Burnt Ends Burgers Are The Final Boss Of Grilling Season Offering The Best Of Both Worlds

If you're a meat lover and haven't yet enjoyed a burnt ends burger, you really need to find one. This special dish is loaded with more juicy beef than you can imagine fitting on a bun. You may find a few styles of this daring sandwich, but the essence of a burnt ends burger is made from one addition that's part of a legacy.

If you're wondering what this special burger's burnt ends refers to, it's a juicy section of beef brisket with a well-developed bark, sliced or cubed, and added to the burger. While there are numerous restaurants you can visit for the absolute best BBQ brisket across the U.S., a burnt ends burger will make you reconsider your favorite way to eat beef. 

The burnt ends originated as a giveaway at Arthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City, Missouri. The burned edges of a brisket, also known as deckles, were too difficult to cut for sandwiches, and were piled on the side during the preparation process so customers could enjoy a free, delicious appetizer. These tender pieces of beef became incredibly popular, so BBQ masters, needing more burnt end pieces, began using the fatty point of the brisket to make additional meat available. In addition, cooks started cooking them in BBQ sauce to serve as Kansas City Burnt Ends, also called meat candy. Cooks started using these tender slices of burnt ends as a topping on a burger patty, along with other touches, making this meal into a feast. 

For the best of both worlds, imagine including the best type of beef for juicy burgers, such as a fatty beef with 73/27 lean-to-fat ratio. To make the optimal burger patty, cooks can pat the beef lightly when forming it so it doesn't get too chewy, and grill it to medium doneness. In addition to the burger and large pile of burnt ends, a burnt ends burger is often topped with a special sauce, such as Kansas City-style or Texas-style BBQ sauce. Some versions include a cheese, such as American or Monterey, and are often topped with more unique fare, such as spicy pickle slaw or traditional creamy coleslaw. In addition, you can find some burnt ends burgers topped with onion rings, pickles, and other complementary flavors.

Burnt ends burgers entered the mainstream in 2023 when Smashburger offered a limited-time release of the Carolina BBQ Burnt Ends Burger. If you want to concoct a burnt ends burger at home, you could follow a recipe to make a tender smoked brisket and harvest the burnt ends. However, you might consider taking the path of least resistance and make burnt ends burgers using leftover brisket. For the budget-conscious cook, another option is to make poor man's burnt ends by smoking a chuck roast and cutting the finished beef into cubes to replace the burnt ends from a brisket. For variety, some cooks choose to make burnt ends from pork belly, with potential flavor variations like teriyaki or sriracha and maple. However you decide to cook up this masterpiece, you're in for a tender treat.