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This kona burger is your new favourite summer recipe! It’s a teriyaki burger with grilled pineapple, mozzarella and bacon! Dig in!
So, this burger is kind of special to me. The time that Etienne and I went for lunch together, we ordered the same thing. It was the kona burger from Original Joe’s! You might remember I referenced this restaurant before, in my sweet potato fries post. I actually think I ordered the sweet potato fries during that occasion too…
Anyway, this kona burger was love at first bite. This recipe is my take on that same burger that we ate all of those years ago. It’s got so many things going for it! Teriyaki sauce, grilled pineapple, BACON, mozzarella, and bacon. Did I say bacon twice? 😉
It’s so good!!! You’ll love it. When I served my final product to Etienne last week he said he would never have been able to tell the difference between this one and the one from the restaurant. Win!
How do you make a kona burger?
You can choose to make your own teriyaki sauce for the burgers, or you can use the store-bought kind. I do make my own but I haven’t posted the recipe for it yet (coming soon)!
I like to put a bit of butter (or mayo) on a toasted burger bun, followed by a bit of teriyaki, then lettuce and mozzarella cheese. While you’re barbequing your burgers, you can fry up some bacon as well. I throw pineapple slices onto the grill when the burgers are about a minute from being done. They only need 1-2 minutes on each side to get those nice grill marks and warm up a little bit!
Is the hamburger patty homemade?
I do often make my own hamburgers, but I left a recipe for the actual patty out of this post; feel free to use frozen, store-bought patties (Costco sells amazing burgers from The Keg) or your own favourite burger patty recipe!
What do you serve with these kona burgers?
We love, LOVE sweet potato fries. If you haven’t tried my recipe with dill dip yet, you really have to!! You could also serve them with a fantastic salad, like one of these favorites:
- keto cabbage salad
- roasted corn and chickpea kale salad
- Mexican street corn pasta salad
- grilled romaine Caesar salad
Happy Friday, my friends! If you need a weekend suggestion, why not berry picking? I only say that because it’s been on my summer to-do list for so long and I still have yet to take the kids…I can live vicariously through you!
PS – be sure to hop over to Instagram to check out my Swedish princess cake that I made for a cake collab!!
Cheers!
Kona Burger
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 burgers 1x
Description
This kona burger is your new favourite summer recipe! It’s a teriyaki burger with grilled pineapple, mozzarella and bacon! Dig in!
Ingredients
- 2 hamburger patties*
- 4 slices (rings) fresh pineapple
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 fresh hamburger buns
- 1–2 tbsp mayo (or butter)
- 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce, divided**
- handful romaine lettuce, chopped
- 4 slices mozzarella
- 1 small tomato, sliced
- 2 pickles, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the grill to medium/high (350F). When the grill is preheated, place the hamburger patties directly on the grill and cook until the temperature inside reaches at least 375F. During the last minutes or two of cooking, place the pineapple slices directly on the grill, cooking for about 1 minutes on each side, until char marks are visible. Remove to a plate.
- While the hamburgers are cooking on the grill, fry the bacon in a pan or cook in the oven. Once cooked, wrap the bacon in paper towel to absorb some of the grease.
- Lightly toast the hamburger buns. Coat both sides of each bun with the mayo or butter, followed by 2 tbsp of teriyaki on each side of each bun. Place a handful of lettuce on the bottom of each bun, followed by 2 slices of mozzarella.
- Place the cooked patties on top of the mozzarella slices, followed by the remaining teriyaki sauce. Top with sliced tomato, grilled pineapple and 2 slices of bacon. Finish off your burger with the top part of the bun. Serve immediately, with a pickle on the side!
Notes
*As mentioned in the post above, you can use previously frozen patties, or your favourite hamburger patty recipe
**I make my own teriyaki sauce, but you can use your favourite store-bought version too!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
With all those sweet and savoury flavours, what’s not to love?? Time to fire up the grill because these look so good, my friend! Love it when you create restaurant meals at home – always so much better…and, plus, you get to stay in your comfy clothes 😉 Happy weekend!
It’s sooo much better making the restaurant meals at home, right!? All about the comfy clothes to chow down in!! 🙂 Thanks Dawn!!
I love the tropical vibes you’ve got going on with this burger! I love pineapple with savoury dishes, and I can’t believe I have never added pineapple to my burger. I need to change that! Happy weekend Katherine! Sorry, I won’t be berry picking. I like to rely on the kindness of family to donate berries to me! 😉
I LOVE pineapple with savory dishes too, one of my favourite things! You MUST try pineapple on your burger. I am a little jealous you get berries donated to your cause! I just love berries so much!!
These Kona burgers sound so yummy and full of flavor! Anxiously awaiting that homemade teriyaki sauce recipe!
Thanks Kelly – I will have to get it out sooooon!! Hope you’re having a great weekend!
These burgers look absolutely delish Katherine!! I love teriyaki on a burger and can’t wait to see your sauce soon! We don’t have plans to hit any u-pick farms this weekend, but we’ve been picking blueberries off our bushes every day lately, does that count? 😉
Oooh you have blueberry bushes!?!? I might need to come visit! That sounds amazing!! Thanks Tasia – these are literally my favourite burgers!! 🙂 Happy weekend!
The teriyaki chicken burger (can it be called a burger if it’s made with chicken?!) is always my go-to order whenever we go to Red Robin! This burger is almost an exact copycat! So yummy!
Haha yes! It would just be a chicken burger, I suppose. I know exactly which one you’re referring to 😉 Thanks Elayna!!
This is an incredible lunch! I love everything about this burger and I love sweet potato fries! I’m pinning this because I have to make it!!😍
Yay! Thanks Thao. I hope you love it if you try it. It’s one of my favourite burgers!
This is such an epic burger! I love grilled pineapple so I can see that working really well here. I’m adding this to my list of recipes to try! Have a great week, Katherine!
Happy to hear it Kelsie!! I love grilled pineapple too, so much!! Yay!
I love burger any time of the year but often get lazy to make it at home because of all the components thatI have to prep along with that. You are definitely tempting me to get pass my lazyness and make one this week.
Yes I know exactly what you mean. I get quite lazy too when it comes to dinner sometimes!! Thank you!!
YUM! I just want to sink my teeth into that burger!! So many exciting flavors!!
Thanks Annie!! I wish I had one in front of me right now 😉
Holy smokes, what an incredible burger! 😀 I’m getting hungry just looking at it, I have to make this before summer is out, my husband will love this too!
Aaah thanks Catherine!!! My hubby is ALL over it, I bet yours would love it!!