Deep Fried Burgers - They're As Good As You Hoped

So I made some fried chicken a couple days ago and was, of course, left with a ton of oil that I didn't want to just pour out and waste.  And no, I don't strain and save frying oil.  I'm not that guy.  But in an effort to be at least a little less wasteful I decided to try out an idea I've been thinking about for a while.  Deep frying a burger.  

Deep frying seems like a prefect way to cook a burger.  Super high, fast heat transfer to get a crispy, brown crust fast enough to leave the interior nice and medium rare.  I looked online for a recipe from America's Test Kitchen or Alton Brown or Serious Eats, but didn't see much.  So I thought, "this must be a bad idea for some reason".  Yet, there was the oil, ready to go.  And I already had the ground beef.  So, what the hell.  

Of couse I needed cheese , but since I was deep frying I couldn't melt the cheese on the burger, so I stuffed it with some decent aged cheddar that i shaved.  I also made the patty pretty flat, since I expected a dramatic shrink when it hit that hot oil.  You'll see in the video I was right about that.  Aged cheddar also worked out well because both burgers got holes when they shrunk up, and a softer cheese would have leaked, but the cheddar stayed in there.  I also made the patties relatively small, about 4-5 oz each I'd guess.  After forming them around the shaved cheddar I salted the outside only, because many chef's say mixing salt thoughout the patty causes it to develop a tougher sausage-like consistency instead of the looser ground meat a burger "should" have.  Let it sit for a few minute for the salt to absorb and that's it, into the oil.  So here's a video of the frying process.  Please excuse how dirty my stove top is, I had just cooked a BUNCH of fried chicken.  Notice how the burger is fully submerged when I put it in and slowly contracts and sticks out of the oil.

And here's a quick look at the interior after I pulled it out.

And finally, here's the first bite.

As you can see, the exterior has a delicious dark brown crust while almost the entire the interior is a perfect, uniform medium rare.  This is much better than the results I've ever gotten with traditional methods of burger cooking.  It's similar to a very hot grill, but much easier and the whole cooking process is really fast compared to a pan.  

So give it a try.  You'll be impressed.  And be careful with the hot oil.