Smoked Cheeseburger Sliders

Smoked Cheeseburger Sliders take our sheet pan cheeseburger sliders to a different level by adding smoke flavor, with the smoker. All you’ll need is Hawaiian buns (and yes, we steam these like we do in our burgers in the oven recipe), ground beef, cheese, butter, and a few spices, and about an hour, then you’re ready to enjoy these as a party appetizer or easy dinner!

 

Slider recipes have become a hit lately, so experimenting with different types of sliders is always fun because you never know which one will be your favorite.

These roast beef sliders, pizza sliders, and fried chicken sliders are just a few of the sliders that have been drool-worthy in kitchens all over! Now, with the idea of smoking sliders, it’s so fun to take the slider ideas and add “smoke” flavor to them. I also made these Smoked Italian Sliders and they were gone within minutes. There’s something about that smoke flavor that changes the whole experience.

Ingredients:

It doesn’t take a lot to make these sliders but I recommend not skipping an ingredient for optimal flavor. I’ll give some notes below that you may find helpful about the ingredients needed!

• Ground beef: I use a lean beef for these, only because we get our beef from a local farm. You can use a fattier beef so just make sure that you “stretch” the beef accordingly when you patty it out in to the rectangle because as the fat cooks, it will shrink. Mine didn’t shrink as much, so it hung over the buns, and that was ok with us!
• American cheese slices: Any cheese should work but I recommend getting cheese sliced in the deli – so good! Or, get thicker cheese for that extra gooey bite.
• Butter: I just use salted or unsalted, whatever I have on hand. However garlic salt is mixed with the butter so if you’re not a fan of too salty, this will be something to keep in mind.
• Hawaiian buns: Make sure you get the 12-pack, sweet buns. You can use the dinner rolls version if you don’t like sweet though.

How to Make Smoked Cheeseburger Sliders:

You can also scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredients and instructions as well. However, I’d love to walk you through the process so you can see a visual of how I make these.

1. Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees.
2. Next, in a large mixing bowl, use your hands to mix together the 2 pounds of ground beef with the seasoning salt and pepper, until it’s evenly combined.
3. Then, on a piece of parchment paper, flatten out the 2 pounds of ground beef in to a rectangle shape that’s slightly larger than the rectangle of Hawaiian buns. (Keep in mind the shrinking that I mentioned above in the ingredient notes.) To be safe, making the rectangle about an inch wider than your Hawaiian buns will be a good size.

TIP: You can also place the parchment paper on a baking sheet if desired, to make the transition of the ground beef to the smoker, easier.

4. When the smoker is preheated, flip the ground beef patty, directly on to the smoker, and close the lid, and set the timer for one hour.
5. When the hour is almost up, melt the butter and garlic salt in a small bowl and set aside. If you do it too early, the butter will harden again.
6. This is also a great time to slice the Hawaiian buns in half (making a top layer and a bottom layer – do not slice each individual bun just yet). Once sliced, place the bottom bun later in the bottom of a 11×9 aluminum pan.

Note: The ground beef will have a pink “tent” to it because it’s smoked. If you want to check the temperature of your beef, insert a meat thermometer in to the center and remove when it has reached 160 degrees.

7. Using a 2 large spatulas, carefully lift the ground beef patty and place it on to the bottom buns that are in the aluminum pan.

8. Next, layer on your slices of American cheese, making sure to cover all of the ground beef. If your cheese slices aren’t very thick, you can do two layers of cheese if you prefer for extra gooeyness.
9. Add top layer of buns on top of the cheese.
10. Then, brush about half of the melted garlic butter on top of the buns. (Saving the remaining butter for later.)
11. Cover the aluminum pan with aluminum foil and place the pan on the smoker for about 10 minutes to allow the cheese to melt and the buns to steam/toast.

12. Using your spatulas, you can remove the cheeseburger sliders from the aluminum pan and place the batch on a cutting board.
13. Using a bread knife, slice the sliders, in to individual pieces, and serve!

What to Serve with Smoked Sliders

When smoking food, it’s always fun to have foods like this easy potato salad recipe, or even more smoked recipes like these smoked mushrooms, as a side dish.

Storing Leftovers

Have leftovers? No problem. You can either reheat them in the oven (cover with aluminum foil) at 350 degrees until the burgers are heated through. (How long will depend on how many you have, if they’re spaced out, etc.)

More Burger Recipes You’ll Love

If you’re a fan of burgers, you’ll also love these favorites:

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