This is one of these fun for kids (and adults!) recipes that makes for a great quick supper or lunch. This recipe was originally sent to me by an Amish woman in New York State. Many Amish cooks will have their own home-canned, homemade pizza sauce on hand for this and, wow, that probably makes the meal extra delicious. But you can use store-bought stuff. Enjoy!
🍕 The Amish and Pizza
The Amish like their pies just like anyone else does. Pizza has become a popular food among the Amish, one of those classic pop culture fare items that made its way into the Amish and has become embraced. And it's not difficult to see why, from a practical perspective. With pizza you essentially have homemade bread (the crust), which the Amish are known for. You have homemade pizza sauce, which is made from tomatoes that are plentiful in most Amish gardens. Most of the toppings for a pizza are ones the Amish have on hand anyway. And pizza feeds a crowd (which the Amish have a lot!)
But even if homemade pizza isn't in the cards, a quick stop at Pizza Hut or even home delivery can make for an easy, cheap (relatively) meal. So, why not?
And Pizza Hut has made it into all culinary corners of the Amish, even a copycat breadstick recipe is making the rounds!
🍔 The Amish and Burgers
Burgers are another pop culture favorite that has caught on among the Amish. Like pizza, burger ingredients are plentiful and easy to source on Amish farmsteads, they can feed a crowd and they can be tailored with toppings and fixin's. So a homemade burger, or even one from a favorite fast-food joint are prized among the Amish!
And that makes this meal - Homemade Pizza Burgers - a logical and perfect creation for an Amish supper, or anyone else's supper. With this pizza burger recipe, you are essentially "marrying" two favorites: pizza and hamburgers into one delicious dish and this is so, so good!
📋 Step-by-Step Pizza Burgers
This is a recipe that has a lot of flexibility and you probably back what you put into it. For instance, I went the "easy route" which was store-bought canned pizza sauce. I am sure if you made homemade pizza sauce with its seasonings and spices, the meal would be even better. But if you go the route I did, it is still a super supper.
Very basic ingredients. Maybe I just eat big burgers, but I really only got two larger burgers out of a pound of ground sirloin, so if you use 2 pounds, you'll get four burgers. Adjust beef amounts and recipe accordingly. You could also use ground turkey, ground chicken, Italian sausage, or whatever meat mixture you want.
I sauteed the onion and browned the burger in my trusty electric skillet on high. I'd say it took about 15 minutes until it was all browned. And then I added the pizza sauce and cooked for about another 5 minutes or so using medium heat.
I also added the seasonings when I added the sauce. If I had to do it over again I'd have doubled or even tripled the seasoning amounts. I just like a lot of seasoning in my food, but, again, adjust amounts according to your taste. And you can add other seasonings than the oregano and garlic listed below. Add whatever flavors you like: Italian seasoning, pepper, and basil are all nice additions. In addition to chopped onion, bell peppers go well with this.
I then sliced two pretzel buns in half (but you could use regular hamburger buns or English muffins for this) and spooned the pizza sauce-hamburger mixture onto one half of each bun. I suppose you could try shaping into patties, but I think spooning it on the bottom buns worked fine. Then I topped each one with cheese. I used a mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend, but you can use whatever cheese you want.
If you are a pizza purist, you could add a few pepperoni slices, olives, mushrooms or other favorite pizza toppings to the top of each one, but I personally don't think that is necessary.
You could easily do away with the top part of the bun and just make these open-faced sandwiches. A lot of people do that. I like my sandwiches, so I kept the top bun. Then I put them under the broiler.
If I went wrong anywhere, it was here. The original recipe did not specify a time for keeping it under the broiler. I had not preheated my oven, and my broiler heated up faster than I thought. Well, bottom line, I set my timer four minutes and left them under that long. When I came back I almost had burnt sandwiches. I caught them just in the nick of time and I like my stuff well-done, crispy anyway. I knew the photos wouldn't look very good if all the cheese were blackened, etc, so I added some more cheese, stuck it under the broiler for a minute to melt and what you see above is what I ate.
So my only advice - and I put this in the instructions - broil for about 2 minutes. Just keep checking, once the cheese is melted and the bun toasted, you're good to go. That should be only about 2 minutes under a hot broiler.
These sandwiches were so, so good. I ate two. I shouldn't have. But I did go for a 3 mile run earlier in the day, so I could afford the calories. Still, that was a lot. I just ate it with my hands, but a fork would work too for these!
I would absolutely make these again! Paired with some veggies, you have a simple, but delicious, Facebook and Instagramy-worthy supper!
🍕 More Amish Pizza Recipes
Perfect Pizza Crust
Homemade Pizza Pockets
Homemade Pizza Burgers On Pretzel Buns
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 can (8 oz.) pizza sauce or equivalent homemade
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- ½ pound mozzarella cheese
- pretzel buns
Instructions
- Saute ground beef and onion until browned.
- Add spices and pizza sauce.
- Cool before adding cheese.
- Spread on halves of buns or English muffins. Place under broiler until cheese is bubbly and edges of buns are toasted, about 2 - 3 minutes.
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