Keto Big Mac Bites
These Keto Big Mac Bites are a low carb recipe for mini bunless burgers that make a great appetizer or game day food that everyone will love!
I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m kind of obsessed with Big Mac sauce. What can I say? That special sauce is magical! These easy mini keto big macs were inspired by the Low Carb Big Mac Bowl I made recently and if you make enough sauce you can make our keto big mac casserole, keto big mac meatloaf, or this easy Instant Pot big mac soup
These tasty mini bunless burgers are perfect for parties because they can feed your keto AND carb-loving guests and no one will even miss that bread. Make them for tailgating parties, game day parties, summer picnics, or just a fun weeknight dinner for the family. Once you dip those little burger bites in that special sauce you’re going to be going back for seconds!
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Ingredients You’ll Need
For the burgers:
- Ground beef – We use 80/20 to keep the burgers moist.
- Onion – a little onion adds a lot of flavor. Instead of putting them on the bun (which we’re skipping) we added them to the patty.
- American Cheese – This can be very controversial in the keto world. Please see the note below and feel free to substitute cheddar cheese if you prefer.
- Dill Pickle – Make sure it is dill and not sweet!
- Lettuce – Good old iceberg lettuce is perfect.
For the sauce:
- Mayonnaise – This is the base of the sauce. We love Hellman’s or Duke’s
- Dill pickle relish – If you can’t find dill relish you can just finely chop some of your dill pickles.
- Yellow mustard – This adds that delicious zing to your special sauce.
- White wine vinegar – a little vinegar adds just a bit more of a kick.
- Spices – Paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder combine to bring all of the flavors together.
A Note on American Cheese:
Many people think of those individually wrapped cheese sliced labeled “cheese product” when they think of American cheese. You can use those for this recipe OR if you prefer you can purchase REAL American cheese at the deli counter (Boar’s Head makes a great American cheese). If you want to double-check just ask to see the label before purchasing.
Instructions
Step 1 – Heat the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Step 2 – Mix ingredients. In a large bowl combine ground beef, onions, and salt. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Step 3 – Prepare patties. Roll the beef into 1.5 ounce balls. Press each one down slightly to flatten it to make a mini burger patty and place it on a lined baking sheet.
Step 4 – Bake. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
Step 5 – Make the sauce. While burgers cook add all of the secrete sauce ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine.
Step 6 – Assemble and serve. When the burgers are done baking turn off the oven and remove them. Pat any excess grease off.
Cut each cheese slice into four squares and place a square on each mini patty. Place back in the cooling oven and let the cheese melt.
Once the cheese has melted place a few squares of lettuce and a pickle slice on top of each meatball and run a skewer through it.
Serve with the secret sauce and enjoy!
Helpful Tips
- Use slightly 80/20 ground beef. The added fat in the ground beef helps keep your mini burgers nice and moist.
- These little patties will shrink as they cook so if you are patting them out by hand make them just a bit wider than you want them to be after they are cooked.
- Want perfectly uniform mini burger patties? Try using a lid from a small jar, or a cookie cutter, as a form for your ground beef. You’ll have to find one that is the right size (slightly larger than you want the burger to be once it is cooked) but once you have it you’re good to go. Line the lid with plastic wrap to keep the ground beef from sticking inside of it!
- Make extra sauce…seriously guys, this stuff goes fast!
Making the Ahead of Time
Yes! You can cook the mini burger patties the day before and store them in the refrigerator. Before guests arrive heat them up in the microwave, or wrap them in a little aluminum foil and warm them in the oven, and then assemble them. The special sauce can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
Looking for More Keto Appetizers?
- Low Carb Nachos
- Low Carb Mozzarella Sticks
- Low Carb Taco Bites
- Memphis BBQ Sausage and Cheese Platter
- Quick and Easy Antipasto Skewers
- Chorizo and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
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Keto Big Mac Bites
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds Ground beef
- ¼ cup Onion, finely diced
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 4 slices American Cheese
- 16 slices Dill Pickle
- Lettuce
Secret Sauce
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 4 tablespoon Dill pickle relish
- 2 tablespoon Yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon White wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large bowl combine ground beef, onions, and salt. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Roll the beef into 1.5 ounce balls. Press each one down slightly to flatten it to make a mini burger patty and place it on a lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
- While burgers cook add all of the secrete sauce ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine.
- When the burgers are done baking turn off the oven and remove them. Pat any excess grease off.
- Cut each cheese slice into four squares and place a square on each mini patty. Place back in the cooling oven and let the cheese melt.
- Place a few squares of lettuce and a pickle slice on top of each meatball and run a skewer through it.
- Serve with the secret sauce and enjoy!
Nutrition
I make a less fattening version of the Secret Sauce with Mt. Olive sugar-free pickle relish and Hellman’s Light Mayonnaise. Trust me, I’ve gagged my way through a LOT of low calorie versions of these two ingredients and those are absolutely the best.
Mandy thanks for the tip!
How many carbs?
Hi Sharon, I updated the recipe with all of the nutrition info. It is approximately 1 carb per bite and that does include the sauce.
I used a tablespoon for serving size. When I put the ingredients in my fitness pal for the secret sauce, the calculations are as follows:
Nutrition Facts
Servings 16.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 130
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 5 g 8 %
Saturated Fat 1 g 4 %
Monounsaturated Fat 1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 3 mg 1 %
Sodium 142 mg 6 %
Potassium 306 mg 9 %
Total Carbohydrate 19 g 6 %
Dietary Fiber 2 g 10 %
Sugars 1 g
Protein 4 g 9 %
Vitamin A 1 %
Vitamin C 1 %
Calcium 2 %
Iron 8 %
The carb count seems kind of high,..is this correct?
Hi Marla, yes that is very high. I calculated .5 carbs per serving with 16 servings made from the recipe. Perhaps you entered sweet relish (very high in sugar) rather than dill relish (0 carbs)
How do you come up with theses calculations? I was surprised to see only 1g of carbs.
Hi Rachel, we use a widget that calculates the nutritional information. We input all the ingredients and serving size 🙂
Yummy. Thanks for sharing
These little bites of goodness are amazing!!! My whole house loves them and requests them weekly. I make the mini burger ahead and freeze them.
Hello, I’m just starting with you. I haven’t tried these little burgers yet but they look awesome. I can’t wait to try them, probably tonight. I’ll keep you posted. I’m so happy to find someone who is as interested in low carbs and sugars as I am. Thank you. ????
I hope you loved them!! These little bite of Big Mac goodness are one of my favorites!
I don’t eat much meat so I made my patties out of veggies and Blackbeens however if I eat meat I use chickenburger which is also delicious. Either way these are fantastic I do substitute the mayo with veganaise
I just made these for lunch. My family devoured 4 dozen of them in a heartbeat. My 11 year old daughter told me they are her new favorite meal (consequently, she did tell me earlier this week that she had been dreaming about a Big Mac for 3 days…I think this satisfied her craving)!! Super easy to make is also a plus!!
Jamie, so glad she likes them! I know how hard it is to find something the kids actually like.
what can you use if you dont have white wine vinegar?
Hmm, you could substitute with apple cider vinegar. If you don’t have any vinegar just skip it or substitute a little extra juice from the Dill relish.
Delicious! I made these for my husband to eat during the playoffs. I thought there’d be leftovers, but there weren’t. ☺️ This one is officially getting added to the football food list.
Made these tonight and they were definitely a BIG hit
I made these tonight, so delish! My husband loved them. I didn’t have white wine vinegar but used Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar instead. Thanks, I’m always looking for good recipes for my gluten free hubby!
Hi, thank you for the recipe! Are you using sugar-free sweet pickle relish, or is the relish you speak of basically just chopped dill pickles? Thanks again!
Hi Rosemary I use Dill relish so it has no added sweeteners and it’s basically finely chopped Dill pickles
Absolutely delicious but hard to eat just a few. Tasted just like a Big Mac to me.
I made these for the family for the Super Bowl and they were AMAZING!! I was a little skeptical about the sauce, but once it’s on the burger, it tastes just like a Big Mac. This will be on regular rotation at our house. Thank you!
Can I serve these as an appetizer at room temperature. They would be good to make ahead for a pot luck.
You can definitely serve them at room temperature for a party!
Why would you use Fake cheese that’s not Keto. American cheese is NOT real cheese!!
Hi Pete, We used American cheese because that’s what is on a Big Mac and we were making Big Mac Bites. Also, it’s a misconception that American cheese is not real cheese, it all depends on what you buy. The individually wrapped cheese sliced labeled “cheese product” aren’t real cheese but you can purchase American cheese from the deli counter which is real cheese. If you want to double-check just ask to see the label before purchasing. Boar’s Head makes a great REAL American cheese.
The nutritional info doesnt include sugar. just curious to know how much sugar is in this recipe?
Hi Bec, This recipe doesn’t have any sugars in it, or at least it is less than 1 gram per serving, so it isn’t shown by the database we use to calculate nutrition.
Great recipe! Made plenty for my husband and I. We are diabetic so working hard to prepare recipes that are filling and meet our tastes. Thanks for sharing!
Are you kidding me?? This is absolutely better than a Big Mac!! You will love it.
We made these and absolutely LOVED them!!! Definitely tastes like a big Mac. We are such big fans of the sauce that we use it for more than just this recipe. It goes with everything!
How long is the sauce good for in a container in fridge?
I would say a couple days and just make sure you stir really good before using it.
Um…this recipe is AMAZING!!! It tasted exactly like a Big Mac, which was perfect, and my guy devoured them, and he is pretty picky. The only thing I changed was that I put dried onion flakes in the burgers instead of fresh onion, which ended up being spot on with Big Mac onion flavor. Thank you so much!!!! 😍
Wow these were pretty amazing. Easy!! Pretty close to Big Macs! Maybe not quite as sweet and that is OK!
These low-carb big mac bites look delicious, I just want to devour it off the screen! Thanks for sharing, Kat & Melinda!
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never had low-carb big mac bites! This recipe looks great though so hopefully that will change! Thanks for posting it Kat!
Are the calories and carbs with the Mac sauce or without? Thanks for the great low cal and carb recipe!
Yes, it includes both the sauce and the mini burgers.
OMG! These were delicious and the special sauce was awesome! My husband even wants me to use your special sauce on his salads from now on. Thank you for developing these Big Mac recipes!
Love the simplicity and the Big Mac sauce. Thank you so much for sharing Kat & Melinda. It’s such a great recipe I’ve included it in our ground beef recipe roundup.
Thanks!
Thank you for the recipe. I think it is wonderful as is. Just ate it — we all loved our mini big Macs. I seldom read comments because inevitably there are many complaints and the need to share why a recipe is not a good fit due to personal preferences and / or dietary choices.
Delicious. I actually made this with ground turkey because my spouse can’t have red meat, but even still the combination of American cheese, pickle, and the “special sauce” really evoked the flavors of a Big Mac. Definitely will make again.