Turkey burgers don’t need to taste like sawdust on a bun. Through trial and error, I’ve come up with this recipe to make moist and savory turkey burgers, and most members of my family prefer these to hamburgers now. (My husband is the hamburger holdout.) So if you’re tired of brats and burgers, surprise your palate with a little poultry. The turkey burger pictured here is topped with melted Swiss cheese, spinach, sliced avocados, and pesto aioli (a mixture of half pesto, and half mayonnaise—that’s the blob that looks like a mutant green caterpillar, BTW).
Makes 4-5 burgers
1 pound ground turkey, thawed
¼–½ cup Panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1–2 teaspoons Penzy’s Fox Point seasoning, or garlic salt
1 teaspoon Smoked Spanish paprika
½ teaspoon celery seed
¼ teaspoon pepper
Vegetable oil
Hamburger buns
Preheat gas grill or start coals. Drizzle a plate with vegetable oil and set aside. Combine ground turkey, Panko bread crumbs, egg, and seasonings, and mix with hands just until combined. Form into large, flat patties, making them a third larger than the buns to allow for shrinkage on grill. Place patties on oiled plate and drizzle will more vegetable oil to coat. (Because turkey is lean, it doesn’t have fat to keep it from sticking to grill. Adding the oil really helps burgers hold together while cooking.) Place a large piece of parchment paper on top of burgers on plate. Flip prepared burgers over onto piece of parchment paper, then onto hot grill. Cook until done on one side, flip and cook until burgers are done all the way through. Serve with condiments and toppings of choice.
“Mutant green caterpillar” . . . I love your writing style!
Cousin Randi wants to know the Canadian equivalent of Fox Point seasoning? ?
Ha! Thanks, Cousin Randi. You can order it from Penzys Spice at penzeys.com, but it is dried shallots, garlic salt, dried chives, etc. You could recreate it with garlic salt or celery salt, dried minced garlic, and dried chives. So salt and anything in the dried onion family.