Bobby Flay's LA Burger Is Topped With This Avocado Twist For The Ultimate Flavor Boost

It comes as no surprise that cooking Bobby Flay style involves a lot of tricks and slick moves to put food over the top. After all, the Food Network star didn't become famous by doing things the ordinary way. When it comes to grilling, Flay is a master, and he uses various signature techniques to achieve exceptional results. One of them is incorporating a made-from-scratch avocado relish as a burger topping. Avocado is one of Flay's all-time favorite ingredients, and this tasty addition is one of the components that makes his version of an LA burger a thing of beauty. While it knocks the sandwich out of the park with flavor, the topping is actually quite simple to make.

LA burgers, also known as California burgers, frequently feature avocado among their ingredients. Bobby Flay doesn't do things halfway, so simply slathering on guac or pilling on sliced avocado is much too prosaic. Bobby goes the extra mile, and his flavor-packed avocado relish is the result. To execute the topping, Flay combines two chopped Hass avocados with a diced half onion. A minced jalapeño joins the mix, along with juice from one lime and 3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro. Salt and pepper finish it off. That's all it takes. Put the ingredients together, and you have a dynamite adornment that is ready to go on your burger.

One more thing that gives Flay's LA burger its unique flavor is using peppery watercress in place of lettuce. This green ingredient adds extra bite (We all know Bobby likes things spicy!) as well as freshness and brightness. Combined with the avocado relish, it's a five-star flavor punch.

When it comes to hamburgers, Bobby Flay is particular. The culinary icon only uses two ingredients to season his burgers — salt and pepper — and he likes to add pimento cheese for a kick of heat and a nostalgic taste. For a well-grilled patty, Flay sticks to a strict hands-off approach of putting the meat on the grill and leaving it alone, rather than excessively checking, moving, and flipping it (which is counterproductive and can make the meat stick). Giving the patty plenty of undisturbed cook time, on the other hand, allows it to loosen from the grill on its own for easy flipping when the time is right. Flay recommends cooking for seven minutes before flipping, if you're aiming for a medium-rare finish, and only turning it once. 

When making burgers, Flay advises using beef with 80/20 meat-to-fat content. The elevated fat percentage helps ensure the meat cooks up nice and juicy. For the LA Burger and his other hamburger creations, the food celeb presses an indent into the raw patty's center with his thumb. This prevents that characteristic bulge or puffing that can happen while the meat cooks. Instead, the indentation will re-inflate on the grill, resulting in a nice, even burger. This tip has a twofold purpose. When the center of a patty inflates, so does the temptation to smash the meat flat with a spatula. This presses out the juices, resulting in a dry burger. Bringing toppings like the avocado relish and melted cheese into play will add their own elements of moisture, but nothing can fully repair the damage once those natural meat juices are lost to the flames.