Grilled Chicken, Feta, Spinach Slider Skewers

Looking for something just a little different on the grill the other day, I put together this Greek-inspired dinner. It was almost a complete dinner-on-the-grill meal with the veggie skewers I grilled at the same time. Well, I did have to make classic Greek tzatziki to spoon over the sliders. Because tzatziki!

What makes these sliders a little bit Greek? Feta cheese for starters...and the classic Greek flavors of lemon, oregano, and garlic with some fresh spinach for color and juiciness. In fact, if you think of ground chicken as lacking in moisture, this is just the mixture to dispell that thought. Tangy feta, tart lemon, earthy oregano, zippy garlic and green spinach make these sliders a burger mixture you and your guests will really enjoy!

If you can find long, flat bamboo skewers, they are the best! Burgers, sliders, meatballs or whatever you skewer and grill stays put instead of rolling around a round skewer making it a pain to easily get nice grill marks on both sides. Look at the grill marks in the pic! These are so easy to turn and flip, I'm picking up a new supply when I get to World Market in Michigan next month. 

To serve, tuck a slider into a wedge of toasted pita or onto a slider bun, garnish with grilled veggies and slather with a healthy helping of cucumber-y, minty tzatziki. Eat. Repeat!

Grilled Chicken, Feta, Spinach Slider Skewers

• 1 lb ground chicken breast
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 C fresh spinach, finely chopped
• 1 slice firm white bread (like Pepperidge Farm), made into fine crumbs - I used Whole Foods Light White bread to make this gluten free
• 3/4 C feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 1/2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 t dried oregano
• 2 t Jane's Crazy Mixed Up salt (or other seasoned salt)
• lots of freshly ground black pepper

Mix all together well, but lightly. Form into 6 flat patties. Refrigerate at least an hour before inserting skewers - or skip the skewers and just make burgers. Grill until cooked thoroughly - no pink chicken, please!

Serve with your favorite grilled veggies - I served zucchini, red onions, red and yellow peppers. And tzatziki!

Tzatziki

• 1 seedless English cucumber, grated - don't peel an English cucumber, the color in the tzatziki is gorgeous! (if you use regular cucumbers, peel them because the ones from the grocery store are usually waxed)
• 2 C plain, low fat yogurt (I use Fage 0% Greek yogurt)
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt, to taste
• lots of fresh ground black pepper
• 1 t fresh mint leaves, finely minced
• 1 small clove garlic, minced

Drain the liquid from the grated cucumber, then mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Chill until serving time.

NOTE: I usually buy the yogurt in quart sized containers and use the whole container to make a double batch of tzatziki. Nighttime snack attacks become healthy and low cal...as long as you're not dipping potato chips into it!

Black Bean And Pork Chipotle Burgers

If you don't grill year round, I'll bet you're itching to fire up the the old Weber! I'd venture a guess the mental wheels are already turning to pick the perfect inaugural protein. Chicken? Steak? Salmon? For most of us, probably the first thing you want is a damned good burger. After that annoying recent run of snow and cold, isn't a burger just the thing to put away all those chilly memories of winter? 

Since my grill gets lots of use during ALL seasons of the year (and includes non-stop sizzling hamburgers), I was craving something a little different than a traditional, first-of-the-season, basic burger. Maybe something with a little south of the border flair? I decided to mix up a ground pork burger with black beans for color and even more protein, some heat in the form of smoky chipotles in adobo, even more smoky flavor from a touch of cumin, and a TON of burger personality. Let the burger season begin!

Black Bean And Pork Chipotle Burgers

• 1/2 C canned black beans, drained and rinsed - mash beans coarsely with a fork
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/4 C onion, finely minced
• 1 t salt
• 1 t granulated garlic
• 2 T canned chipotles in adobo - use some of the adobo sauce, too
• 1 t ground cumin

Mix all ingredients well, but lightly. Form into 3-4 patties - depending on how big you like your burgers.

Fire up the grill and cook to desired doneness...I like my pork burgers well done. I'm old school like that.

I topped mine with a fresh salsa, slices of ripe avocado, and a few crumbles of queso fresco. Top yours just the way you want!

    

Horseradish Bacon Cheese for Burgers

Really. Is there anything better than a burger? Sizzling hot, seared and seasoned to perfection, cradled in a soft white bun with crisp green lettuce and sweet red tomato, piled high with melting cheese? Spring hasn't sprung until that first burger of the new season goes from grill to table to my mouth!

Actually, the cheese I was craving to top off my burger wasn't American or cheddar or even provolone, it was that good old Southern favorite - pimiento cheese. But there wasn't a jar of pimientos to be found in the house. I did, however, have a brand spanking new unopened bottle of horseradish. And there was bacon! (Truth be told, there is always bacon...it's a Dinner Plan-it staple!)

Now that the beginnings were there for a twist on the classic, I added sharp white cheddar, smooth, creamy Havarti, grated onion, just a smidge of mayo - well "smidge" compared to the mountain of mayo that normally goes into pimiento cheese...and a great big pile of horseradish. I was aiming for HORSERADISH bacon cheese! That goal was accomplished.

Smoky, zippy, salty, tangy, smooth and creamy...what a burger topping! Have some left over when the grilling is done? Spread Horseradish Bacon Cheese for Burgers on crackers or scoop it up with celery or carrot sticks or how about grilled Horseradish Bacon Cheese sandwiches. Who knows? Pimiento cheese might have just met it's match.

Horseradish Bacon Cheese for Burgers

• 5 slices of thick-sliced bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 4 oz. white cheddar, grated
• 3 1/2 oz. Havarti cheese, grated
• 1 T. onion, grated
• 3 T. horseradish
• 2 T. mayonnaise, Hellman's preferably

Using the shredder disk of your food processor, shred the cheddar, then the Havarti into the bowl. Remove the shredder disk and place the blade in the bowl. 

Add the bacon, onion, horseradish and mayo to the bowl and process until the cheese is smooth, creamy and spreadable.

Grill your burgers as you normally would and pile the cheese spread on top. Put the burger onto a bun with lettuce and tomato...maybe a little sweet onion and there you have it. Enjoy!

NOTE: Why does this spread use less mayo than pimiento cheese? It's the creamy Havarti and horseradish that makes it really smooth and spreadable without all the mayo...and cuts down on the calories...but then again, let's not think about calories. There is all that bacon. Sigh.

Spicy Peppadew Bacon Cheese for Burgers

What's more American than a classic burger on the grill on Memorial Day? Not much. Unless you top it with that classic Southern delight, pimiento cheese!

Occasionally I develop a real craving for pimiento cheese and for the last couple of weeks, that's been the case. 

This time, instead of using traditional pimientos from the squat little Dromedary jar we all use, I had other plans. Pickled Peppadew peppers would make a nice little twist on the original recipe! If you haven't had Peppadews, they're about the size of a cherry tomato, slightly spicy and totally delicious. 

The vinegary-ness of the Peppadews countered the richness of cheese and mayo and bacon added a nice smoky, salty edge to the mixture. What a way to top our holiday burgers in style!

Spicy Peppadew Bacon Cheese for Burgers

• 4 slices thick cut bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
• 8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded on medium disc of food processor
• 1/3-1/2 c. jarred Peppadew peppers, chopped
•  1/4 c. mayonaise
• 2 T. onion, grated
• 1/2 t. Kosher salt
• a hefty grinding of black pepper

Add everything to a bowl, mix well and refrigerate until burgers are ready. Spoon the mixture on top of the burgers, add whatever other toppings you like - tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles - and serve.

NOTE: Have some of the cheese spread left over? Spread it on crackers! Yum. Have some peppadews left over from the jar? Stuff them with some of the cheese for an appetizer or stuff them with chicken or tuna salad - also for an appetizer. Be creative!

Burgh'ers and Burgers In Harmony...

 

Pittsburgh, PA - a city bursting at the seams with hulking skyscrapers and soaring steel girders of multitudinous bridges...and great burger joints.

Harmony, PA - a peaceful, bucolic village of farms and fields way up north (further than Zelionople!)...and a great burger joint! In fact, we found absolute burger brilliance in Harmony. Maybe that should be "Burgher" brilliance. The fine establishment of which I speak is Burgh'ers.
 
Now we didn't happen upon Burger'ers by accident, we'd been wanting to check this place out since last fall after sampling Burgh'ers delectable bites of food and inventive cocktails at Savor Pittsburgh. Somehow, despite the best of intentions, we never made it that far up north...until Friday. You can be assured we'll be making the trek regularly now!
   
Upon walking through the door, the place was packed. Wait for a table? Not when there were two prime spots at the end of the bar! It was the perfect perch to observe all the happenings between the kitchen and the front, the kitchen and the bar, the bar and the front...you get the idea, it was the happening place to be. And talk.
 
We were soon chatting with our barmates as if we'd always known one another. Al and PJ sat to our immediate left and we talked of rock music and Jergel's new spot in Warrendale, the old days and the loss of loves...and of Harleys while we waited for food and drink.  

And we schmoozed with Dee Hutto, our very talented bartender. Dee was responsible for the back of the bar looking as much like a scene out of Harry Potter's Hogwarts schoolroom as anything else. Glass jars and bottles of all sizes and shapes and colors held infusions, elixirs and bitters with fruits such as figs, pineapple, mango, orange, blood orange, spices and herbs all waiting to be part of the magical, liquid combinations of spirits with which Dee built each cocktail.  

It was the last weekend for Dee's winter cocktail menu and the Royal Fig was sounding just right for the cool, blustery weather outside. Crown Royal, Dee's housemade Pimms, Campari, lemon and her own orange fig bitters beckoned. Bold, tart, sweet and crisp, it was perfection. 

Don't look for it on the bar menu as Spring cocktails have taken over...although if you're lucky, Dee may just have enough ingredients to mix you up one last Royal Fig. No promises, though. While I enjoyed my cocktail, Mark savored one of the very nice selections of craft beers on tap. We finalized our dinner selections.
 
Now what else would you order from a place called Burgh'ers, than a burger? Exactly. Mark ordered the Pitts Burger piled high with cheddar, coleslaw, pickle, basil onion and "special" sauce. The Animal was my choice. It's a cheeseburger...oh, not the typical cheeseburger you might envision, this was a cream cheese burger!  

Fresh basil, crisp onion, raw, spicy jalapeno slices and sweet tomato stacked atop a burger of organic local beef and grilled to caramelized perfection on a screaming hot flat top. You might choose to have yours on a bun, but I chose a huge romaine leaf, of course. The contrast of hot meat and cool cream cheese accented with all those fresh veggies made my heart sing...and my tastebuds smile.

The Animal - Burgh'ers far superior version!

Owner and head chef, Fiore Moletz, hit a home run with this one and the rest of the menu! I think it's the use of local, organic beef, chicken and fresh veggies that makes the difference. Check out the rest of the menu at Burgh'ers.

Although I didn't use the organic beef burger mix that Burgh'ers does and I don't have a white hot flat top to sear the patties almost instantly, I made my own - nowhere near as good as Burgh'ers - version of the Animal burger at home. It was good! If you can't get out to Harmony to experience the REAL Burgh'ers burgers, give this one a whirl.

One more thing...Burgh'ers will be selling their their burgers and other items outside of Good Taste Pittsburgh in Cranberry on Saturday, April 20th at the Marriott on Rt. 228. There will be deliciousness both outside and inside!

The Animal Burger

Makes 1 burger

• 1/3 - 1/2 lb GOOD quality ground beef, made into a thin patty
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

• 2 slices cream cheese from the foil-wrapped package
• several thin slices raw jalapeno pepper - or use pickled ones from the jar
• thinly sliced onion - red onion would be pretty!
• red, ripe tomato slices
• finely julienned fresh basil
• Romaine lettuce
• Jane's Crazy salt or another good seasoning salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• a good toasty bun (gluten-free to make this GF) or a whole Romaine lettuce leaf

Either grill the burger or sear it in a very hot cast iron skillet - I'm assuming you don't have a flat top either - on both sides to medium rare or however YOU like it.

Place the burger on a waiting toasted bun or a large Romaine leaf. Top with the cream cheese slices and the veggies. Dust with Jane's Crazy salt and enjoy.

 

Double Bacon, Swiss & Spinach Quiche Burgers

It's burger night and the weather is crappy out there. The deck is a mess of wind, rain, sleet and hail...kind of a perfectly miserable storm of horror to the U. S. Postal Service and a nightmare for the grilling aficionado. The postman might deliver in weather like this, but do WE really have to bundle up and suck it up to deliver a burger to the dinner table? No.

Sometimes an indoor burger is exactly right for the occasion. Any time I'm making a burger with chicken or turkey, I want to cook it ALL the way through. Not only that, but without the higher fat content beef has, poultry burgers don't hold together as well on the grill. Pan frying or broiling is definitely the way to go. Especially on a night like this.

The flavors of a classic Quiche Lorraine have been haunting my brain lately. Burger night...quiche...why not a burger that echoes that brunch fave? Crisp cooked bacon, red onion, fresh spinach and Swiss cheese would make one really good burger! Using ground chicken instead of beef, allows the quiche-iness come through more clearly.

If quiche is good, then quiche TWICE would be even better. So I doubled down the spinach, smoky bacon and melted Swiss on top of the grilled burger. The result? Real men DO eat Double Bacon Swiss & Spinach Quiche Burgers! Mark loved them! 

Double Bacon, Swiss & Spinach Quiche Burgers

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach, finely chopped
• 3 slices crisp, cooked bacon, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, or more to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste

• 8 slices crisp, cooked bacon
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• red onion, thinly sliced
• fresh spinach
• 4 hamburger buns - gluten-free buns to make these GF

In a mixing bowl, lightly mix the ground chicken, shredded Swiss, chopped onions, chopped spinach, diced bacon, nutmeg and salt & pepper. Form into 4 patties.
 
Heat a heavy skillet and add a tablespoon or so of oil.  When the skillet is hot, add the burgers. Cook all the way through, but don't overcook them - keep them juicy!
 
Top the burgers with Swiss cheese and let it melt before building the burgers on buns with sliced onion, fresh spinach leaves and crisp bacon.

Teriyaki Burgers

 

For some odd and arbitrary reason, Tuesdays have always been burger night in our house. Sunshine, combined with traditional Tuesday burger night, had Mark and I craving Teriyaki Burgers - damn the snow! 

These burgers are one of our favorite Burger Night burgers in warm summer weather, so why should a little snow out in the back deter us from such delightfulness?  It shouldn't.  Even more importantly, it DIDN'T!

Although the recipe calls for ground beef, this is equally as delicious made with ground chicken or turkey or (probably my favorite of all) ground pork...or any combination of any of the foregoing. Crunchy water chestnuts, zingy green onions, (wheat-free) tamari and just a kiss of brown sugar turn ordinary ground meat into one very special burger.  

Sure, you could broil these inside, but then you'd miss the dreams of summer that go along with grilling in the cold.  What's a little shivering when the smoky aroma of fat hitting the flames fills your nostrils with enchantment and the resultant sizzle is staccato music to your ears?  

There might be snow on the ground, but just for a little while it is summer in your heart.  And tummy. 

 Teriyaki Burgers

• 2 pounds ground chuck
• 8 ounces waterchestnuts, canned, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup tamari soy sauce, wheat-free (or regular soy sauce if you're not concerned about gluten)
• 4 green onions, sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons granulated garlic

Mix all ingredients together well, but do not overwork the mixture to keep it light.  

Make into 8 patties and grill carefully.  They may stick or fall apart if you're not careful with them.  I usually use a grill basket for easy handling and turning.


NOTE:  If we're not having company, I still make all 8 patties and freeze half of them to thaw and cook as the mood hits.  No fuss, made-ahead teriyaki burgers from the freezer are always nice to have on hand.

Instead of beef, try ground chicken, turkey or pork - or any combination.  I think my favorite is ground pork. Yum!
 

Brunch Burger with BACON Marmalade!

Bacon marmalade?  The menu at Jerome Bettis Grill 36 said “Bacon Marmalade!!”  And it comes with a breakfast burger topped with mozzarella and an egg?  Yes, please!  Probably (if I were being accurate instead reporting what grabbed my eye and gravitated my entire head towards the Burger Section), it was a burger that came with the bacon marmalade, not the other way around. 

The order went in.  While I waited, I enjoyed quite a magnificent Bloody Mary…just to pass the time until brunch came, of course, and for no other reason. (wink)

And then that beautiful platter appeared.  A gorgeous sunnyside up egg perched prettily atop an oozing mozzarella coverlet atop a beautifully done medium burger.  The “atops” stopped there for me although it should have been open-face on a bun.  Gluten issue again.  Really, though, it didn’t need the bun. 

And the bacon marmalade?  The entire reason I ordered the burger?  There it was in its own little cup waiting to be dipped into or slathered over the burger.  All aquiver, I spooned into it.  Sweet, salty, smoky, orange-y and slightly tart exploded all at once.  Angels sang.  A momentary out-of-body experience may have occurred.  It. Was. Heavenly.  The Bus KNOWS how to build a burger!

I began to plan how I would do it at home.  Bacon marmalade?  I’m sure it was jarred orange marmalade with finely processed crisp bacon and some other ingredients.  A snap to duplicate, really. 

The burger was a burger.  Could I make it a better brunch dish?  More breakfast-ish instead of lunch-ish?  Well, sure.  Instead of a beef burger, I went the breakfast sausage route, but made it just a little milder and a little lower in fat and calories by mixing sage sausage and ground chicken in equal parts.  To echo the orange of the bacon marmalade, I added the zest and juice of an orange, a healthy amount of freshly ground black pepper and a little onion. 

How was the finished dish?  Mark and I like it better than the original…and that’s saying something!  Hey, Bus, how about I make YOU a breakfast burger one of these days?!  And a Bloody Mary.  Just to pass the time while you’re waiting for the burger, of course. 

  Brunch Burger with BACON Marmalade!

Makes 4

• 1/4 cup orange marmalade
• 3 strips bacon, thick sliced, cooked crisp, chopped up finely in the food processor
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

• 1/2 pound sausage meat, sage kind
• 1/2 pound ground chicken
• 1 orange, zested first and then juiced
• 1/2 medium onion, very finely minced
• freshly ground black pepper, lots

• 2 English muffins, toasted (gluten-free muffins to make this GF)
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 4 eggs, fried sunnyside up or how you like them best

Marmalade:  Melt the orange marmalade in a small pot.  When smooth, add the rest of the ingredients and let come to room temp.  Can be made ahead and refrigerated.
 

Burgers:  Let the sausage and the ground chicken come almost to room temperature before starting this...it makes them easier to mix together thoroughly.  In a large bowl, mix the sausage & chicken well.  Add the orange zest and juice, the onion and the black pepper and mix well again.  Form into 4 patties.
 

Heat a skillet and add a little butter.  Fry the patties on both sides, cooking through completely.  You don't want any raw chicken or sausage in the middle!
 

Assembly:  Put an English muffin half on a plate.  Top with the burger, a slice of cheese, a fried egg and drizzle bacon marmalade over the top of everything. 
 

Enjoy!

Mango Tango Turkey Burgers

 

Piles of gorgeous, ripe Champagne mangoes (those small golden ones shaped like cashews) beckoned from the fruit stalls at West Side Market the other weekend, so Kimber and I did what any sane (?) shopper would do...we bought a full case!  At the bargain price of 75 cents each, how could we resist?!   

A mango tequila infusion was my plan and Kimber's idea was a curried sliced chicken and mango salad …we knew we’d figure out what to do with the rest.  And we did. 

So far, the intended tequila infusion (very nice so far with about a week to go before it’s fully ready) has come to fruition (pun!), a mango and corn salsa went to work with me (the gang was happy with that!), and, of course, the burgers.  That’s my favorite of all...so far anyway.   

How can you not like a burger with all the good stuff of mango salsa crammed INTO it?  Mark really liked this one – and let me repeat, it’s a TURKEY burger! There's so much going on flavor-wise - sweet mango, spicy siracha, smoky cumin, bright cilantro, peppers, onion....fantastic!  With all those gorgeous colors, the burger has the look of party confetti!

The mango madness isn’t over yet in the kitchen, folks.  Chicken salad with cashews, celery, Thai green curry, a little mayo, lime and mango is the dinner plan tonight.  And that last mango?  I’m craving the corn and mango salsa again…and there’s leftover corn from tonight’s dinner.  Another plan!

One more thing before the burger recipe, did you know that mangoes, cashews and pistachios are botanically related?  People with tree nut allergies need to be careful not to eat mangoes to avoid the same allergic reaction.  Don't make these burgers for anyone with a nut allergy!  Okay, that was my public service announcement of the day.  Now on to the recipe!

Mango Tango Turkey Burgers

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons red bell pepper, diced fine
• 2 tablespoons green bell pepper, diced fine
• 2 tablespoons purple onion, diced fine
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon siracha
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 mango, chopped fine, use a Champagne mango - those small yellow ones that are cashew shaped

Before grilling...look at the mango!

Mix all together lightly and make into 4 patties.

Grill in a grill basket...they're soft so this way there won't be any accidental bits falling through the grates.  You can pan fry them, too.  (The "before" picture doesn't look like the patties are in a basket, but they are.  I took the pic before closing it up.)
 

Serve with or without buns.  It's nice to grill some of that onion in slabs and grill some mango, too...delicious on top of the burger!  Avocado would be a good addition, too.

Lamburger Sliders with Spinach & Feta

Spring.  Warm breezes, sunshine, the smell of freshly cut grass drifting across the yard, perky daffodils, swaying tulips and lamb.  Some of my favorite springtime delights, for sure.  The bouquet of lamb grilling on the barbecue grill?  That one may trump all the other spring sensory experiences hands down!

Lamb is one of those meats we serve rarely in this house - I don't mean "rare" as in medium or well-done, I mean not often.  Why?  It's expensive!  To buy a leg of lamb for just the two of us seems pretty foolish...and the kids don't care for it so just the two of us it is.  But lamb burgers fit the bill as far as cost AND not having to eat it for the entire next week in order to finish it up.

Sweet, slightly gamey ground lamb mixed with garlic, spinach and feta, grilled to perfection, tucked into warm pita and dipped into cool and refreshing tzatziki is a lovely meal to enjoy on a warm spring evening on the deck!

Lamburger Sliders with Spinach & Feta

Serves 2

• 3/4 pound ground lamb
• 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, minced finely
• 1/4 cup feta cheese
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 2 pita bread rounds - Gluten-free to make these GF (see note)
• spinach
• red onion, sliced thinly

    

Mix lamb, chopped spinach, garlic, feta, salt and pepper thoroughly, but lightly.  Form into 4 patties.
 

Grill over flames to get that gorgeous carmelization!
 

Put two sliders into a pita with red onion and fresh spinach.  Serve with tzatziki on the side for dipping!

NOTE:  Soergel's in Wexford carries Heaven Mills gluten-free pita that is out of this world!  If you can't get to Soergel's, be sure to look for it wherever you buy your GF products.  Eden's in Mt. Lebanon carries it, too.    


NOTE 2:  See tzatziki recipe below.
   

Chipotle Chicken Black Bean Burgers

One torrentially rainy Tuesday night last summer (our traditional burger night) when we were forced to cook inside, I came up with this recipe.  I was looking for something healthier even back then!   

We've done many permutations of the traditional beef burger here on Dinner Plan-it, but very few NON-beef burgers (you know I'm trying to keep things (somewhat) healthy after the over-indulgences of the holiday season). You also know I don't go crazy overboard about the health thing and I sure don't take out all the flavor along with the calories, fat and cholesterol - which is right where tonight's burger comes into play.


By itself, ground chicken can be pretty bland and dry, but HOO-BOY can you use that to your advantage!  It's like an empty canvas just waiting to be painted with flavors instead of color...well, it takes color pretty well, too, actually.   BLACK beans...sort of a color.  GREEN onions...definitely color!  Some nice deep red chipotle peppers...oh yeah.  All nice color against the pinky, creamy hue of the chicken.  


And the flavors we're painting with?  A nice bite of garlic, the sweetness of onion , a zip of smoky chipotles and cumin, an earthy velvety-ness of black beans...let's not forget the background of chicken(!)...all encased in a crisp crust of crunch in the form of panko breadcrumbs.  I've even found gluten-free panko!
 
I have to admit that the first time I made these Mark looked at the bowl of ingredients with suspicion.  ("Ground chicken? What is this woman trying to do to me?  I'm a BEEF guy!") HA!  He loved them.  He's even requested them!  He looks FORWARD to them!  We're both looking forward to indulging in our healthy favorite tonight with some fresh, green spicy guac alongside and some bright red, juicy tomatoes.  Well, I'm looking forward to the guac...maybe someday Mark will, too.  He does surprise me sometimes!




Chipotle Chicken Black Bean Burgers
 


• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 chipotle chile canned in adobo, finely minced
• 1/2 cup black beans, cooked, use homemade if you have them, otherwise canned is fine
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt, Janes Crazy Salt, of course, or more to taste
• 3 green onions, sliced thinly
• panko breadcrumbs (gluten-free to make this gf)
• cilantro, finely minced
• vegetable oil, enough to fry burgers (or broil - see below)
 

Lightly mix chicken thru onions and shape into 6 flat patties.  Dredge lightly with panko on both sides.
 
Heat scant oil in skillet & fry until browned & crispy on both sides and cooked through.
 
Sprinkle with cilantro and serve on buns with tomato and some pickled jalapenos...a little mayo & lettuce, too, if you're splurging on the calories.


 NOTE:  Alternately, you can leave off the panko and broil the patties to cut down further on the fat.  I'd suggest maybe sprinkling a little panko on the tops and spraying with a little olive oil to make them pretty.  The broiled version?  Approximately 190 calories and 7 total grams of fat.

Italian Hoagie Burger

Italian Hoagie Burger

Love burgers?  Love hoagies?  Why have to pick just one over the other?  Here's a burger (we made these for dinner just tonight) that packs a whole lot of Italian goodies into one delicious sandwich.  

The burger itself is a half and half mixture of  hot Italian sausage and ground chuck.  Then I julienned some pepperoni slices and crisped those up in the skillet while Mark grilled the burgers out on the deck.  Here's the recipe for the rest of the burger treatment!

• 1/2 pound ground chuck
• 1/2 pound hot Italian sausage

 

Mix both together until well blended and form into 3 or 4 patties.

Since the sausage is pork (duh), I wouldn't recommend doing these anything but well-done....but not overdone...keep them juicy!

Top the burgers with:

• julienned pepperoni, fried crisp
• provolone
• hot banana pepper rings
• thinly sliced onion
• sliced tomatoes
• roasted red pepper
• drizzle of olive oil
• spring greens

 

While you're grilling the burgers, drizzle a little olive oil on the bun halves (gluten-free buns for GF folks) and toast them on the side of the grill.  Be careful not to burn your buns.  (Good advice in any circumstance, yes?) 

 

When the burgers are done, top each with pepperoni and cover that with provolone; grill just until the provolone oozes over the top.

Top with any or all of the rest of the toppings.  Or add anything you think I might have missed.  Artichokes?  Black olives?  Radicchio?

NOTE:  Udi's makes a really good gluten-free hamburger bun.  What a treat to actually have a burger ON A BUN if you're gluten-free!  (They make a really good hot dog bun, too!)

Taco Burgers

Taco Burgers

Love the taste of tacos and would love to grill them, too?  Hate how the crumbles of taco meat just keep falling through the grates?  I'm joking, of course, but you CAN get the flavor of grilled tacos by turning them into burgers!  Layer on the cheese and let it melt before adding your usual taco fillings right onto the bun. 

Or, instead of a bun, how about making your burgers into flattened cylinders (think flat hog dog shape) and, once they're grilled, tucking them into corn or flour tortillas and piling on the guac, shredded lettuce, salsa and the rest of your fave taco toppings?

Here's the very simple recipe:

• 1 pound 80% lean hamburger
• 1/4 of a medium onion, finely minced
• 1 packet of your favorite taco seasoning mix - I like SPICY...make yours the heat you like

Lightly mix all the ingredients.  Shape into 4 burgers or flattened cylinders and grill to your desired doneness.  At the end, layer on your favorite cheese - American, pepperjack, cheddar - and when the cheese is melted you're ready to rock.  Add a side of refried beans!  Ole!