Finding a good burger joint in Costa Rica has proven difficult even though ironically, one of the country’s major exports is beef. One place we’ve found in our neighborhood is Jettsy, which has a great bacon cheese burger with fresh french fries. They are good, almost great, but not extraordinary like so many places you can find in the US (Big Daddy’s Burger Bar, Fuddruckers, etc.) who have more toppings than you could ever imagine.

After considering opening a burger place just to have class A beef and all the toppings Costa Rica has to offer, this weekend toiled with a few recipes and cooked a batch on our grill with Willingham’s seasoning of course. We topped them with pineapple-jalapeño salsa, some fresh farmer’s market tomatoes, sauteed green beans and grilled plantains.

Pineapple Jalapeño salsa is an awesome sweet-spicey kick that ordinary burgers need. Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
• 1 Cup of chopped fresh pineapple (canned if you MUST, but fresh is way better)
• 1 Fresh Jalapeño seeded and finely chopped (do NOT used canned/jarred, it’s just not the same)
• Juice from 1/2 a lime
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 Tsp Kosher salt
• 1 Tsp fresh ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1) Mix all ingredients into a small bowl
2) Let mixture sit for an hour
3) Serve atop your favorite burger