Pizza burgers are a combination hamburger or sloppy Joe, depending on the recipe. Typical toppings include cheese, pepperoni and onion. Some recipes suggest toasting the buns before serving to give a thin, crust-like finish to the sandwiches. Burger-style pizza burgers can be made on the grill or stove top, with either style being finished in the oven to melt the toppings.
When a host or hostess is challenged for time and facing several hungry guests, pizza burgers are often a low-effort dish that gives the illusion of a well-planned meal. Basic ingredients required to construct a pizza burger are hamburger, pizza sauce and buns. Toppings include cheese, pepperoni and other traditional pizza toppings. One of the most critical decisions that must be made is whether or not to prepare the sandwiches as patties or sloppy Joe-type sandwiches. These burgers can be made from preformed hamburger patties, such as the frozen type sold by most supermarkets.
To create a patty-type sandwich, the hamburger is seasoned with Italian seasonings and fried or grilled as usual. When making sloppy Joe-style pizza burgers, the pizza sauce is combined with the ground beef after it is browned. The entire concoction is then placed on a toasted bun. Buns can be toasted using butter or olive oil brushed lightly on one side and then placed on a hot frying pan until golden. The patty can be placed on the bun and then a dollop of pizza sauce can be placed both on the bun as well as on the patty.
The burgers are topped with cheese and any desired toppings and placed onto a cookie sheet. The sheet is placed in a hot oven to melt the cheese on the sandwiches. Once the cheese has melted, the sandwiches can be removed from the oven.
The sandwiches, fresh from the oven, are reassembled and allowed to cool slightly. If the burgers do not cool slightly, the meat and toppings will slide right off of the sandwich as it is bitten into. Variations on the recipe include placing cheese on both the top and bottom of the meat patty, serving the pizza burgers as individual, open-face pizzas and using thick, toasted bread in place of a hamburger bun. A toaster oven or small broiler can also be used to toast the bun and melt the cheese in place of an oven.