The Secret to the Best Tailgating Burgers Is Already in Your Pantry

This unassuming snack makes the best burgers.

Even as the weather is cooling down, football season is heating up. High school football is hitting its stride with the final games of the season. College teams are battling it out for coveted spots in the playoffs and to see a bowl game. And NFL teams are hitting some of the toughest stretches of their schedules.

With more football to go, that means even more game day food in our future. And, any tailgater knows, you can’t have a pre-game meal without firing up some burgers on the grill.

After a summer packed with burgers, you might be tired of the same basic recipes and methods for making them. Luckily for us, the humble cheeseburger is incredibly versatile. Whether you want to use Alton Brown’s method for frying the patties in peanut oil or Matthew McConaughey’s trick of adding onion soup mix to the meat, you’ll end up with a different burger every time.

Now, as Cheez-It’s first-ever food truck heads back to the garage, the brand is proving that Cheez-It crackers are for more than just snacking, by releasing some of its most viral recipes from the food truck.

The One-Ingredient Upgrade for Burgers

Since the Cheez-In Diner in May, Cheez-It fans have been obsessing over the Extra-Cheez Burger topped with special Cheez-It pimento cheese. The burger—along with two additional varieties—was available again in Cheez-It’s Cheez Wheelz food truck, which ventured to game days in Penn State’s Happy Valley and the Georgia Bulldogs’ home in Athens.

Now, Cheez-It has released the recipes for the Original Extra-Cheez Burger, Penn Steak Cheez-Burger, and Georgia Bark-B-Q Cheez-Burger—each one featuring Cheez-It crackers in its own way. The OG burger is topped with Cheez-It pimento cheese, the barbecue burger features a Cheez-It-infused mac and cheese, and the steak burger adds crackers directly to the patty.

When I recreated the iconic Cheez-Burger at home, I combined the Penn State version and the classic version to make a delicious cheeseburger that needs to be at your next tailgate.

How to Use Cheez-It Crackers in Your Burger

We know that adding Cheez-It crackers to chicken breading makes a crispy, cheesy crust, but adding it to a burger mixture provides a different set of benefits. The crackers act as a binding agent to keep your burgers together on the grill. Not to mention, it adds a delicious depth of flavor that's punchy, cheesy, and savory.

While adding crushed crackers to ground beef may be reminiscent of making meatloaf or even meatballs, the method is similar to the one used in our Best Burger Ever recipe, which features rolled oats. However, one reviewer claims they’ve been using the method for years with Italian breadcrumbs in place of the oats.

“I've been making burgers this way for years and they've always gotten compliments. It holds together nicely on the grill, even when I make nice huge flat patties for those large buns. There is NO other way to make a burger,” community member GLITTER53 writes.

So, just think of the Cheez-It crackers as extra flavorful and cheesy breadcrumbs.

The Cheez-It burger patty topped with pickles and pimento cheese—made with sharp Cheddar, cream cheese, mayo, jalapeños, pimentos, crushed Cheez-It crackers, and spices—is one of the most out-of-the-box burgers I’ve ever tasted. I would never have thought to add the Cheez-It crackers from my pantry to my burger, but I know this will be my game day trick from now on. And the pimento cheese? That deserves its own spot at every party until the end of time.