When smash-style burgers were blowing up social media feeds recently, Jack in the Box was paying attention. Scores of variations went viral, including TikTok sensation Smashed Burger Tacos.
Jack in the Box is known for innovation, said Anna Gabele, VP of product marketing and innovation at the San Diego-based burger chain. She and her team felt the time was right to jump in and develop a smashed burger of their own. “We were watching the trend and listening to what our guests were craving,” said Gabele.
After two years of research and development, the Smashed Jack finally launched in January but sold out in three weeks as supplies ran out.
“Demand was so strong that we had to temporarily take it off the menu. This burger is not mass-produced and we needed time to make more patties,” said Gabele.
The Smashed Jack, which will relaunch in mid-March, features a premium quarter-pound grilled smashed patty with grilled onions, thick pickle slices and a proprietary “Boss Sauce” on a buttery brioche bun. Each component went through several iterations and tests before the burger build was perfected.
It starts with the patty
A smashed-style burger must use a different ground beef blend and grind to get that characteristic crispy edge and juicy center, said Gabele. “We even had to consider where the cattle was raised, what it was fed and the age of the beef. The patty is 100% ground beef like all our burgers, but it has a looser grind.”
When Jack in the Box develops burgers, the patty is the No. 1 consideration, she added. The burgers come into each of the chain’s 2,200 locations already formed and ready to cook, but these patties couldn’t be too thin or uniformly shaped; a slightly irregular shape is what makes it a smashed burger. The patties weigh one-third pound each when raw—large for a fast food chain, said Gabele—but there’s natural shrinkage during grilling and they cook down to a quarter pound.
Each Jack in the Box restaurant is equipped with a large, flat-top grill, and one section of the grill is dedicated to making Smashed Jacks. “The aspect that took the longest to develop was the smash press,” said Gabele. “Its weight and shape were very important to getting the crispy edge and juicy center.”
She at first tried a smasher tool that sat on the patty, but it created a steamed effect rather than a good sear. Too heavy a smasher caused the meat juices to seep out and dry out the burger; too light a press didn’t achieve the desired crispiness. Jack in the Box had presses in-house for other burgers, but none were exactly right, said Gabele. “Ultimately, we developed a different tool of our own and had a vendor manufacture it for us.”
Perfecting the burger build
Once the patty and the press were optimized, grilled onions were next in the R&D journey. The onions are cooked until they’re nicely browned and caramelized, but since speed of service is key, “we batch cook the onions throughout the day and then add them on top of the smashed burger to order,” said Gabele. Cooking the onions on the grill as the burger cooks would slow down the line.
Then it was on to the pickles. Jack in the Box redeveloped its pickle slices during the chicken sandwich wars a couple of years ago, Gabele noted. That pickle worked perfectly on the Smashed Jack and the team was able to cross-utilize an ingredient already in inventory.
The Double Bacon Smashed Jack features two patties, melted cheese and bacon with the proprietary Boss Sauce enhancing the crispy edges and caramelized flavor of the burger.
But the Boss Sauce is a completely new ingredient. “Jack in the Box has a long history with Jack’s Secret Sauce, which is used on some of our other burgers,” said Gabele. “But we’re always on the lookout for sauces that drive craveability. We’re obsessed with sauces.”
Ops always wants culinary to first experiment with and evaluate sauces already in-house, “but it was important to dial in on the exact flavor profile we wanted,” said Gabele.
The team did a full smashed burger tour, sampling and getting sauce inspiration from food trucks, mom-and-pops and sit-down restaurants—many types of burger concepts excluding other QSRs—to inform the R&D process. The resulting Boss Sauce was created in-house by one of Jack’s chefs. It’s a tangy, creamy condiment with proprietary seasonings that “marries well with the crispy edges and caramelized flavor of the burger,” said Gabele.
The final component that differentiates the Smashed Jack is the bun. “When we develop a burger, the patty is No. 1, but the bread is No. 2,” said Gabele. “We looked at a potato bun at first but ended up with a bun that’s a cross between a potato bun and brioche. The texture of the bun had to complement the looser grind, crispy edges and juicy interior.”
Too dense a bun competes with the patty instead of complementing it. The Smashed Jack’s bun “lets the patty be the hero,” she added.
What’s next?
Jack in the Box will offer two versions of the smashed burger when it returns to the menu next month. The classic Smashed Jack with cheese starts at $8.49 and the Double Bacon Smashed Jack with two patties, bacon and cheese starts at $8.89.
For summer, the chain is looking to partner with a barbecue sauce supplier to do a BBQ Smashed Jack. Korean-inspired flavors are another possibility Gabele said, as well as a variation using fresh California produce, like avocados.
“We tried a lot of iterations along the way and we can play in a number of different directions with the Smashed Jack,” she said.