Spicy Pico Bison Sliders { Recipe }

This awesome slider was inspired by a Bison Burger I enjoyed a restaurant while visiting my sister in Des Moines, Iowa last year. I didn't get it quite right... part of that was their phenomenal brioche bun... but this one certainly isn't too shabby. 

This slider is quite simple: a grilled bison burger slider, with melted cheese, a slice of poblano pepper and topped with pico de gallo. The one thing I would change about how I made this slider, is that I didn't cook the pepper slice at all. It probably would have been a little better if I had either grilled or sautéed the poblano pepper slice and made it more tender. 

While you could use store bought pico de gallo, I recommend making it. It's quite simple, and then you can use fresh vegetables! All you need is: tomato, onion (red or yellow), cilantro, green onion, jalapeño peppers, a sprinkle of lime juice and a pinch of salt. Chop and mix all these ingredients together in a small dish and that's really all there is to it. 

Once you have your pico prepped, you can set it aside and work on the burgers. Form your ground bison meat into small slider size burgers. I was able to form 6 bison sliders out of 1 lb. of meat. You'll want to grill your sliders for 3-4 minutes on each side. When there's about 1 minute left of grill time, place a half slice of Swiss cheese on top of each burger.

While your burgers are grilling, you'll also want to toast your slider buns. I toasted my buns on a cooling rack in the oven for 2-3 minutes at 400*F.

Once your buns and burgers are ready, it's time to start building the sliders! Place your sliced poblano pepper on the bottom bun, then top it with the slider. After that, all that's left to do is top it with pico and the top bun. 

Above is a picture of several other bison sliders that I made on the same day as my Spicy Pico Bison Slider. Sliders can be so fun and simple to make, and you can really get creative with your toppings!