American lava burger surprises are part pork, part burger and stuffed with American cheese for an out of this world burger experience.

I wanted to make something fun for our family 4th of July celebration. As I was brainstorming, I was listening to the TV. Food Network was on, of course. Guy’s Grocery Games was on but I was too busy searching around Pinterest for ideas to really pay attention.
I perked up with I heard the contestant describe his offering to the judges. A hamburger that was a beef patty on one side and a pork patty on the other. He put cheese in the middle. A new version of our favorite hamburger surprises.

That’s it. I heard Guy call it a Juicy Lucy so I searched and found that Juicy Lucies (or is it Juicy Luci?) are a pub favorite in a variety of locales. Nobody makes it with pork and beef as far as I could tell. So, I made up this version.
I’m so glad that I was able to come up with something fun to make for our celebration and also try a new version of hamburger surprises. I’ve already brainstormed an idea for our next version of hamburger surprises. I can’t wait to try it and share it with you.

Hey guys, Carlee here. I just wanted to chime in a bit on this post too. These burgers were really flavorful and really giant! Make sure you are plenty hungry before you tackle one. The mix of pork and beef makes it that much more interesting. I didn’t see anything quite like it when I was poking around.
MiMi gave it the lava burger name because the cheese can erupt out. I read one post about the traditional all beef Juicy Lucy and the pub’s tag line about it was “fear the cheese.” You really should be careful. Straight off the grill, that molted goodness can be dangerously hot.

A few of us learned our lessons the hard way, with hot cheese running down our hands. None of us put them down, but you could tell when somebody got to the cheese! 😉 Ok, now back to MiMi’s recipe. She was nice enough to give you guys a few tips too!
Lessons learned:
- American cheese melts really hot. Therefore the name “lava.” I would suggest cutting it in half (or letting them rest a bit longer than normal) before enjoying so the middle cools a bit.
- You can make quick work of forming the perfect patty by lightly shaping each 1/4 pound of meat into a ball. Set them on your waxed paper several inches apart from each other. Take another piece of waxed paper and lay it over the top. Use the bottom of a bowl to smash each one. Peel the top paper off. You should have nicely formed patties. This was much quicker than forming them by hand. I made 24 patties so this was a great time save. (I had yard games to play. This got me out of the kitchen in no time.)

American Lava Burger Surprises
ingredients:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- 4 slices American Cheese
- 2 tsp Lawry’s seasoning salt
- 2 tsp Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
- 4 hamburger buns
instructions
- Gently mix the Lawry’s into the ground beef and pat into a rectangle on waxed paper. Divide evenly into 4 flat patties that are slightly larger than your hamburger buns.
- Follow step 1 with the ground pork and Cavender’s
- Fold each cheese square into fourths and set on the beef paties.
- Place the pork patty over the been patty and gently pinch the edges together.
- Grill as you would a thick hamburger.

Val
Monday 29th of May 2017
Thanks for linking up your lava burger recipe on the National Hamburger Day Blog Party! I love the seasonings you use in the burger and Juicy Lucys are such an iconic food. You'll have to have one if you ever go to Minneapolis :)
Carlee
Tuesday 30th of May 2017
I definitely do need to put that on my bucket list! Thanks, Val!
Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies
Monday 29th of May 2017
Definitely to put these on the husbands list for grilling!
Carlee
Tuesday 30th of May 2017
They are a must make! Thanks!
marlynn
Tuesday 31st of May 2016
Yum! I always love different meat combos for burgers because I think it does make them much more flavorful and interesting. This looks great!
Carlee
Tuesday 31st of May 2016
Thank you! I love the contrast in flavor and texture too!
Aarika
Tuesday 31st of May 2016
This looks delicious! I don't eat pork but my hubby will love this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Carlee
Tuesday 31st of May 2016
You could certainly use all beef too, but the two meat patty is a lot of fun!
Maggie Unzueta
Monday 30th of May 2016
Pinned for later. Looks delicious!
Carlee
Tuesday 31st of May 2016
Thank you!