Hear me out on this one, because I know how it sounds. Bacon jam cheeseburger egg rolls take a full bacon cheeseburger and a bourbon-spiked bacon jam, wrap the whole mess in an egg roll skin, and fry it at 350°F for three to five minutes until the outside shatters and the inside is a molten cheese-and-beef situation you were not prepared for. That’s the entire pitch. I didn’t believe it either until I made a batch on a Sunday that was supposed to be about laundry and turned into something else entirely.
Preseason football is already creeping back onto the schedule, which means my brain has started drafting the fall snack rotation a little early this year. And I’ve eaten enough gas station “cheeseburger egg rolls” out of a heat lamp case somewhere off I-95 to know the concept works even when the execution is criminal. Turns out somebody finally did it right at home, and it wasn’t me.
Big shoutout to James Brown and the crew over at Grill Nation for this one. Give the man’s site a click, because between this and his smoked burgers he’s clearly not interested in boring food. This recipe stuffs a full cheeseburger’s worth of flavor, bacon jam included, into a wrapper built for pork and cabbage, and somehow the whole thing holds together.
Photo: Pexels
Start with the jam, because it needs to cool before it goes anywhere near a wrapper. Dice up a pound of bacon and crisp it in a skillet, about 8 to 10 minutes, then pull it out and leave a couple tablespoons of the fat behind. Sweat two diced sweet onions in that fat for 6 to 8 minutes until they soften and start to caramelize, dump the bacon back in, then hit the pan with 2 tablespoons of bourbon and 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire and let it cook down for 10 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, maple syrup, garlic powder, and apple cider vinegar and simmer another 20 minutes until it thickens into something you’d spread on toast and never look back. Because you will. That’s the trap of bacon jam. It ruins toast for you permanently.
Photo: Pexels
While the jam cools, brown a pound of 80/20 ground chuck, season it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and once it’s cooked through stir in chopped dill pickles and a splash of Worcestershire. Lay a few slices of white cheddar over the top and let it melt straight into the meat instead of sitting on it like a garnish. That’s the difference between a filling that tastes assembled and one that tastes cooked. After that it’s assembly line work: wrapper down, a couple strips of cheese, a spoonful of jam, a scoop of beef, one more slice of cheese because you already committed to this, roll it tight, seal the edge with an egg-and-buttermilk wash so it doesn’t blow out in the fryer.
Fry them in oil at 350°F for 3 to 5 minutes, turning occasionally, until they’re deep gold and the kind of crispy that cracks instead of bends. Here’s the honest take: don’t skip the wire rack after frying. Paper towels trap steam underneath the wrapper and soften the exact crust you just spent twenty minutes earning. A rack lets air get under it. It’s a two-dollar fix for a problem most guys don’t even know they’re causing themselves.
Photo: Pexels
Whisk together mayo, chipotle ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and a little apple cider vinegar for the dipping sauce, and don’t overthink it past that. It’s a burger sauce. It’s supposed to taste like the best part of a drive-through order, and it does.
I made twelve of these and had four left by the time I actually sat down to watch anything, and two of those four disappeared standing at the counter before I made it to the couch. This isn’t a party appetizer you make once for guests, it’s a recipe that’s going to show up on my counter every time somebody says the word “kickoff” out loud. My one gripe, and it’s minor: the filling makes enough for more wrappers than a single pack usually gives you, so grab two packs before you start, or you’ll end up standing over a bowl of leftover bacon jam with a spoon. Which, honestly, isn’t the worst way an evening’s ever ended.
Football season’s basically back. Somebody tell me what’s getting bumped out of your kickoff spread to make room for these, because I’ve got a feeling it’s happening whether you plan for it or not.