Frozen hamburgers patties are so last season. Fire up your fan base with mini-bison burgers, topped with gooey fontina cheese and a tart-sweet red onion and cherry relish. Make the relish ahead of time and pat out the burgers at home to save time.

Winning Season Sliders
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Yield: 6 sliders

Ingredients:

For Sliders

• 1 pound ground bison meat
• Salt and pepper
• 6 small slices fontina cheese (or provolone)
• Small rolls, sliced for burgers

For Relish

• 1 red onion
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 4 generous tablespoons cherry preserves

Directions:

Pat out burgers into small slider-size patties and season with salt and pepper. Grill the burgers as desired. These are leaner than hamburger, so don’t over cook them or they will be dry. Top with slices of cheese.

Slide them into the bun and serve with the cherry onion relish.

For relish: Place onion and vinegar in small sauce pan, bring to a boil and turn down the heat to a strong simmer. Cook until the vinegar is syrupy and the onions are soft. Add cherry preserves, turn up the heat to medium and cook until soft and jam like. Set aside until ready to serve.

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Kimberly Lord Stewart is a food author and journalist for CBS Denver local, Organic Food Reporter for Examiner.com, and the Food, Wine and Spirits editor for Denver Life magazine. Her book, “Eating Between the Lines” tells readers about the truth and myths of food labeling. Stewart is the recipient of two Association of Food Journalist awards for food news reporting and the Jessie Neal Business Journalism award. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.