The big wedding day is less than 2 months away, time for a crash diet, right? HA! Although no crash dieting for me I am trying to avoid red meat a little more than usual so I decided to try a turkey burger for dinner. Every recipe I looked up varied so much so I decided that I would just wing it with what I thought would taste good. Here is what I came up with:
Turkey Burgers (serves 4)
- 1 pound Ground Turkey Meat (I like the when it says "lean" on there, you know, crash diet and all)
- 3/4 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1 Egg
- 6 Basil Leaves, cut into tiny pieces
- 3 big fork fulls of Sun-dried Tomatoes, cut into tiny pieces
- 1 tablespoon EVOO (or I used the olive oil that the Sun-dried Tomatoes were in)
- Salt and Pepper (to taste, I messed up and forgot to add salt and it definitely needed at least a teaspoon of salt)
- English Muffins, sliced in half
- Burger toppings of your choice (We used left over fresh mozzarella pieces and sliced tomatoes)
Put all ingredients, except English Muffins and burger toppings, in a large bowl.
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| Everything added pre-mixing. |
Mix all ingredients with your hands (after they were washed of course). Do not over mix as this will cause the meat to be tough. If the mixture feels wet add more parmesan and bread crumbs. It if feels dry add more EVOO. With your hand score the meat mixture into 4 even sections (Rachel Ray tip that works).
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| 4 burgers all measured out. |
Grab 1/4 of the mixture and form into a burger about 1/2 inch thick. Be sure to make the outside edges thicker than the inside section of the burger. When you grill the burger it shrinks up and this will keep your burger from having that big bump in the middle of it. Repeat with other 3 sections.
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| Notice how the insides are pushed in more. |
Have your grill pre-heated to about 400-425 degrees. Place all of the burgers on the grill and close the lid. Let cook for 5-6 minutes. Flip all the burgers and close the lid again. Let cook another 5-6 minutes. Remove the burgers from the grill. Put the english muffins on the grill, cut side down, and toast quickly while the burgers cool slightly. Now make your burger and add any toppings you like...I highly recommend buffalo mozzarella and fresh tomato slices.
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| Completed yummy burger! |
The great thing about this recipe is you can basically add ANYTHING you want to the burger mixture. Any fresh herb, finely diced bell peppers, or different cheese (I hear feta is great with a turkey burger). Experiment and have fun! Just think, these are actually WAY healthier than a normal burger!
A direct quote from Joe, an avid red meat burger lover, "Those are f'ing good!" I think that says it all about the turkey burgers.
