The Best Bacon Cheeseburgers Use A Pinwheel Shape

Heads-up, burger lovers; there might be a better way to make a bacon cheeseburger. It's a hot take, especially when you consider the debate on how to throw together the absolute best burger in town. After all, every home cook and celebrity chef makes their own "perfect" burger. Bobby Flay melts his cheese after the hamburger has cooked, for example, and Gordon Ramsay pre-melts his cheese. Meanwhile, Alton Brown loves to make smashburgers and Giada De Laurentiis uses an Italian-inspired burger mix. But you should try making a burger in a completely different way. Instead of flattening the meat out, roll it up and cook it in a pinwheel laced with bacon.

These aren't the puff pastry-wrapped bacon cheeseburger pinwheels you may envision. Those are flaky and saturated with butter, more pastry than burger. Instead, these pinwheel-style burgers are a twist on a hamburger with recipes circulating online that involve rolling up hamburgers inside long strips of bacon. Sizzle, smoke, or grill that up like you would a hamburger and put it on a hamburger bun.

Pinwheel-style bacon cheeseburgers have their name because of how they're made: Ground beef is flattened onto the inside of a long piece of bacon, then rolled up to resemble a pinwheel, secured with a skewer, and cooked. Once they're cooked up and covered in cheese (don't forget to remove the skewer), pinwheel-style bacon cheeseburgers look a lot like any other gourmet hamburger, but about twice as tall. The bacon wrapping creates high sides reminiscent of a filet mignon. That alone makes a pinwheel-style bacon cheeseburger a great way to make an impression when you're hosting everyone for burger night.

The way you dress up a pinwheel-style bacon cheeseburger can make that burger even more gourmet. Add pineapple, Asian-style sauces, and coconut slaw for a tropical theme, or pile it high with sautéed mushrooms, sliced onions, caramelized jalapeños, blue cheese, or even peanut butter for a totally out-of-the-park take on a traditional bacon cheeseburger. Serve it up alongside shoestring fries and potato salad with plenty of craft beer and canned cocktails for easy drinking in the backyard. There are general mistakes to avoid when you're making a burger, but turning them into pinwheels isn't one of them.