Pork mince mixed with crispy fried bacon and smoked paprika, shaped into golf-ball slider patties and fried until the smoked Cheddar melts on top. Ramsay calls these “stunning” in the Ultimate Cookery Course and writes that “when it comes to burgers, less is more.” He serves them in mini buns with a barbecue sauce he builds from scratch.
The sauce is the part most people skip, but it is also what makes these worth cooking. Caramelised onions, garlic, brown sugar and smoked paprika cooked down with cider vinegar, Worcestershire and ketchup until thick enough to coat a spoon. Ramsay says in his YouTube video he would “like to have it bottled up in the fridge.”
He picked up sliders travelling in the States, where he calls them “a way of having a burger on a much smaller level.” The size is the point: one-inch thick, golf-ball portions, two or three bites each. He says “I’ll take that over a hamburger any day.”
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Gordon Ramsay’s Smoky Pork Sliders with Barbecue Sauce
Course: Dinner, MainCuisine: American, BritishDifficulty: Medium8-10
sliders15
minutes25
minutes280
kcal40 minutes
Mini pork burgers from the Ultimate Cookery Course with crispy bacon, smoked paprika and a homemade BBQ sauce. Ramsay says less is more with burgers, and these prove it.
Ingredients
- For the sliders:
4 rashers of rindless smoked back bacon, finely chopped
Olive oil, for frying
1 banana shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
500g (1 lb 2 oz) minced pork (ground pork)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the barbecue sauce:
Olive oil, for frying
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- To serve:
Mini burger buns or bread rolls
Baby gem lettuce leaves, shredded
Sliced smoked Cheddar cheese (such as Applewood)
Slices of tomato
Directions
- Make the barbecue sauce: Heat oil in a frying pan, then add the onion and garlic with seasoning and the brown sugar. Fry for 5 minutes until softened, then add the paprika and stir. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the onion is caramelising, then add the cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar) and let it cook out for a couple of minutes. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, and continue cooking for about 8 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Set aside.
- Cook the bacon: While the sauce reduces, fry the chopped bacon in an oiled pan for about 5 minutes until almost cooked through. Add the shallot and cook for 5 minutes until tender and the bacon is crisp. Sprinkle in the smoked paprika, stir for 1-2 minutes, then drain on kitchen paper.
- Mix and shape: Season the minced pork (ground pork) and mix well with the bacon and shallot. Roll into balls the size of golf balls, then flatten into patties about 2.5cm (1 inch) thick. Do not make them too thin or they will dry out.
- Fry the sliders: Heat a large heavy pan with a little oil. Season the patties and cook for 1-2 minutes each side, basting with the pan juices until cooked through and coloured. Turn off the heat and top each slider with a slice of smoked Cheddar, allowing it to melt in the residual heat.
- Assemble and serve: Layer each mini bun with shredded lettuce, a tomato slice, the slider and a spoonful of barbecue sauce. Serve immediately. Any remaining sauce keeps well in the fridge.
Notes
- Ramsay writes “people often add too much to their burgers, thinking it will enrich the flavour, but let me tell you, when it comes to burgers, less is more.” The UCC recipe is specifically for sliders in mini buns. He says in the video that he got the idea from travelling in the States, where “there’s like four or five of them, little mini one-bite wonders.”
FAQs
Why does Ramsay fry the bacon before mixing it in?
Raw bacon releases water as it cooks, which would make the slider patties soggy and stop them browning. Frying it first with the shallot drives off that moisture. When you mix it into the pork mince it adds crunch and smoky flavour without any liquid.
The sausage rolls from Pub Food wrap seasoned pork in mustard-painted pastry. Both recipes depend on getting the pork filling right before anything else touches it.
How do you make the barbecue sauce from scratch?
The sauce is onion, garlic, brown sugar and smoked paprika cooked down until caramelised, then finished with cider vinegar, Worcestershire and ketchup. Ramsay cooks the spices out first because raw paprika tastes dusty, and the sugar gives the onions a dark syrupy body.
The bacon jam from gordonramsay.com uses the same caramelised onion and brown sugar base but takes it further with maple syrup. If you like building condiments from scratch, both keep well in the fridge for a week.
Can you scale these up to full-size burgers?
The recipe works at any size because the mince, bacon and sauce stay the same. Shape larger patties and cook for 3-4 minutes each side instead of 1-2, then use regular buns with more cheese per patty.
Ramsay specifically calls these sliders though, and says in the video they are “small, dynamic but packed full of flavour.” The burger roundup on this site covers all his burgers if you want a full-size beef option from a different book.
What makes these different from a regular burger?
Three things set them apart. The pork mince instead of beef gives a sweeter, juicier patty because pork carries more fat through the mince. The crispy bacon mixed into the meat adds smoky crunch in every bite, and the homemade barbecue sauce ties it together.
The smoky pulled pork from UHC uses the same cheap cut with the same paprika and sugar base but slow-roasts it for hours. These sliders give you that same smoky pork flavour in 40 minutes.
What do you serve sliders with?
Ramsay serves them simply: mini buns, lettuce, tomato, cheese and the barbecue sauce. He writes “less is more” and means it, because the sauce and the bacon already carry enough flavour on their own.
The chip butty from the same book takes the same “cheap comfort food done properly” approach with oven-roasted chips in buttered bread. Both are working-class dishes that Ramsay treats with respect rather than overcomplicating.
