want to bulk up the dinner, you could definitely add a green side salad. I would highly recommend a basil vinaigrette, and I have an excellent recipe for a fresh basil vinaigrette on momsdinner.net. I will link that in the show notes for you. 

That’s it for this recipe. As always, I will link the full printable recipe and any other recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the notes for you so you can always find the Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet whenever you crave it. 

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow on your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Welcome everybody to the very first episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Okay, we’re not going to come in like that every single time. I’m just super excited because this is the very first episode of Let’s Make Dinner, my new podcast. I just want to take a minute and say thank you for being here. Thank you for listening and supporting me. I am super pumped about this new journey that I’m on. 

The very first episode, the very first recipe. We had to make it a really killer one, and today we are talking about the perfect juicy, grilled hamburger. That is something that you want to have in your arsenal, especially for grilling season, which here in Kansas is spring, summer, fall, and maybe not winter. I am not strong enough to get out there in the winter. I just don’t do it. I know some of y’all are out there and praise you for getting out there in the cold.

Tips and Tricks: All right, so for your burgers, if you want to make burgers for dinner, this is going to take you about 10 minutes to actually make the burger patties. Depending on how well done you want your burgers, we’re talking about eight minutes to grill. So in total, this dinner is probably going to take you about 20 minutes. So under 30 minutes. Not bad to have some killer grilled hamburgers.

You probably have most of the ingredients you need to make really good grilled hamburgers. Besides maybe the beef. This recipe costs one and a half pounds of 80/20 ground beef. The rest of the ingredients, I bet you have in your spice cabinet and then in the fridge. I bet you have Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard. You need a little milk and you need a piece of white or wheat bread. 

Now, some tips when you are making grilled hamburgers. Number one, the main ingredient here is ground beef. You want to make sure that you are buying really high-quality ground beef. So if you have a butcher that you can go to, definitely choose that option over, I’m going to explain this to you and I hope you know you’re what I’m talking about, that kind of block of ground beef that’s already pre-packaged and it’s all smooshed together. 

The better option is going to be something that is more fresh ground that looks like ribbons of ground beef, but if you can get it at the actual meat counter, that’s going to be your best option. If you can get ground chuck, that is the best. However, a lot of times when I ask the meat counter, dude if they have ground chuck, I usually just get pointed to an 80/20. At the very least, get an 80/20 ground beef. 

The next tip I have for you is to make a panade, and that’s where the milk and the bread come in. A panade is basically, I think, is that a French word? I mean, it sounds French. It’s basically a kitchen or cooking technique where you’re mixing starch and a liquid to keep a ground meat recipe juicy, which is perfect in this case for grilled burgers. It works really well for Turkey burgers, meatballs, or meatloaf. Pretty much any recipe you’re going to find on my site for any of those things is going to have a panade mixed in. 

Two more tips I have for you. Before we get to the actual making of the recipe. You’re going to want to form your burger patties about half an inch to an inch larger than the bun you’ll be serving them on because they’re going to shrink up just a smidge on the grill. Once they shrink up, if you make them a little bit larger than the bun, they will fit your bun perfectly. 

The other tip is when you form that patty, take your thumb, your clean thumb, or a clean spoon, and press it right into the middle of the burger patty, making it kind of a little divot. And that also helps prevent the burgers from shrinking up into little hockey pucks. Have you ever had those burgers that grill up into slider-sized burgers? This will prevent that from happening.

Perfect Grilled Hamburgers Recipe: All right, so onto the recipe. How do we make these burgers? So you’re going to start by making that panade in a bowl. You want to mix one piece of white or wheat bread that you have torn or cut into tiny little pieces. Three tablespoons of milk, a teaspoon of kosher salt, a teaspoon of onion powder, half a teaspoon of black pepper, and then one garlic clove that you minced really well. A tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. You’re going to mix that all together, and that is your flavorful panade that’s going to get mixed into the burgers. I like to wash my hands really well and get my hands in there and literally squish the panade like it’s Play-Doh. That really gets it down into that nice paste that will mix into the ground beef really, really well. If you don’t want to get your hands in there, that’s fine. Then you just want to use a fork or spoon or something to really mash everything together. 

Then you’re going to add your ground beef. When you add your ground beef, make sure that you’re not overworking the beef into the panade. You don’t want to end up with tough little hockey pucks like we talked about before. So mix that ground beef in just until everything is incorporated together. Then you can form your patties. 

Now you can grill your burgers on a gas or charcoal grill. Obviously, either one will work. If you are grilling on a gas grill, you’ll want to set your grill to a medium, medium-high heat and grill them right over direct heat. I recommend about four minutes per side. Same with a charcoal grill. You’re going to want to set it up for direct grilling, and then you’re going to want to grill them for about four minutes per side.

Now if you want to add cheese to your burgers, then what I recommend doing is moving your burgers to the indirect heat side. Place the cheese on and then close the grill up for about a minute and let that cheese melt. Grab all of your burgers, take them inside, and get ready to eat. 

When you are serving your perfect juicy grilled burgers, some side dishes that I recommend are of course fries or sweet potato fries. That’s just classic, right? Some other ones are potato salad. If sweet corn is in season, get that in there. Baked beans, coleslaw, or any of those classic barbecue side dishes will work here. I will link my recipe for potato salad and instant pot sweet corn in the show notes for you. That’s it for today.

As always, I will link the full printable recipe for Perfect, Juicy Grilled Burgers in the show notes, and you can use it all summer long. Or all year long if that’s how you do. 

Thank you so much for listening today. If you are enjoying Let’s Make Dinner, then I would love it if you would subscribe or follow your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.