I'm a little nervous about taking a 3 week vacation. Don't get that bitter look on your face and ask me why, like I'm crazy for complaining, which I am not btw. I shouldn't be nervous. But I haven't taken a 3 week vacation since I was 10 and had the summers off of school. Anyway, I will probably be adding lots of recipes, hopefully, over the next 2 weeks before I leave as a nice distraction from working, and planning, and packing, and preparing.....AHHHHHH!!! It's almost here!!!!
That was random, sorry. I just needed to vent a little. Now back to the food!
Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 5
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 3
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 3
Havarti Turkey Burgers
1 lb ground turkey
Green pepper
Shallots or sweet onion
2-3 white mushrooms
Havarti cheese with Dill (or Jalapeno)
Worcestershire sauce
Salt/Pepper
Sliced tomato, lettuce, hamburger buns
A1 Sauce or Dijon mustard
Mince 1/2 of a shallot (or equal amount of sweet onion), and mince about a 1/4 cup of green pepper also, set aside. Finely chop mushrooms, set aside with shallots and pepper. Dice 1/2 cup or so of Havarti with dill cheese (more if you like cheesiness). In a large mixing bowl, add turkey burger and season heavily with salt and pepper. Add 1-2 Tbl of Worcestershire sauce, shallots, green pepper, mushrooms, and cheese. Mix well with hands, and form into 4 burgers. Grill or cook burgers in pan. Serve with lettuce, tomato, and A1 sauce or Dijon mustard.
A couple of key notes here:
A) Don't be afraid to add too much salt and pepper. Turkey burger is hard to cook accurately because most people are afraid to under-cook it, therefore, drying out the turkey. If heavily seasoned, harder to notice dryness. Treating the symptoms here, not the cause.
B) You can always add more cheese. When you make the burgers, just take a look at how much cheese you can see in patty. If you love cheese as I do, you might want to melt an extra slice on top, or add more to the middle!
* One time, on "Man vs. Food", he went to this burger place where they placed a big chunk of cheese in the middle of the burger so it oozed out when you took a bite. I have yet to try this but am extremely intrigued by it.
C) The quantities of green pepper, shallots, and mushrooms are not a science. Just eyeball it based on what your burgers look like when you shape them. If you can't see a lot of the goodies, add more.D) I haven't done this yet, but try it with bacon on top too! Everything is better with bacon!
Don't you love when people tell you to use turkey burger because "you can't taste the difference and it's so much healthier"?? Any meat-lover knows all too well that there is no substitute for red meat. Ever. And if I want a burger, I'm not really worried about the health factor. However, the taste difference is an easier pill to swallow in things like tacos, spaghetti sauce, etc. and I often do use them, but because I actually like the taste of turkey burger. And once in a great while, I do actually worry about eating healthy.
So yes, I like turkey burgers. But not as a substitute to a real burger, just in addition to. A different type of burger. And I have searched far and wide to find the ultimate turkey burger at a restaurant (Islands is my front runner at the moment), but started toying around with my own, and this is my favorite way to cook them so far.
This recipe is a combination of a couple different ones I have tried, but if you want a good source for turkey burger recipes that are easy and yummy, check out Rachel Ray's. She has a ton of them!
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