If you love cheeseburgers, then you have to make this Airfryer Five Guys Cheeseburger Fakeaway. Its beefy, savoury, melty and saucy all at once, wrapped up in a soft brioche bun.
I love a thin burger patty; too much meat in my mouth at once (get your mind out of the gutter!) provides too much umami without the right balance of flavour. So smashed burger patties, and especially ones I’ve made myself, are perfect.
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Layer that Airfryer Five Guys Cheeseburger Fakeaway burger up with tomato ketchup, mustard, red onion and tomato and we’re onto a winner!
The extra punch of taste within the meat mixture - of marmite and worcestershire sauce - elevates it from a basic burger to ‘damn, this is tasty burger!’ And the airfryer element ensures to melt it just enough so that all the elements merge and combine together perfectly for when you take a bite.
What Can I Prep In Advance?
I love burgers as a quick midweek meal, which is why I suggest mixing up your meat mixture in advance.
You could make it on Sunday when you’re meal planning and batching meals for the week ahead, and then it’s a simple cook and assemble through the week.
Alternatively, you could make the mixture and freeze it for a quick grab-meal further down the line. See my 'Storage + Reheating' section below.
Why I Love This Airfryer Five Guys Cheeseburger Recipe
Quick and easy alternative to the original - and will cost you £££ less!
You can control the calories: use lean mince and low fat cheese if you want a fakeaway without the calories of the takeaway.
And its also …
Suitable For The Whole Family
Suitable from 6 months old.
I feel comfortable giving this to my children who follow Baby Led Weaning (BLW) with a few modifications:
I would serve their meal deconstructed, and without the additional condiments.
I wouldn’t offer them brioche bread rolls - as overly soft bread can get claggy and clump in their mouth. So I would offer strips of toast as a carbohydrate accompaniment instead.
I would serve tomato as a large quarter chunk - see photo below for reference. You can even fry them slightly to char the edges, soften them slightly and heighten the flavour.
You could also modify the salt content if desired, but I find a little salt in the burger meat essential to flavour (for adults). So if you want to remove the salt for the baby, then make the mix without salt, remove their portion and then add salt to the rest of the meat before forming into burgers.
Anything made of minced meat (chicken, pork, beef etc.) is a great option for young babies who are just starting weaning as it’s already ground up. So as long as it’s served appropriately, it’s easy and safe for them to eat.
I would personally cut the burgers into finger length strips for them to eat with their hands.
Ingredients
Mince: I usually use beef mince (20% fat) from the butchers, because it has the most flavour. But you can also use lean mince (like above) if you'd prefer to reduce the calories.
Worcestershire sauce: adds an extra zing! You could also use HP sauce instead.
Marmite: even if you're not a lover of marmite, I would encourage you to buy it for inclusion in some of your savoury dishes. The yeast extract based condiment adds a lovely umami undertone. I also use it in my Cottage Pie recipe.
Burger Buns: I love a sesame seeded burger bun, and I think the brioche handles the air frying element of this recipe really well. But use any burger bun you like.
Cheese: I'm a self confessed cheese snob, but there is only one cheese I love on my burgers and that's American burger cheese slices. Substitute with any cheese you like though - go wild!
Tomato: I use large fresh vine tomatoes
Onion: I use red onion, as they are less harsh than their brown counterparts. But if that's all you have available then you can use my tip below to reduce the harshness.
To reduce the harshness of the onions, you can soak them in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain them and dry them off before using this hack.
Mustard: English mustard is my preferred choice here, but dijon could work too.
Ketchup
Salad Leaves
You can add any other toppings to your Airfryer Five Guys Cheeseburger Fakeaway that you desire (haggis, black pudding, bacon, hash brown). I stuck to simple and classic burger toppings for this recipe, but the literal burger is your oyster here.
How To Make Airfryer Five Guys Cheeseburger
Combine beef mince, worcestershire sauce, marmite, salt & pepper in a bowl
Mix well with hands. The marmite will stick to your hands slightly, but you can use the meat to get it off. This may sound unpleasant to some of you, but it's the most effective way to get the marmite evenly distributed through the meat mixture. Use gloves if you prefer.
Weigh the total mixture and divide equally by 6 and roll into a ball shape, refrigerate if using later.
Flatten each individual ball between greaseproof paper and flatten very thin using meat hammer (or rolling pin) - the burgers will contract when cooking so flatten as thin as possible.
Fry burgers in frying pan until cooked (a minute or two on each side if sufficient)
Assemble burger as seen in video on sesame seed burger bun with tomato, onion, mustard, ketchup salad leaves & cheese slices
Wrap full burger in tinfoil and airfry for 5 minutes at 200C
Storage + Reheating
How long does it keep in the fridge - the raw meat mixture will last approx. 3 days in the fridge (in an airtight container) before needing to be cooked.
Then once cooked, the burgers will last another 3 days in the fridge (in an airtight container).
Can you freeze it? You can mix up the burger mixture (using raw meat) and freeze for up to 4 months.
And finally…
If you do choose to make it, I hope you enjoy it!
Why not try some of my other fakeaway recipes like Chinese Shredded Beef, Chasni Curry or Red Pepper Dip reminiscent of Nandos?
If you have any other questions, or want to tell me what you think of my recipe, then please leave a comment below!
Airfryer Five Guys Cheeseburger Fakeaway
Ingredients
- 500 g lean beef mince
- salt & pepper
- 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon marmite
- 6 sesame seed brioche burger buns
- 12 american cheese slices
- tomato
- red onion
- english mustard 1 teaspoon per burger
- ketchup 1 teaspoon per burger
- salad leaves
Instructions
- Combine 500 g lean beef mince, 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon marmite, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix well with hands
- Weigh the total mixture and divide equally by 6 and roll into a ball shape, refrigerate if using later
- Flatten each individual ball between greaseproof paper and flatten very thin using meat hammer (or rolling pin) - the burgers will contract when cooking so flatten as thin as possible
- Fry burgers in frying pan until cooked
- Assemble burger as seen in video on sesame seed burger bun with tomato, red onion, english mustard, ketchup & cheese slice
- Airfry, wrapping in tinfoil, for 5 minutes at 200C
Rachel says
The whole family loved this! The air frying is a game changer!! Nice quick meal perfect for after school treat.