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The green chile cheeseburger represents the perfect synthesis of American cuisine and New Mexico flavor.
One is sure to find it at any backyard barbecue in the Land of Enchantment, but even McDonald’s serves up burgers garnished with the verdant delicacy.
And now an Alamogordo restaurant only in business for four months has clinched the top honors at Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge 2012.
BZ Rockin’ Burgers, owned by the father and son team of Rusty and Cody Childress, beat out nearly a dozen other restaurants at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque for the right to say they have the best green chile cheeseburger.
“It kind of puts Alamogordo on the map,” Rusty Childress said.
As far as he knows, this is the first time an Alamogordo restaurant has left Albuquerque with the best burger bragging rights.
At least one customer remarked that he had seen the news of the restaurant’s win on television, and that prompted him to come in for a bite to eat.
Childress said his restaurant sells “build your own burgers,” which are made with fresh ground chuck. “We were doing ours before Denny’s started copying us,” he joked, referring to the restaurant chain’s latest marketing ploy.
Customers fill out a sheet of paper and pick their own toppings, which are sent back to the kitchen. Burgers range in size from a quarter-pound all the way up to a pound of ground Angus chuck.
The Childress family uses freshly baked buns and Hatch chile, specifically, Young Guns brand on their burgers. One of the most popular the restaurant sells is the green chile cheeseburger topped with pineapple and a fried egg. The special is probably the top seller, Childress said.
The Rockin’ BZ takes its name from his father-in-law Buz Zink’s cattle brand, he said.
The Albuquerque event, which drew the likes of Gov. Susana Martinez, featured 12 restaurants battling for cheese burger dominance. About 30 applied from all over the state, Childress said.
“We were lucky enough to get one of the slots,” he said.
Judges sampled each burger and filled out forms marking different qualities inherent in a good green chile cheeseburger. At the end of the challenge, Rockin’ BZ had the goods.
A metal sign marking their victory already hangs next to the counter.
“We cook a good burger, and we went to Albuquerque to prove it,” Childress said.
— This article appeared on page A4 of the Albuquerque Journal
