There’s a growing fast food burger chain in Southern California I’ve become quite fond of in the last few years: The Habit Burger Grill. To me, their burgers are considerably better than In’ n Out. Their ingredients are better, plus they grill their burgers over an open flame, which really enhances the burger consumption experience.

When I go to the Habit, I always get a Charburger with double cheese, and if I’m really hungry, a double Charburger with Double Cheese.

Here's what one looks like before you bite into it, less the double cheese:

The beauty of a Habit Charburger with Cheese is its simplicity; there’s not a ton of condiments that distract from the bare basics of the burger: When you bite into one, the things that stand out are the crisp toasty inner bun, meat, and cheese, and because the other condiments (mayo, pickles, tomato,caramelized onions) aren’t overwhelming flavor distractions, they serve to enhance the essence of the burger.

I decided to create my own version of a Habit Double Charburger with double cheese. If you order one, this is what it would look like from the bottom up, ingredient-wise:

1. Bottom bun, warm and well toasted
2. Mayo
3. Shredded iceberg lettuce
4. Pickles
5. Thick tomato slice
6. Beef Patty
7. 2 American Cheese slices, melty, but not quite melted
8. Beef Patty
9. 2 American Cheese slices, melty, but not quite melted
10. Carmelized onions
11. Top bun, warm and well toasted

The first thing I did was start on the onions - I took two whole small white onions and cut them into a coarse dice, then into a cast iron pan under very low heat with some olive oil for a long slow cook:

The onions were stirred about every 5 minutes, and took about 45 mins to get to toasty caramelized goodness. This is by far, the longest and most high maintenance part of the cooking process, but well worth it.

Shortly before the onions were done, I fired up the Kamado with a bunch of mesquite lump - I wanted to get the temp up pretty high for this cook: