It’s a cheeseburger! It's a taco! It’s a pita sandwich! It’s a quesadilla! It’s a burgerpitacodilla! Or something. You guys! What is this thing!?
I saw these lamb pita burgers on Bon Appetit, with the meat cooked right inside the pita, and couldn’t stop thinking about how rad they looked! But, I haven’t been feeling the lamb lately, ever since this weird thing happened with my mom’s dog. The other day my ma got Daisy a fresh lamb bone from the butcher, for her birthday. When Daisy smelled the lamb bone, she flipped out. Like, started shaking and whimpering, and ran and hid. Totally afraid of it. So I did a Google search and apparently this is a thing! A lot of dogs are afraid of the smell of lamb! I read one thing that said it’s because the strong gamey smell of lamb makes dogs think that you’re cooking and hurting living animals, like dogs, and it freaks them out! This was just a comment on a forum, so I mean, it could be total BS, but weird, right!? Ugh. So anyway, I’m just not feeling lamb at the moment… solidarity with my dog-sister. 
But, it’s sunny outside, people are starting to break out their grills, and it’s only a few weeks until Cinco de Mayo. So I’m definitely feeling cheeseburgers and Mexican food, all day every day! 
Here we mix plain ol’ ground beef with some Mexican spices, pepper jack cheese, and grated onion, and spread into a pita! See the gratuitous raw meat photo above! The whole thing gets smashed together and thrown on the grill, and served with guac. The meat is moist and cheesy from the grated onion and pepper jack, and the pita gets all crispy on the outside and kind of melts together on the inside. Also, I read in the original Bon Appetit article that you can spread the meat mix on the pitas ahead of time… how perfect is that!? When it’s fiesta time, the work is basically done! Get your burgerpitacodilla on! Pitacodillaburger? Quesapitacoburger? I don’t know. Just do it! 
Pita Cheeseburgers, Mexican-style
Makes 6-8 full pita burgers
1 lb ground beef (not the leanest, I used about 85/15. An 80/20 would work too)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Scant teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoon grated white onion (about 1/4 of a large onion)
2 tablespoon fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 cup grated pepper jack
6-8 pitas
Serve with guacamole, sour cream, bean dip, salsa, etc.
Mix together ground beef through cilantro until well combined, and then stir in the grated cheese. Slice open each pita, so that you have two rounds for each one. Spread about 1/4 cup of beef mixture on half the pita, in a thin layer, all the way to the edges, and top with remaining pita half. Press together firmly.
Heat grill over medium-high heat, and grill each side for about 4 minutes, until beef is cooked through.
To cook inside on an oven-safe grill pan: preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat grill pan on stovetop over medium-high heat, and grill prepared pita for about a minute on each side just long enough to get grill marks, then put the whole pan in the oven for about 4-5 minutes, until beef is cooked through.
