Shawarma Smash burger with Cheese

This Shawarma smash burger is a modified recipe we came across at Miznon restaurant in New York. It’s a fantastic combination of flavours and textures, made genuinely unique by grilled cheese.

We create meatballs from approximately 120 grams of ground meat, seasoned with our own shawarma spices, excluding the salt. We always salt the burgers just before grilling. We noticed the burgers became stiffer when we salted them up front.

This is not good for a regular burger and is even more crucial for this smashburger, which we will fold.

The principle of a smash burger is quite simple. You start with a scorching hot griddle and a meatball. We’re using ground beef with a 30% fat ratio, so there’s no need to grease the griddle. Of course, it’s essential to have a clean griddle. If it’s a cast iron skillet, it should be well-seasoned.

You then press the meatball flat with a large burger spatula. To apply extra pressure, we use tongs. We use a sheet of parchment paper to prevent the meat from sticking to the spatula.

Once the burger is nicely flattened, remove the parchment paper. You’ll see that a crust is already forming. This is when we sprinkle the burger with some salt and add the cheese to half the burger.

Then, you fold the burger over the meat and continue to cook until the meat is thoroughly done and the cheese is nicely grilled in spots. This alone is enough to make this recipe a summer hit.

The smash burger is then placed on a warm, soft pita with all the ingredients found in a shawarma sandwich. This is our Shawarma smash burger with cheese. If you decide to make this smash burger, let us know in the comments below. Even better, could you take a photo and post it on Instagram? Tag @bbqheroes and @kamadojoe so we can see what you’ve created.