Yum! Can I say it again? Yum! The first time I ever encountered the classic “ham and pineapple” combination was at Mountain Mike’s Pizza in Mountain View, California, my freshman year in college. I think I ate half a large all on my own.
This burger is a riff on that pizza, and every oh-so-clichéd-but-oh-so-good ham and pineapple combo everywhere. It’s a pig roast in a bun, with ground pork burgers topped with barbecue sauce, sliced ham, and grilled pineapple rings.
Hawaiian Pork Burger Recipe
PrintFor those without a grill, you can easily make these burgers on a cast iron pan or grill pan on the stovetop.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1/4 cup minced green onion
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (more to taste, but be careful, the BBQ sauce is salty, as is the ham)
- Pinch black pepper
- 4 pineapple rings, fresh or canned
- 1/4 cup your favorite barbecue sauce
- 4 burger buns
- 4 large lettuce leaves (use leafy lettuce)
- 1/4 pound thinly sliced ham
Method
1 Use your (clean) hands to mix the ground pork, green onion, allspice, salt, pepper and ground ginger together in a large bowl until just combined. Don't knead the mixture too much or the burgers will be tough.
Gently form 4 equal patties, with a slight indentation in the middle (the burgers will contract as they cook, the indentation helps keep the burgers from bulging in the middle too much).
If you want, you can separate the patties with wax paper and store them for a few hours in the fridge before grilling.
2 Prepare your grill for medium high, direct heat. Scrape down the grill grates and coat with vegetable oil. Place the pork patties on the hot grill and paint the top with barbecue sauce.
Cover the grill and cook for 5-7 minutes. Flip the burgers and paint with more barbecue sauce.
3 After you've flipped the burgers, lay the pineapple rings down on a hot part of the grill. Cook the burgers for another 5 to 7 minutes, until cooked through.
Cook the pineapple rings for 3-5 minutes, or until you have nice grill marks on one side. Flip the pineapple and grill another 1-2 minutes.
Remove the pineapple and burgers from the grill and let them rest 5 minutes.
4 While the meat is resting, toast the burger buns on the hot grill until the edges brown nicely, about 1-2 minutes.
To construct the burger, lay some lettuce on the bun, add the burger patty and paint with a little more barbecue sauce. Top with the ham, then the pineapple, then the other bun.
Serve immediately.
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Elise Bauer is the Founder and President of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Links:
Luau Burger - from Steamy Kitchen
Cuban Pork Burgers - from Food Blogga
Portuguese Pineapple Burger - from Leite's Culinaria
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My husband and teenage son both gave these burgers a thumps up. I would have liked to have given them a try, but I’ll have to wait until my diet is over. Thanks for the recipe!
Made this last night for husband and I – two for dinner, and two to maybe pack away for lunch the next day (with some rice pilaf and veggies – that was my plan). Nope, husband loved it so much he ate basically three of the four patties! The burgers are definitely tasty and easy to make.
Many thanks Elise for the awesome recipe. Hubby doesn’t usually like to eat pork, but this is something he declared must be on rotation. So thank you for helping me get him to appreciate some porky goodness! Looking forward to cooking this next week when we visit the in-laws (husband raved about it so now they’re curious to try it out)! :)
We made these last night using the following recipe for hoisin barbecue sauce:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/hoisin-barbecue-sauce
They were amazing!
Delicious Hawaiian Pork Burger…yummy!!!!
Are those Wheat buns from Whole Foods / Rudi’s Bakery?
They look like great buns! I will have to grill these for my brother and his family when they visit! Yum Yum!
I think they are white, not whole wheat, and yes they are from Rudi’s. Their buns are great. ~Elise