Vegan Western Bacon Cheeseburger

Let’s VEGANIZE my old FAST FOOD FAVORITE from Carl’s Jr: The Vegan Western Bacon Cheeseburger! Smoky Bacon, Sweet BBQ Sauce and Crispy Onion Rings are an UNBEATABLE Combo!

This was, without a doubt, my favorite fast food burger of all time. I have no idea how many of these my drunk and stoned ass ate but it was an embarrassing amount. There’s just something so perfect about the combination of bacon, BBQ sauce and onion rings. It’s really an amazing trio!

Interestingly enough, I was eating one of these the first time I thought about where my food came from. I was slightly inebriated and pondered how many animals had to die for my burger. I knew cows and pigs, and I think I was ignorant enough back then to think that cheese came from chickens. Either way, after that I was vegetarian when I got stoned! This was a long time ago, and I’m sure if we had some of the amazing vegan food we have now, I could’ve made the transition quicker. That and watching some slaughterhouse footage, but I digress!

This burger is just further proof that vegans don’t need to give up their favorite foods, and I can honestly say that I enjoy this version way more than Carl’s Jr! But then again, anything homemade is gonna beat fast food!

the Bacon

For this burger I recommend using my Rice Paper Bacon recipe. Obviously go for store-bought if you like, but I really like the way these work on this burger. They get nice and crispy, but then a little softer and chewier where it touches the bbq sauce. When I ate one yesterday I was seriously blown away by the texture!

the Onion Rings

These are some pretty standard onion rings but without any dairy! I’m honestly shocked how often onion rings aren’t vegan. I don’t know of any vegan onion rings at any restaurants, and the only ones I can find at the store are by Alexia. But these are pretty easy to throw together. I do recommend using some crushed up oyster crackers instead of breadcrumbs, but they will work too!

I highly recommend frying these but if you want to bake or air fry them you can do that too! To air fry, spray the breaded onion rings with a little cooking spray. Then air fry at 380 F for about 12 – 15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

To bake them, spray the breaded rings with cooking spray and add them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or cooking spray. Bake in a 400 F oven for 16 minutes, flipping half way through, or until golden brown and crispy!

No matter how you make them, just don’t forget to salt them when they are done and still hot!

The BBQ Sauce

You can find vegan friendly BBQ sauce at most grocery stores, but I really like making my own. It’s super quick and easy, and you can tailor it to your tastes. I added some Vegan Honey to mine, but you could just as easily use some maple syrup or something similar.

The Cheeseburger Patties

You can use store-bought plant-based meat like Impossible or Beyond as I usually do. I recommend making your patties from 3 oz. of meat. This will give us a nice thin patty. I also suggest forming the patties by smashing them with a Burger Iron in between some Burger Paper. This will result in a smashed patty which means more browning which means more FLAVOR!

For the cheese, I suggest using vegan American slices. I like So Delicious and Follow Your Heart the best!

Don’t wanna use store-bought plant-based meat? Check out my TVP BURGER RECIPE RIGHT HERE!

other recipes you’ll dig

• Rice Paper Bacon
• Vegan Double Double
• Vegan White Castle
• Vegan McNuggets

handy dandy video here!

Vegan Western Bacon Cheeseburger

Thee Burger Dude

5 from 15 votes

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Ingredients

  

• 2 3 oz. plant-based burger patties
• 1 sesame seed burger bun
• 3 – 4 strips vegan bacon recipe link in blog
• 2 slices vegan American cheese

BBQ Sauce

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp vegan honey or maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp hot sauce
• 1 Tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Onion Rings

• 1 large onion

Dry Dredge

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 – 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cayenne

Wet Dredge

• 1 cup unsweetened plant milk
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp hot sauce
• 1/4 cup flour

Breadcrumbs

• 2 cups breadcrumbs or crushed oyster crackers

Instructions

 

Vegan Bacon

• Make the Rice Paper Bacon first, follow my recipe HERE. Or use store bought vegan bacon.

BBQ Sauce

• Add all the ingredients to a saucepan, whisk and then heat over medium.
• Once it starts bubbling, kill the heat. Taste and adjust for seasoning. It will thicken as it cools, but you can thicken it more by heating it and reducing for 5 – 10 minutes if desired (mine was plenty thick though!)
• Store in a mason jar or similar in the fridge for up to 1 week (possibly longer but I always eat it before then!)

Onion Rings

• Cut the onions into 1/4"-1/2” thick slices. Separate them into rings.
• Add all the dry dredge ingredients to a bowl, do the same with the wet dredge and breadcrumbs respectively. 
• Fill a large pan or dutch oven about with a couple inches of neutral oil (like peanut, vegetable or canola). Heat the oil to 350 – 375 F. (Air Fry and Baking instructions in notes below and blog post too.)
• Dredge the onion rings first in the dry, then wet and then coat in the breadcrumbs. Make sure to coat thoroughly and let the excess drip off in each step. 
• Carefully add the onion rings in batches to the hot oil and fry for about 3 – 4 minutes or until beautiful and golden brown. Let them rest on a wire rack and salt them immediately. 
• You can keep them warm in the oven on the lowest setting while you make the rest.

Burgers

• Grill your buns in some butter.
• Divide your plant based meat into two (3 oz) patties, I recommend a using a scale and a burger press to form the patties in order to make sure they are the same size and thickness.
• Grill your patties over medium high heat for 3 minutes or until nice and browned.
• Flip your patties, add a slice of vegan cheese on top of each one, then a little bit of water to the pan, cover and then steam to melt the cheese.
• Cook for 1 minute, the cheese should be melted (if not continue cooking until it does melt). Remove from heat, and then assemble the burger as follows from bottom to top: bottom bun, BBQ sauce, onion rings, two cheeseburger patties, vegan bacon, more BBQ sauce, top bun!
• ENJOY!

Notes

Making everything from scratch is a bit of work, so if you are impatient, using store bought BBQ sauce, vegan bacon and onion rings might be the way to go. However, if you have the time, I highly suggest making everything from scratch. Not only is it fun and useful, but it's way better too! You'll have leftover onion rings and BBQ sauce, but you won't be mad! The onion rings can be frozen and reheated later too.

For the bacon, I'm using my Rice Paper Bacon recipe, which can be found HERE.

And like most of my recipes, this is really just an outline. I encourage you to add or subtract things to your taste! The BBQ sauce can really be modified quite a bit, as can the onion rings, so go for it!

Speaking of the onion rings, I highly recommend frying these but if you want to bake or air fry them you can do that too! To air fry, spray the breaded onion rings with a little cooking spray. Then air fry at 380 F for about 12 – 15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

To bake them, spray the breaded rings with cooking spray and add them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or cooking spray. Bake in a 400 F oven for 16 minutes, flipping half way through, or until golden brown and crispy!

Keyword vegan carl’s jr, vegan cheeseburger, vegan western bacon cheeseburger

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