Homemade Chicken Burgers - Healthy Grilled version

If you have been following my last post, you will have probably anticipated that this would come soon. Since the homemade beef burgers were so yummy, I couldn't resist trying out making these chicken burgers no more than 1 day after assembling our homemade beef burgers which were a hit with my husband and I. Feeling guilty from the consumption of a huge, thick & juicy patty of red meat just the day before, I decided to scale this down a notch and have it grilled, instead of pan frying, like I did for the beef paties. Minimum oil was also used, which meant our bread was toasted plain in our oven. We expected something really plain tasting, but the result surpassed our expectations. It was wholesome, filling and really satisfying, coupled with the fact that this meal comes with far less guilt than our home made beef burgers for two reasons: 1. white meat is healthier than red meat, duh; and 2. this is a grilled not a pan fried version, so less oil was used on the whole.

PREP TIME 10 Min
COOK TIME 15 Min
READY IN 25 Min

SERVINGS & SCALING
Original recipe yield: Serves 2 as a main course. You can serve it with salad on the side - in our case we served it with coleslaw on the side.

INGREDIENTS

For Chicken Patties:
-Minced chicken (arond 330 gm)
- handful of coriander leaves, fresh and chopped
-1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg, beaten (*could have been 1/2 egg see below)
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup (*could have been 1 tbsp see below), 1 tbsp Linghams chilli sauce
- a dash of ground pepper
- 1 tbsp chilli powder or paprika
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard (optional, I intended to put this in, but omitted it in my cooking)

To assemble later:
- Hamburger buns (2-3), cut in half
- Lettuce
- Tomato
-Dijon mustard and tomato sauce, 1 tbsp of each and mixed in a small saucer at the side
- Cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. With your hands, mix all the ingredients listed for the chicken in a bowl. Mix well.
2. Divide the mixture into 2 patties. Form each patty into a burger shape, compress with your hands. You can leave it in the freezer for around 10 mins plus. It will help the patties stay together. I notice that the chicken patties were more liquefied than the beef patties made previously, and it was hard for the chicken patties to stay together, hence it's almost a must to put the chicken patties in the freezer before cooking. See the asterisks * above that are bracketed, on hindsight, less egg / tomato sauce should be put in to ensure that the mixture is drier.
3. Preheat your oven at approximately 200 degree celsius for around 10 mins. Place the chicken patties into the oven and cook for 10 plus minutes.
4. Toast the hamburger buns on the side without any oil.
5. Assemble the hamburger buns - you can use your creativity at this stage. For ours, we added some sauce (mixture of dijon and tomato sauce) at the bottom of the bun, just a wee bit, place the patty on top, then a slice of a tomato, then half a slice of cheese on the hot patty to melt the cheese, then a lettuce leaf, and finally the top of the hamburger bun.
6. Viola! The hamburger is done.

TIPS
Note: Beef is a tastier meat on the whole than chicken, and I find that adding more chilli flakes helps a lot in this case. You have your own homemade healthy version, somewhat skin to Macdonalds McSpicy, but without the guilt!

When your patties cant appear to stay together, it may be worthwhile considering cooking the patties in the oven instead of pan frying them. You will manage to salvage your patties whilst making a healthier meal.

Note to self: It's really tempting to do burgers up as well for the next weekend, but my husband and I resolved to have homemade burgers as a treat on a monthly basis, not more. Let's see if we can hold ourselves up to that!

Homemade Beef Burgers

My husband loves ordering gourmet burgers, be it at the likes of Spruce, Brewerkz, Botak Jones, Blooies etc, but it never occurred to me to make my own burgers at home. Last weekend, whilst browsing through The Sunday Times, I was pleasantly surprised to see some recipes for homemade beef and chicken burgers. I had the cooking itch once again and decided to follow through, of course with some improvisations along the way. I added certain ingredients which I thought would make the beef patties taste much better with some minor research done on the internet. I am not much of a burger person, but my husband is and he absolutely loved what I cooked that day. To repeat the words of The Sunday Times, "Do try this at home!" It was absolutely satiating...

PREP TIME 10 Min
COOK TIME 15 Min
READY IN 25 Min

SERVINGS & SCALING
Original recipe yield: Serves 2 as a main course. You can serve it with salad on the side - in our case we served it with russian recipe on the side. It's one of the recipes on this cookblog.

INGREDIENTS

For Beef Patties:
-1 packet of minced beef (arond 330 gm)
- handful of coriander leaves, fresh and chopped
-1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup, 1 tbsp Linghams chilli sauce
- a dash of mixed italian herbs
- a dash of ground pepper
-3 tbsp of rolled oats (optional)
- 1 tbsp chilli powder or paprika
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes (optional, if you wish for a slightly spicier taste)

To assemble later:
- Hamburger buns (2-3), cut in half
- Lettuce
- Tomato
-Dijon mustard and tomato sauce, 1 tbsp of each and mixed in a small saucer at the side
- Cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. With your hands, mix all the ingredients listed for the beef patties in a bowl. Mix well.
2. Divide the mixture into 2 or 3 patties, in our case, as we preferred the beef patties to be thick, we divided the mixture into just 2 patties. Form each patty into a burger shape, compress with your hands. You can leave it in the freezer / fridge for around 10 mins plus if you have some time in between but this is not strictly necessary. It will help the patties stay together.
3. In a wok, heat some cooking oil and fry on low heat for 3-5 minutes on each side. Pierce your fork through the patties to ensure that they are cooked (not sticky) and browned. Be careful not to burn these. Slightly charred is all you need!
4. The hamburger buns can be toasted either in a toaster or over the stove. We sprinkled a slight dab of olive oil (just a couple of drops on the white of each side of the bun) and place the buns on our dry pan on low heat, toasting them for around 3 minutes.
5. Assemble the hamburger buns - you can use your creativity at this stage. If you like pickles, add pickles by all means. For ours, we added some sauce (mixture of dijon and tomato sauce) at the bottom of the bun, just a wee bit, place the patty on top, then a slice of a tomato, then half a slice of cheese, then a letture leaf, and finally the top of the hamburger bun.
6. Viola! The hamburger is done.

TIPS
Note: I heard worcestershire sauce can give a delicious flavour to barbequed meats. Add a dash of this to the beef patties mixture if you have this at home. I didn't, but my bun still tasted delicious.

I find that Lingham's chilli sauce has a very distinctive taste, but you can substitute with any other brand of chilli sauce instead, the herbs and spices added to the beef patties will help to make up for the flavour.

The mixture of Dijon mustard and tomato sauce is not necessary if you don't mind your burgers dry. The beef patties turned out pretty tasty.

If you prefer melted cheese, just add your cheese over the beef patties when they are cooked but are still on the hot pan for about a minute, just before you take the patties out of the pan.

For a healthier version, the patties can be grilled over a griller or baked in your oven instead of frying them over a pan.

Note to self: The burgers were so delicious we wolfed them down at one shot. Considering the total costs of this meal (i.e. minced meat etc., but noting we could use the remaining sauces and had some existing sauces), the meal caused us less than 8 dollars! And a gourmet burger could easily cost you at least 15 bucks these days in a western food restaurant. Fast food joints don't count, the beef patties certainly arent as wholesome as these!

Kind of eager to try doing up chicken burgers next week!