Cheeseburger Pizza

This Cheeseburger Pizza recipe has it all! Ground beef, onion, cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard, on a sesame seed crust.

All of Jeff’s friends love pizza, burgers, barbecue, and beer. He’s no different . . . he just like to class them up a bit.

He brews his own beer, makes his own pizza (you’ve read about many of them), smokes his own root beer ribs, and tries every joint in the greater Detroit area claiming “voted best burger”.

With this pizza, he decided to do a fusion (just like my fusion gyro pizza and taco mac and cheese and General Tso’s meatballs recipes). Behold the cheeseburger pizza.

The inspiration behind this cheeseburger pizza recipe:

If you are like him, you like classic burgers. I am talking about the ones made at bowling alleys and little holes-in-the-wall.

These are places where handmade patties are caramelized and sesame seed buns are toasted on a large flat-top griddle.

They usually come with only the basics – cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and onions.

And while sometimes a turkey burger salad hits the spot when we want to eat a little lighter, there’s really nothing like combining the two comfort classics of cheeseburgers and pizza.

What is on a cheeseburger pizza?

This is really up to you, and what you normally like to eat on your cheeseburgers!

Here, we took the toppings from our favorite bar burger, and added some lettuce and tomatoes for freshness:

• ground beef
• onion
• sharp cheddar cheese
• lettuce
• tomato
• pickles
• mayonnaise
• ketchup
• mustard
• sesame seeds

If you can, use a pizza stone for this hamburger pizza!

Pizza stones are a wonderful product because they help to achieve that wood-fired oven crispy crust without spending a couple grand on an actual pizza oven. I LOVE a crispy crust for Brussels sprouts pizza.

You simply throw the pizza stone in the oven as it preheats (usually to a high temperature like 450 degrees F) and once the oven comes up to temp you put the freshly stretched dough down on the stone and stick the stone back in the oven to crisp up.

How to make cheeseburger pizza:

We achieved the toasted sesame seed bun feel by using a pizza stone to brown off the pizza crust.

Once the crust was a little bit browned, we spread it with a thin layer of mayonnaise and sprinkled the outside edge with sesame seeds. Think deconstructed Big Mac bun.

The thin layer of mayonnaise also helps the toppings stick to the crust, since we’re not using a traditional pizza sauce here (kind of like how my crab rangoon pizza uses cream cheese).

Then, we sprinkled the crust with cooked ground beef (with onions) and shredded cheddar cheese and returned it to the oven to melt the cheese.

After that, we simply topped it with lettuce, tomato and pickles, and then drizzled it with ketchup and mustard right before serving!

What sauce for hamburger pizza?

You actually have a couple of options here. The first time we made this pizza, we made a riff on a Big Mac sauce by mixing equal parts ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise with a little splash of hot sauce.

It was tasty, but it’s honestly just as yummy (and easier and less dishes) to simply squirt the finished pizza with ketchup and mustard!

How to make a bacon cheeseburger pizza:

Well, make it a BACON Cheeseburger pizza by adding bacon, of course!

Before you start your pizza, use my “how to cook bacon in the oven” post to make perfect, crispy bacon strips just like the way I learned in culinary school.

Then, chop up the bacon and sprinkle it over the pizza at the same time you add the ground beef and cheese.

Other ideas to make this pizza your own:

• top with avocado or red pepper guacamole to give it a California feel.
• add mushrooms, because they are a great burger topping.
• make it spicy by adding pickled jalapeños.
• get really adventurous and add a few fried eggs to the top!

What to serve with cheeseburger pizza:

Honestly, this is a whole meal on a pizza, and I really don’t think you need a side dish.

So, how about a great drink? I recommend a honey old fashioned for the bourbon lover(s) in the family (or possibly a brandy old fashioned) and strawberry ginger lemonade for everybody else.

We hope you enjoy combining our favorite foods and indulging in this creation.

Note: This recipe was originally published in 2014. The post was updated in 2021 to be more informative, and the photos were reshot. The original photos appear below.