The “deconstructed cheeseburger” casserole

Lately I have a had a fascination with casseroles, and how many different things can be put into them — or, in my, case changed into one.

I found that those oh so wonderful, grilled, juicy, concoctions called cheeseburgers can be made into an equally wonderful casserole, and it doesn’t take much to do it. A few tasty spices, a few choice veggies, a little bit of soup and a quick mix of biscuit mix and you will soon be on your way.

I tripped over this idea when I was having a craving for burgers, but didn’t have any bread, and had a lot of people coming over for dinner. Making burger patties out of what I had just wouldn’t extend to cover all my guests. So I dove into the pantry and found a little bit of everything I needed to make the “Deconstructed Cheeseburger Casserole.”

All you’ll need to start:

• a medium to large onion
• a medium to large tomato
• some shredded lettuce
• 1 12oz can Cheddar Cheese Soup
• 1 lb bag of shredded cheddar (you can get a block and shred yourself, I just use this to save time)
• 1 lb ground meat of your choice (I like to use beef)
• some salt
• pepper
• Steakhouse Onion burger seasoning (my favorite, might I add)
• biscuit mix (I make a half batch of biscuits following the recipe on the box)

Utensils needed are simple:

• a frying pan
• casserole dish (I use a medium 9″X13″ but you can use a larger casserole to make for bigger families or parties)
• a mixing bowl
• a cutting board
• a knife

How to make the deconstructed cheeseburger casserole:

I start out by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees F and lining my casserole dish with foil (makes for MUCH easier cleanup but you can spray you dish with nonstick spray or wipe it down with vegetable oil to keep everything from sticking). Then I set that off to the side.

My next step is chopping my tomato and onion, and dicing it all into ½-1″ pieces. I then set all of those off to the side in their own bowls, keeping about ¼ cups of the chopped onion off to the side.

Next I take my ground beef and put it into the mixing bowl. Then add all of my seasonings, and mix it all together. I also add the ¼ cups of onion. By adding the onion to the mix it allows some of those oniony juices to sweat into the meat.

Then I start browning the ground meat in my large non-stick skillet on medium-high heat, making sure to break up and cook everything until it’s all thoroughly cooked through. Then I drain off as much grease as I can (I even sometimes use a paper towel to sop up extra grease).

I place the beef into the bottom of the casserole dish, along with the onion and tomato, and stir the three together evenly.

Next I spread some of the shredded cheddar over top then the cheddar cheese soup. The mixture of the shredded cheese and soup make it really gooey and oh-so-good. I then set the casserole dish off to the side (sometimes in the microwave to hold the heat).

This is when I prepare the biscuit mixture, sometimes adding some of the shredded cheddar into the biscuit mix along with some of the onion steakhouse burger spice. Once the mixture is ready I’ll roll it all into one big ball, then flatten it out and stretch it (almost pizza dough-style) until it would fit just inside the edge of my casserole dish.

Finally I take the now-prepared biscuit mix and place it over the mixture, making sure it doesn’t quite touch the edges of my dish, as the biscuit dough will expand.

Place in the middle of the oven and bake for approximately 45-60 minutes, or until biscuit topping is golden brown, and the soup cheese mixture is bubbling. (This timing depends on the oven, just check it at 30 minutes and then again at 45 minutes.)

Remove from oven being VERY careful, as it will be extremely HOT. Cut into four pieces (a 9″X13″ pan will make four servings) and serve with shredded lettuce and all condiments used for a cheeseburger. I like to serve it flipped over with the meat on top and biscuit acting as a base. Top with your favorites and DIG IN!