Bratwurst Sliders are a little piece of heaven. Grilled to perfection and made even better with the addition of fried onion strips and homemade beer cheese sauce. All on pretzel buns. Amazing!
Set up a dredging station by adding the buttermilk in one medium-sized bowl and then the flour mixed with the salt and pepper in a 2nd bowl.
Add the onion strips into the buttermilk and toss to coat. Transfer to the seasoned flour and toss again until fully coated. Shake off excess and set aside on a plate.
Heat oil to 365°F. Drop the breaded onion strips into the hot oil and cook until golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon on a plate lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with a little more salt, if desired. Set aside.
Make the Sliders
Carefully use a sharp knife to remove the casings from the bratwurst links. Use a 3-inch cookie cutter, or the lid of a jar, or just your hands, to form a pattie from each link. Season lightly on both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat your grill to medium-high heat. Use a spatula to place the sliders on the grill over direct heat. Cook for 5 minutes and then flip. The sliders are ready when juices run clear and internal temperature reaches 160°F.
While the sliders are cooking, butter the pretzel buns (if desired) and place on the grill, cut side down, during the last 5 minutes of grilling the sliders.
Remove the sliders and buns from the grill and serve with fried onions and warmed beer cheese dip. Let guests build their own sliders if desired.
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Notes
Be sure to seek out all-pork bratwursts. Bratwurst links can be found in the meat department of most well-stocked supermarkets, or at your local butcher. Sometimes they are frozen. The beer cheese dip can be made up to 2 days in advance. Gently reheat over medium-low heat until the desired consistency is reached. The sauce is also excellent at room temperature. Reminder: The warmed sauce will thicken somewhat as it cools. The fried onion strips can be made up to 4 hours in advance. You can make them a day in advance, and store in an air-tight container, but they will lose some of their crispiness.Pretzel buns can be found in the bakery section of most well-stocked supermarkets, or at your local bakery, or ordered online. If you can't find pretzel buns, regular slider buns are still wonderful with these sliders.If you prefer to make regular sized burgers, instead of sliders, no problem. Just use 1½ links for each patty. The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for feeding a group.