My Homemade Horseshoe/Murphy Burger

Call it what you will...horseshoe, Murphy burger, hamburger stack...they're all delicious!  I saw the horseshoe version on Diners, Drive In and Dives and knew I could come up with my own version simple enough.  Just figuring out the cheese sauce would be the key.  (yes, I know the Murphy burger was with a gravy sauce...same principle though.)  And then, the other day, Man vs Food visited ANOTHER place that had a similar secret sauce and he tasted it and asked if there was Worchestershire sauce in it.  She told him yes.  So I filed that in the back of my head for when I went to make my own.  The concept is fairly simple - a burger, fries, Texas toast all stacked up and smothered in a cheese sauce.

I struggled with what cheese to use.  I have made homemade cheddar sauces enough to know they can get funky chunky and clumpy if not done right so for this, I thought I'd use good old Velveeta.  But at the store, NEXT to the Velveeta was a blue box of Kraft's Deluxe Cheese, just like Velveeta.  I love their Deluxe macaroni so I figured I'd give this a try.  I'm not a fan per say of the Velveeta b/c it reminds me of stuff they serve to children at restaurants and my grown up palate likes real cheese versus processed stuff but for this recipe, the melting factor of Velveeta won out.  You just can't get cheddar to behave like Velveeta.

My results were really, really outstanding.  My hubby (who I think was skeptical of my idea to begin with) took one bite and went "Oh my, that's good." and continued to decimate his plate in about 5 minutes flat.  We're talking ALOT of food here people.  Yeah, he's an Army boy but he's a semi-skinny one who doesn't really plow through food that way.  In fact, my kids always joke about when we go to a restaurant that Jon is the pokiest eater alive...and here he was pounding through this huge plate of food like he hadn't eaten in a week.  And he downed an entire homemade chocolate shake too.  That says a TON about how good this meal was.

I would recommend doing your cheese sauce first since melting it slow is the key here and takes the longest.  I baked my fries and put then in about the same time as I started the sauce.  Feel free to use whatever fries you want, I'm just particular to the skinny fries b/c I can bake them and they get mega crispy without extra oil added in.  I did Texas toast but I think sourdough would be just as awesome.  The great thing about this is, its totally adjustable for how many people you're serving.  This version made enough cheese sauce for 4 servings.

Homemade Horseshoe Hamburger Stack

1 pound of hamburger
8 pieces of Texas toast (or your favorite bread)
1 bag of frozen french fries (Fast Fries ruled here)
1/2 lb. box of Velveeta or similar melting cheese
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp ground mustard powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Steak seasoning (I use McCormick's)

Shape your hamburgers into 4 quarter pound burgers.  Sprinkle both sides liberally with steak seasoning and set aside.  Chunk up the Velveeta cheese into smaller pieces so they'll melt faster.  Set aside.  Begin pre-heating your oven for your fries.

In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.  When melted, add flour and mix well and allow roux to cook for two minutes.  Whisk in the milk gradually till smooth and thick, stirring constantly.  Add the cheese and allow to melt, stirring consistently so as to not burn.  Once melted and smooth, add the Worchestershire sauce, mustard powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.  Stir well to combine.  If the sauce is TOO thick, add a splash of milk until desired consistence.  You want something thin enough to drizzle or pour..not thick like macaroni sauce.  Reduce temperature to low, stirring often.

Fry your burgers till desired wellness while you cook your fries according to package directions and sprinkle with salt when they come out.  Toast your bread.  Stack up by 2 pieces of toast on the bottom, burger on the toast, fries on the burger and drizzle sauce over it all.

(btw - a smaller version with ONE piece of toast and smaller portion of fries is called a pony shoe. lol)  Hope you like it...we sure did!