Burger King is once again trying to bring some heat to their burger line (to their Steakhouse XT line to be specific), this time in the form of a jalapeños and cheddar stuffed pattie, the basis of their new BK Stuffed Steakhouse.
Jalapeños and Cheddar.
In it, not on it, says Burger King.
The stuffed burger was introduced in Canada on February 24th, 2011, 6 weeks after first bringing it south of the border. This new menu addition is available across Canada for a limited time at a suggested retail price of $4.99.
Here is how the King is describing their new creation:
“When you take a flame-broiled patty, stuff it with jalapeños and processed cheddar cheese on the inside, top it with creamy poblano sauce, ripe tomato and crisp iceberg lettuce, and put it all inside a toasted, corn-dusted bun … well, you’ve got yourself a fire hazard.
What we’re saying is we had to get the fire marshal’s permission to sell this thing.”
Well, if the Fire Marshal gave his permission, surely it must be good. The Waffle had to find out, and did so as a reward for clearing the driveway after Winter returned this Sunday.
And so I ordered it. And so I tried it.
First impression, looking at it: well, it looked nothing like the picture in the ad. Of course. You could see a few bright green bits and a few yellow ones too, but I had to have a closer look, so I flipped the burger, and yes, here they were. Significant number of jalapeños and processed cheddar cheese bits sprinkled within the beef patty. I guess ”Stuffed Steakhouse” is better marketing than “Sprinkled Steakhouse”, but nobody can really cry foul for false advertising.
The 5 ounce beef patty, nicely charred, with the usual smoke flavour, was thicker than I expected, much thicker than a Whopper for instance.
The jalapeños certainly helped to keep the meat juicy and tender. There was a subtle peppery flavour to the meat, nothing powerful. The heat from the peppers was present – but no need to call the Fire Marshal, that’s for sure.
As for the cheese, well, it is processed cheese. In my opinion, it is mostly there for colour, because the patty was not cheesy in flavour nor in texture. Real cheddar would go a long way to make this happen.
BK claims that the Stuffed Steakhouse is ”complemented with creamy poblano sauce, ripe tomatoes and crisp lettuce on a premium bakery bun”.
The “premium bakery bun was fresh, fluffy. The corn flour added a different touch, something else than your usual fast-food sesame seed bun.
The sandwich did have a (very!) light touch of a mayo-based poblano sauce on the bottom of the top bun. It was barely noticeable, texture-wise and taste-wise. The poblano is a mild chile (one level below the jalapeño on the Scoville scale); it wouldn’t really add anything to the heat level, so why so little? More sauce and more poblano would add moisture and maybe help bring out the heat from the patty. If you are to try this burger, I would recommend asking for extra sauce. I ended up adding some ketchup to my sandwich – but then again, I love ketchup on my burgers.
The lettuce was chopped watery white iceberg, crunchy but nothing spectacular, and certainly not as green as the Boston lettuce they used in their ad. As for the tomatoes, well, it is winter, so the slices were not very juicy and they were quite small, but at least they weren’t mealy.
Overall, the Stuffed Steakhouse was better than I expected. The concept is interesting, the execution could be better (overlooking of course the fact that I stuff, err, sprinkle and form my own patties with all kinds of ingredients in there all the time).
For sure, the meatloaf/fruitcake look wasn’t overly appealing at first, especially as it looks in the promo shot. But the burger was alright. They could get rid of the cheese in the patty and put a slice on it, because as it stands, it is simply buried. Then the burger would look and taste better, in my opinion.
