Cheeseburger Steamed Buns
A Chinese style steamed bun filled with classic American cheeseburger ingredients, including caramelized onions and a pickle slice! I am OBSESSED with these little buns! Cooking the burger right inside a steamed bun makes it so juicy and delicious!
The inspiration for this recipe
Did you know that the original sliders were steamed and not grilled? That’s what makes them so juicy and delicious. They are placed on a bed of sauteing onions, and the steam from the onions cooks the burgers. This made me think – why not steam the burger right inside the bun? Why not incorporate Asian style steamed buns into this process, cooking the bread AND the meat at the same time? Well ask no further! This cheeseburger steamed bun recipe was simple, very cheap, and over the top delicious.
Make the steamed bun dough
Mix together flour, sugar, yeast, baking powder, and salt, and then add some oil and some warm mix. Mix it all together to form the loose dough.
Dump it all out on the table and knead for about 10 minutes to bring it together. Let this rise for about 2 hours before the next step. During that time you can cook the onions and make the sauce.
Build the cheeseburger steamed buns
Roll out the dough, then top it with the onions first, then a burger patty, then some cheese and a pickle.
Fold the dough over the cheeseburger in increments to form the traditional steamed bun pattern. You can use this great guide if you need more help.
It takes a little practice to get this right and I am still on the journey myself but when you make a good one it is so satisfying! At this point I couldn’t wait to eat these cheeseburger steamed buns!
Steaming the cheeseburger steamed buns
Let the cheeseburger steamed buns rise for 15-30 minutes while you preheat the steamer. Steam the buns for about 12-15 minutes until fully cooked!
Cheeseburger dipping sauce
I made a super easy take on classic thousand island or special sauce. Just some mayo, ketchup, bbq sauce, relish, and mustard.
Serve the cheeseburger steamed buns
Now is finally time to dig in! Make sure you let these cool a but cause the insides get so hot. Dip the cheeseburger steamed bun into the sauce and take a bite!
These things were amazing!!! They were juicy, cheesey, beefy goodness. The taste was like the best diner burger you have ever had, all wrapped into a neat doughy package! I have made them a handful of times and every time I can’t stop eating them!!!
Letting the burger cook inside the bun is what makes them so good! I like 85% lean because there is a good amount of flavorful fat in the onions and bread but it’s not too greasy.
Twists on this recipe
There is a version of these cheeseburger steamed buns where the ingredients are chopped up inside the buns to make it a little more like a classic pork bun. I prefer it this way cause it is more like eating a burger. Try it your way! Either way you do it though, do not cook the filling first. Cooking the beef inside the bun is the main key to making these so good!
And of course, you could change up the ther fillings. Change the cheese if you want, or add some tomato!
I used this guide for making the buns and this is the recipe I followed.
For more great twists on burgers, check out my cheeseburger dan dan noodles, this cheeseburger ravioli burger, or these big mac deviled eggs!
Cheeseburger Slider Steamed Buns
Equipment
Ingredients
Burger sauce
- 1 cup mayo
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup bbq sauce
- 1/4 cup sweet relish
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
Bun dough
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil plus more
- 1 cup warm milk
Burgers
- 2 large yellow onions sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 12 ounces 85% lean ground beef
- 6 slices yellow american cheese (or preferred cheese)
- 12 pickle chips
Instructions
- Mix the burger sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Cover and store in the fridge until ready to use.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and baking powder. Stir in the oil and milk and mix to combine. Dump out onto a surface and knead by hand for about 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. You could also do this whole thing in a mixer!
- drizzle oil in a clean bowl and add the dough. Spin the dough around to coat with the oil. Cover and let rise about 2 hours until doubled in size.
- While the dough is rising, add the onions to a pan with the butter. Season with salt. Cook about 45 minutes on medium heat, stirring often, to brown and cook down.
- Split the meat into 12 pieces. Form small patties with them. Season with salt and pepper. Cut the slices of cheese into quarters to make 24 squares.
- Split the dough into 12 balls. One by one, roll out a dough ball into a 5 or 6 inch round.
- To build a bun, add about a tablespoon of caramelized onion first to the center of the round of dough. Top with a burger patty, then two of the cheese squares. Top with the pickle chip.
- Fold up the dough by putting your thumb over the pickle and using your fingers to grab one edge of the dough, bringing it to your thumb. Continue to grab dough in small increments and fold it into the center by your thumb, pressing to seal. Go all around until the dumpling is formed but the hole where your thumb is remails. See my photos and the link above for additional instructions.
- Prepare the steamer on high. Let the dumplings rise at least 15 minutes to a half hour before steaming. cut some parchment paper into squares the exact size of the buns. Place each bun on a square of parchment and place in the steamer basket. Steam the dumplings on high for about 12-15 minutes until cooked through.
- Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving with the sauce.
Welcome Back!
Yes! These were so good.
If you have ground beef already, this meal will cost you $4.91. Seriously.
So Awesome! I’ll let you know how the leftovers are… 😉
I reckon you could start a fast food stop based around this idea and run white castle out of business….
Looks like White Hut in Asian form. Mmmmmm
Thank God my favorite Gossip-girl loving, Western-Mass dwelling, experimental food blogger is back.
You make my wildly indulgent consumption of tasty food seem normal.
Keep it up.
AWESOME. I might put this on a menu if I ever open a restaurant. BTW huge fan of your Indian dishes and use of plaintains! (tostones also on the menu)
These sound so good! I might try them out with my teriyaki burgers!
so i’m a little confused… do you fill ’em with goodies before the last rise period? i’m planning on making them tonight with cheesy black bean burger insides and want to get it right.
yeast/water – rise
add flour, etc to make dough, knead – rise
then is it cut into pieces, flatten/roll, fill, rise?
or let em rise then flatten them to make them goodie recepticles?
sorry if i’m not seeing this right…
Ted – you have it right except that third rise was practically non existent. As i mentioned earlier we cut all rise times almost in half, and the third rise is only 30 minutes, we probably gave them less than 10.
gotta say, the recipe worked great and i can personally vouch that spicy cheesy bean burger stuffing was a tremendous success. my lady and i had 3 last night, i had two for lunch today, and we have 6 more in the freezer. thanks for the post, this one is a keeper.
Made these for a Super Bowl party yesterday. Brilliant and delicious!
Would you stick leftovers in the freezer without steaming them, or steam and then freeze? Can’t wait to try these!
they look like Chinese food which named Steamed stuffed bun,I suggest you could learn how to make Steamed stuffed bun plait,but you have done perfect~!haha
This recipe is fantastic! I like it very much!
I’m starting to like your blog so much. Thanks for sharing!
The recipe is good and the Cheeseburger is looking very delicious…