American
The Jucy Lucy
A Minneapolis-born smash burger with a molten cheese core — one bite and you'll understand the obsession.
Recipe by Cyman Huang
Cooked, styled and photographed in his kitchen.
The Jucy Lucy (note the deliberate misspelling, source of a long-running dispute between the two Minneapolis bars that claim credit) is a burger with a stunning and deceptively simple innovation: the cheese is inside the patty, encased in ground beef, where it melts during cooking into a pool of liquid, volcanic cheese that erupts when you bite in.
It sounds like a novelty. It is, in practice, a genuinely superior eating experience: the cheese stays hotter longer, flavors the meat from the inside, and adds a dramatic, temperature-contrast moment that a cheese-on-top burger cannot match. Warning: the cheese inside is extraordinarily hot. Let it rest. Really.
Watch it come together
Ingredients
- 2 lbs 80/20 ground beef
- 8 slices American cheese (or 4 oz Velveeta, cubed)
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 4 potato buns, toasted
- Yellow mustard, sliced pickles, raw onion for serving
- Neutral oil for the pan
Method
- 1
Divide the beef into 8 equal portions (4 oz each). Form each into a thin, flat patty about 4–5 inches in diameter.
- 2
MAKE THE CHEESE PACKET: Fold 2 slices of American cheese into a stack and place in the center of one patty, leaving at least a ¾-inch border all around. Top with a second patty. Seal the edges by pressing and pinching firmly all the way around. No cheese should be visible at the seam.
- 3
Season the outside of the stuffed patties generously with salt and pepper on both sides.
- 4
Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium-high heat with a thin film of oil until very hot.
- 5
Cook patties 4–5 minutes without moving. Flip once. Cook another 4–5 minutes. The internal temperature of the beef should reach 160°F.
- 6
REST 5 MINUTES BEFORE EATING. The cheese inside reaches temperatures above 200°F. This is not an optional rest for flavor — it is a safety measure.
- 7
Serve on toasted potato buns with yellow mustard, pickles, and raw onion. When you bite in, you'll understand why Minneapolis has been arguing about this burger for 70 years.
Substitutions
- Chef's tip: the seal is everything. Press the edges firmly, then run your finger around the entire circumference of the sealed patty to ensure no gaps exist.
- Velveeta melts even more dramatically than American cheese slices if you want maximum flow.
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