Friday, March 13, 2009

Turkey Burger

Well you know nearly everyone is trying to eat healthier and live to eat rather than eat to live. The other day I had a craving for a good juicy hamburger. Since I am trying to do less red meat and more lean meat I made homemade turkey burgers. I have made this recipe several times before with a few substitutions. In the past I would put the burgers on a baking sheet that has a pan that sits on top of it with slits in it. The baking sheet is designed to catch the grease from the food you’re cooking. Kind of hard to explain the pan and I am sure many of you know what I am talking about. It is the same pan that generally comes with the purchase of a new stove. Anyways, I always form my homemade burgers in the shape of a regular burger with a thickness of about 1”. Whenever I would cook these babies in the oven they would swell help into a huge meat ball, which in my opinion made them too thick for a burger. Despite their appearance and triple thickness, my family and I would still eat them as if they were the best thing since sliced bread. Well yesterday, I decided to pull out the good ole George Foreman. Mind you the only time George gets pulled out is when we are taking it on vacation to prepare meals in the hotel to obviously save money. Therefore, George generally only gets used twice a year. Anyway, I used good ole George to cook the burgers and man they came out good as all get out. They retained their beautiful round shape with its one inch thickness and the kicker was how juicy they were. For our side dish, I baked the kids seasoned french fries, hubby had baked sweet potato fries and I had a carrot and raisin salad, which was also handmade. Give this turkey burger recipe a try, you will not be disappointed. FYI, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com by doing a Google search for “turkey burger recipe”. Here it is

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds lean ground turkey
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
2 fresh green chile peppers, diced (I subbed Red Crushed Peppers)
1 medium red onion, diced (I used a white onion)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped (I used ½ cilantro and ½ parsley)
1 teaspoon salt (I omitted)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon ground dry mustard
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 dash Worcestershire sauce

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the grill for high heat.
2. In a bowl, mix the ground turkey, garlic, ginger, chile peppers, red onion, cilantro, salt, soy sauce, black pepper, paprika, mustard, cumin, and Worcestershire sauce. Form the mixture into 8 burger patties.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place turkey burgers on the grill, and cook 5 to 10 minutes per side, until well done.