• Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a half-sheet pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, place a half-sheet rack inside the pan, and spray the rack with non-stick cooking spray. Set the pan aside until ready to use, then put on a pair of food-grade vinyl gloves.
• Place the lean ground beef in a medium size bowl along with the garlic powder, onion powder, freshly ground black pepper, and Kosher salt. Then, use gloved hands to mix the spices into the ground beef.
• Cover the top of the kitchen scale with plastic wrap. Then, weigh out ½-ounce portions of meat. Roll the portioned meat into balls, press them flat into patties, and lay the patties on the prepared rack.
• Bake in a 350°F oven for eight minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and flip the patties over. Return the pan to the oven and bake for an additional eight minutes.
• Once the patties have finished baking, remove the pan from the oven and turn the temperature to broil. Press paper towels on the tops of the patties to remove as much grease as possible. Then, flip the patties over and use more paper towels to remove grease from the other side.
• Fold the American cheese slices in half, then fold those halves in half again to get four small squares from each slice. Then, place one small cheese square on each cooked patty. Return the pan to the oven and broil for about a minute to melt the cheese.⁴
• Cut the pretzel bites in half and place the bottoms on one half-sheet pan and the tops on another sheet pan. Laying the bottoms and tops in identical spots on each pan will help you keep track of which bottoms go with which tops.
• Place a small dollop of the burger sauce on the bottoms and the tops.⁵ Then, place the burger patties with melted cheese on each pretzel bite bottom. Place the tops on the pretzel bites on top of the burger patties.

Serving Suggestion

• Place the Cheeseburger Pretzel Bites on a large serving platter. Create a burger bar toppings station with sliced cherry tomatoes, sliced pearl onions, pickle slices, small pieces of lettuce, and small pieces of cooked thick-cut bacon. You can also add some mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard in case people want additional sauce. You should also include some bamboo skewers so people can easily remove the Cheeseburger Pretzel Bites from the platter.