Mushroom-and-Swiss Sliders with Spicy Fry Sauce

From: Pioneer Woman

I went berserk the other night, whipping up some scrumptious sliders and topping them with some wine-soaked mushrooms and Swiss cheese. What can I say? I was feeling mischievous.

To slather on the slider buns—which were actually just storebought dinner rolls split like hamburger buns—I whipped up some spicy fry sauce. And for those of you who don’t know what fry sauce is…then you’ve never been to Utah or eaten fries late at night in a college dorm mess hall.

Ingredients:
• ⅓ cups Mayonnaise
• 2 Tablespoons Ketchup
• 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (less If You're Sensitive To Spice!)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• ½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Chopped Finely
• ½ cups White Or Red Wine (optional)
• 4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
• Kosher Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 4 Tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream
• 4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 4 slices Swiss Cheese, Cut Into Four Squares
• 8 whole Dinner (or Slider) Rolls, Split

Preparation Instructions

In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise, ketchup, and cayenne. Stir together until totally combined. Set aside. (This is the spicy fry sauce.)

Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onions and cook over medium heat for five minutes, stirring frequently. Add mushrooms and toss around, then add wine (if using), Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Cook for several minute over medium heat, or until all liquid has evaporated. Transfer mushroom mixture to a separate bowl, scraping all contents from the skillet.

Mix ground beef, heavy cream, Worcestershire, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly mix ingredients. Form 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the meat mixture into patties, making an indentation with your thumb to keep the patties from plumping too much when they cook. In the same skillet as the one used to cook the mushrooms, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium to medium-high heat. Add four patties at a time, indented side face up. Cook for 4 minutes, then flip. Spoon generous portion of mushroom mixture on each patty, then top with one or two squares of Swiss, depending on your preference. Place lid on skillet and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until burgers are cooked through and cheese is melted. Remove to a place and keep warm while you repeat with the rest of the meat mixture.

Toast halved buns under the oven broiler. Spread generously with spicy fry sauce. Place patties between buns and serve immediately with fried onion strings

Picture Directions:
Fry sauce is nothing more than ketchup and mayonnaise. And now you know the truth!

Start by making the spicy fry sauce: throw some mayo into a small bowl…

Then add some ketchup.

And some cayenne. Go a little lighter than this if you can’t HANDLE the spice.

Stir it together till it’s all combined, then set aside.

Chop up an onion…

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Dump in the diced onions…

 Toss and stir them around, cooking them for about five minutes or so.

Then grab the mushrooms, then chop ‘em all up.

And throw ‘em in the skillet with the onions.

Then pour in the wine, baby!

I’m sorry, but wine and mushrooms simply go together. It is written.

 But you can leave them out if you’re not into wine.  Or if you’re sensitive to wine.
Basically, don’t listen to me at all.

Cook the mushrooms for several minutes, until all the liquid has cooked off.

Transfer the ‘shrooms to a separate bowl, scraping the skillet as much as you can.

Dump a couple pounds of ground beef into a bowl.

Pour in a little heavy cream. Trust me!

It’ll give it a yummy richness and make you feel extra naughty.

Add in some kosher salt (or heck, regular salt)…

Some freshly ground black pepper…

And a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

Use your grubby (or clean, preferably) hands to knead the mixture together…

Then grab 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the meat mixture. I love to use a scoop for this. I pretend I’m working at Beefkin Robbins and serving up a big meat cone.  I’ve always had a rich inner life.

Meat. Grubby hands.

Work it around into a nice patty shape, then make and indentation in the middle of the patty with your thumb. This is a little trick that’ll keep the little patty from plumping up and becoming an unwieldy shape.

Throw ‘em on a plate and set ‘em aside for a minute.

Return the skillet to the stove and melt a teeny bit more butter over medium to medium-high heat.

Throw the patties into the pan with the indented side up. Cook for a few minutes on the first side…

Then flip ‘em on over.

Heap a heapin’ helpin’ of the mushrooms on the top of each patty. Look—another scoop!

Throw a couple of squares (one large square cut into four equal squares) of Swiss over the top of each one.

Throw a lid on the skillet and allow the patties to finish cooking…and the cheese to melt.

Yum! (And add some more cheese if you’re into that kind of thing.)

Throw them on to a plate and keep ‘em warm while you repeat with the rest of the patties.

Next, toast up some split dinner rolls (I put them under the broiler), then spread plenty of the spicy sauce both on the top and bottom of the roll.

Then smush the patties between the two halves! Mmmm.

Heaven. Sheer heaven. (And get this: I served these with Fried Onion Strings…and then I dipped the onion strings in the extra spicy fry sauce.