Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger

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We love a good copycat recipe here at Dinnertime Somewhere. From our homage to In-N-Out Burger with our Double-Double and Animal Style Fries recipes, to the almighty McDonalds McRib recipe, we love our homemade versions of cult fast food favorites. So, it is fitting that we now share our version of the behemoth known as Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger. This beefy, cheesy, and bacony monster is a fan favorite and it honestly one of the most fun dishes to replicate at home!

We’re not here to say our Homemade Baconator is better, it’s just different (and delicious!)

The Baconator is one of the most replicated fast-food dishes in the food blogging and streaming world, so there are no shortage of options to check out how to replicate this amazing dish at home. While many claims there is ‘the best’ and ‘better than Wendy’s’, we’re not in that game. One cannot create a burger as iconic as the Baconator just for it to be easily bettered by some home cooks

No, in fact quite the contrary. Our Homemade Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger is a delicious homage to the original. It tastes unique (which is absolutely delicious), but definitely a little different from what you’ll get at Wendy’s. For starters, our Baconator is absolutely massive!

This burger is ginormous! You’ll need to give it an aggressive squash down with your hands to fit it all into your mouth. So, unlike a lot of those fast-food places where the marketing makes the burger look massive, but the actual is far from it; this Burger is truly huge! This is due to the 2 massive burger patties which are weighing in at ⅓ lb. each. That’s ⅔ of a lb. of Beef in this Burger!

While not mandatory, you can shape your Burger Patties into squares for a true ‘Wendy’s Experience’

One of the unique elements of Wendy’s Hamburgers is their unique square-shaped burgers. It obviously does nothing for the flavor of the burger, but more an aesthetic thing that helps their burgers stand out. We’ll leave this totally up to you if you want to shape your burger buns into squares

For a truly authentic experience then sure, make them square. However, we’ve found it just adds far more effort in the preparing and cooking process that doesn’t have any impact on the overall result of the burger, either flavor, texture, or even appearance

We made a veiled attempt at a square patty in our photos for this dish, but it kind of ended up being square on 2 sides and rounded on the others. The most important part of the burger is making sure you’re using ground beef with a high fat content (20% – 30% preferred), and that you season it well

For the seasoning, we used a combination of Salt, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder. This combination of flavors is ridiculous, and infuses so much additional flavor into the already flavorsome Beef

You can’t have a Baconator without the star of the show – The Bun! (no, just kidding, it’s Bacon!)

Going out there and calling a burger the Baconator means only one thing – loads of Bacon! For our Baconator recipe we use a total of 6 pieces of Bacon. You can cook them whichever way you prefer, either baking in the oven or frying on the stovetop. As long as the Bacon is crispy that’s the main part, and a critical textural component of the dish

The Bacon also adds a beautiful, salty flavor to the dish. I think that is why Bacon is loved so much by foodies all around the world. Not only does it provide such a beautiful texture, but the saltiness of a perfectly cooked piece of Bacon helps to season any dish it is included in

The official Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger uses Hickory Smoked Bacon, so if you can find some of that stuff definitely pick it up. However, any good quality bacon is going to do the trick and taste great. There are so many other flavors going on in this burger anyway, that in our opinion the Bacon is primarily there for seasoning and texture

For the Bun and Cheese, standard stuff works great

No need for anything fancy when it comes to the Bun and Cheese. Let’s start with the Cheese. There really is only 1 type of Cheese you should ever use on a Burger, and that is classic, processed American Cheese

Nothing works better. It has that irresistible melty quality that produces that thick, luscious gooey consistency. American Cheese is the best choice for Burgers, which is why it is universally used by all the fast-food giants

For the Bun, no need to get super-fancy with that either. We opted for a Sesame Seed coated Brioche Bun for our recipe. However, you can use loads of different types. We recommend either Brioche, Milk, or Potato Buns because they have the best structural integrity when it comes to a Burger. The traditional Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger doesn’t have Sesame Seeds on the bun, I just think it looks nice!

Sauce combination of Ketchup and Mayonnaise

In perhaps somewhat of a controversial choice, Wendy’s opt for the Ketchup and Mayo combo for the sauce. Not only that, but the sauce is added to the top of the Burger and not the bottom like so many other fast-food places. The location of the sauce really makes no difference, and the Ketchup / Mayo Combo works quite nicely

Personally, I’m a fan of Yellow Mustard and Pickles in my Burger, none of which are included in the Baconator. I think Wendy’s feel that adding those ingredients will take away from the pure Bacon and Meat flavor of the Burger, which is understandable. Regardless, adding a few Pickles always makes for a well-balanced burger, and we’d encourage you to add them to your Baconator

Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger Recipe

Ingredients

• 20 oz. / 560g Ground Beef (20 – 30% fat content)
• 12 Bacon Rashers
• 4 slices of American Cheese
• 2 Burger Buns (Brioche, Milk, or Potato Buns)
• 2 tbsp. Ketchup
• 2 tbsp. Mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
  
  

Instructions

1. Place the Bacon in a large frying pan and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat, turning half way through. Once crispy, remove from the pan and set aside on a paper towel to strain
2. Form the Ground Beef into 4 equal sized Burger Patties approximately 5 oz. each. Form them into thin patties that are (optional) rectangular in shape. Season them well with Salt, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder
3. Place the Burger buns into the frying pan (retaining some of the Bacon fat) and cook for 6 minutes, turning halfway through. Once cooked, set aside on a wire rack to allow some of the excess juice to strain off
   
   

Building the Wendy’s Baconator Cheeseburger

4. To build the burger, cut your burger bun in half. Layer the ingredients in this order from bottom to top: Burger Patty, Cheese, Bacon, Burger Patty, Cheese, Bacon, Ketchup, and Mayonnaise
5. Place the top on the Burger Bun and serve while hot, along with a lot of paper towels!
   
   

Recipe Notes

Here’s some of our favorite renditions of fast-food classics we recommend you check out:

• Homemade Double-Double Smash Burger
• Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich
• In N Out Animal Style Fries
• The McRib Sandwich
  
  

Happy Cooking!