The Huge Mac: Recreating an American classic at home

How to re-create a bigger, juicier Big Mac at home

The Big Mac is special. It’s probably the most iconic fast food item in the world, and it’s hard to imagine something ever overtaking it at this point. No matter how many riots break out over some new chicken sandwich at Popeyes, no matter how much bacon and cheese Wendy’s manages to pile onto its undeniably superior patties, nothing will outdo the Big Mac.

I’ve always thought of it as the United States of fast food dishes. It may seem a little excessive and decadent at times, and it might not be what you want every time you eat (okay, I might be stretching this metaphor a bit), but it’s just so big and awesome. Maybe I only feel that way because I watched The West Wing as a teenager and it burned a weird love for America into little Canadian me. Who knows?

What to know to make a Big Mac at home

For the buns, I used this recipe. I really wanted to make my own buns and put the recipe here, honestly I did, but after I began researching how to make the softest hamburger buns possible, I found this recipe and realized that there’s just nothing I can do to be that good at baking without dedicating my entire life to it. So I won’t even try.

In the end, they were delicious buns, if imperfectly created. Rich and flavorful, they were not quite as big and fluffy as I had hoped. This is all my fault, not the recipe’s, because I’m fairly certain I left them to rise for a bit too long after splitting the dough into individual balls. It’s okay, practice makes perfect, and mistakes drive us to be better.

You can go through that stressful process, or go with the classic, store-bought bun route where you just use a second bottom slice as the middle of your Big Mac. You’ll wind up with a bunch of extra tops, but that’s not such a bad thing. Maybe you even like the top more.

Once the buns are taken care of, this isn’t really such a hard recipe to manage. Make the special sauce, shred some lettuce, and rehydrate your onions. All right, you don’t have to use rehydrated onions like they do at McDonald’s, but know that the option is there if you really care about tradition.

One of the benefits of making a Big Mac at home is that you can likely produce an even better patty for the burger. You’ll want a thin patty for this recipe, which can easily fall apart when making by hand. It’s not extremely difficult by any means, but a patty stacker is a good tool to have for patties like these. You can also line a suitably sized jar lid with plastic wrap, press the meat inside, and pull the plastic wrap out, which is another good technique.

Ingredients

Soft hamburger buns, preferably topped with sesame seeds

Thin hamburger patties

Special sauce

Sliced American cheese (I’m using Velveeta)

Shredded lettuce

Sliced dill pickles

Finely chopped onion (rehydrated if preferred)

Method

Make your buns and patties and set aside until ready to begin. My patties are a simple mix of lean ground beef, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce. Use a ratio of 1 tsp salt and pepper, ½ tsp garlic powder and two shakes of Worcestershire sauce per pound of beef.

Prepare all toppings and buns and keep them near where you will assemble the burgers.

Cook the patties, toast buns and begin assembly immediately. Be generous with all toppings, especially the sauce.

The assembly, from the bottom, goes as follows: bottom bun, special sauce, onions, lettuce, pickles, one slice of cheese, one patty, middle bun, more special sauce, onions, lettuce, another patty, and finally, the top bun. Serve immediately.

How did your attempt to make a Big Mac at home go? Did it live up to the McDonald’s classic? Let us know in the comments.