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Short-Order Kitchen

Lighter Cheeseburger Pie

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A cheesy baked meat dish with a browned, bubbly top in a clay pan, with a spoon lifting out a portion.
Recipe card
Servings
4
Prep
20 minutes
Cook
25 to 30 minutes
Method
Oven
Heat
400°F
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 1 of the thread Out of the casserole dish

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • The batter goes on top, not underneath, and bakes into the crust.
  • Chop the mushrooms fine and drain them, or the filling gets watery.
  • 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes, then let it rest 10 to 15 before slicing.
  • Split the cheese: half in the filling, half on top.
THE RECIPE · LIGHTER CHEESEBURGER PIE

Ingredients

Filling

Batter

You'll need

  • 9-inch pie dish or 8x8 baking dish
  • Skillet
  • Mixing bowl and whisk

Directions

Filling

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F and grease the dish.
  2. Sauté the onion, mushrooms and garlic over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until tender. Drain off the liquid the mushrooms release, then spread the vegetables in the dish.
  3. Brown the beef in the same skillet over medium-high heat, about 4 to 5 minutes, breaking it up. Drain the fat well.
  4. Stir the salt, ketchup and Worcestershire into the beef, add it to the dish and toss with the vegetables. Scatter half the cheese over the top.

Batter and bake

  1. Whisk the egg, milk and baking mix until just combined. A few lumps are fine.
  2. Pour the batter evenly over the filling and top with the rest of the cheese.
  3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
  4. Let it cool 10 to 15 minutes before slicing so it holds together.
Notes Keeps covered in the fridge for 3 to 4 days; reheat slices in the microwave or oven. Roughly 395 calories and 40 g protein per serving, give or take.

wesellis.com/blog/low-calorie-cheeseburger-pie/

Cheeseburger pie is one of those old recipe-card dinners that sounds like a mistake and turns out great. The trick is upside down: a thin, pourable batter goes over the filling, and in a hot oven it sets into something between a biscuit and a pancake. No rolling, no crust to blind-bake.

Hide the mushrooms

Half a pound of mushrooms is doing a quiet job here. Chopped fine and cooked with the onion, they bulk up the filling and read as "more beef" rather than "mushrooms." The part people skip is draining them. Mushrooms dump a surprising amount of water, and if it goes into the dish, the batter sits on a puddle and never sets on the bottom.

Heads up

Drain the beef well too. With 96/4 there isn't much fat, but whatever is there ends up under the crust.

Let it set

Straight from the oven, the middle is still loose and a slice falls apart. Ten to fifteen minutes on the counter fixes that. Put the pickles and shredded lettuce out while you wait, or make it a full cheeseburger night with a Cheeseburger Salad on the side, which leans on the same ketchup-and-Worcestershire flavor.

Try this

Same idea, different starch: Taco Tater Tot Casserole is the next dish in this thread and swaps the batter for a layer of tots. If you want the burger in a tortilla instead, there's Cheeseburger Quesadillas.

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