Ghost Pepper Burger Recipe

A ghost pepper burger gets its heat from ghost pepper cheese, not from the meat. This one is built like Burger King's Ghost Pepper Whopper: a quarter-pound beef patty with ghost pepper cheese, bacon, crisp fried jalapeños and a spicy cheese sauce on a toasted sesame bun. It makes four, and the heat can be turned down at three points.

What the Ghost Pepper Whopper was

Burger King first sold it in 2022 and brought it back for Halloween 2023. TODAY described the returning burger on 2 October 2023: a flame-grilled beef patty topped with spicy queso, jalapeños, bacon and ghost pepper cheese, in a toasted orange bun topped with black sesame seeds, on sale from 12 October.

The ghost pepper, or bhut jolokia, is a chile from Northeast India rated at more than one million Scoville heat units. Guinness World Records certified it as the hottest chile in the world in 2007; hotter ones have been bred since.

This burger follows the parts of that description and is a reconstruction. It comes to about 755 calories by USDA figures, and MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Burger King.

Recipe

Ghost Pepper Burger

A burger built like Burger King's Ghost Pepper Whopper — a quarter-pound beef patty with ghost pepper cheese, bacon, crisp fried jalapeños and a spicy cheese sauce on a toasted sesame seed bun. Four burgers.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

15 min

Cook

20 min

Total

35 min

Serves

4

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• For the spicy cheese sauce:
• 4 ounces American cheese (torn into pieces)
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped pickled jalapeños
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• For the burgers:
• 8 slices thin-cut bacon
• 1 pound ground beef (80% lean)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 slices ghost pepper cheese
• 4 sesame seed hamburger buns
• 1/2 cup crispy fried jalapeños

Instructions

1. Warm the evaporated milk in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in the American cheese a little at a time until melted and smooth, then stir in the chopped jalapeños and the cayenne. Keep the sauce warm.
2. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, turning, until crisp. Drain it on paper towels and pour off the fat.
3. Divide the beef into four balls and press each into a patty about 4 1/2 inches across. Season both sides with the salt and pepper.
4. Toast the cut sides of the buns in the dry skillet for 1 to 2 minutes and set them aside.
5. Cook the patties in the skillet or on a grill over medium-high heat for 3 minutes, turn them, lay a slice of ghost pepper cheese on each and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, until the beef has reached 160°F.
6. Set a patty on each bottom bun. Top with two slices of bacon, 2 tablespoons of fried jalapeños and a spoonful of the cheese sauce, and close the burger.

Nutrition

Calories:

755

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

Where the heat sits

• Ghost pepper cheese is Monterey Jack with flecks of the dried chile in it, sold sliced or in a block near the pepper jack. It carries most of the heat. Pepper jack is the milder swap.
• The sauce adds a second layer with cayenne and jalapeño. Leave out the cayenne for a plain cheese sauce.
• Fried jalapeños are sold in bags and cans as a salad and burger topping. They are crisp and only mildly hot. Pickled jalapeño slices are sharper and wetter.

For more heat than the cheese gives, stir 1/4 teaspoon of ghost pepper hot sauce into the cheese sauce. A little goes a long way: add it by the drop and taste.

The orange bun

The colour of the original bun is for Halloween and has no part in the taste. A sesame seed bun is the same thing in plain. Toast it, or the sauce soaks through.

Patties for a ghost pepper burger

A quarter pound of 80 percent lean beef, pressed a little wider than the bun, cooks through in about six minutes and stays juicy. Salt the outside just before cooking. The cheese goes on right after the turn, so that it has melted by the time the meat is done.

The thin 2-ounce patties of the Burger King bacon cheeseburger work here as a double.

To go with it

A cold, creamy drink goes with it: a Dr Pepper shake or a Frosty. Leftover cheese sauce goes over fries.