Meals & Wine (June 2010)
Flipping burgers on the grill is a quintessential ceremony of summer season. And while we’ll by no contrivance tire of the classic taste of a tremendous grilled burger piled high with novel fixings, it’s rather easy to tumble right into a burger rut.
Which is why we had been so aroused to affect these chicken burgers. They sounded appreciate they’d be gentle and summery, and we had been already salivating at the regarded as that bright peanut sauce.
As it turned into out, these burgers had been marvelous — but they need a few tweaks.
First, the chicken. We had some components. It comes collectively fairly simply — correct mix in onions, oil and spices, and then affect patties alongside with your fingers. Straightforward ample. The complications came as soon as we began grilling. Our patties caught to the grates of our grill. Indulge in, lots. As in, we misplaced a dazzling quantity of every patty when it came time to flip it.
Now we hang a couple theories on why our burgers caught so badly: For one thing, we aged ground turkey fairly than ground chicken. The grocery didn’t hang any ground chicken, and we notion turkey would affect a ravishing substitute. We had been cautious to eradicate turkey that used to be 15 percent fats, but presumably that restful wasn’t ample to extend to the heat of the grill?
Extra likely, our bid used to be that we forgot to brush the patties with oil forward of we grilled them. That step is within the recipe; it right slipped our minds.
Do no longer accumulate us contaminated: The components had been fairly minor, and the burgers tasted sizable. The chile powder and the garam masala genuinely give them a great flavor and warmth.
And let’s be reliable: The burgers on this case are genuinely right a car for the peanut sauce. And factor in us, the sauce is extraordinary!
However the sauce notable some tweaks as neatly. This recipe basically right makes a peanut butter that is thinned by unsweetened coconut milk and spiced with a runt bit chile powder. We came all thru it dull, bland and wan.
So we kicked issues up by adding a few squirts of Sriracha (1 1/2 teaspoons), a few tablespoon of sugar, and one other hefty teaspoon or so of salt.
Adding these extra aspects gave us a rich, magnificent peanut sauce with a sizable depth of flavor. The chile powder gave it a right beneath-layer of heat, however the Sriracha made it tremendous and bright. And the sugar and extra salt genuinely introduced out the flavors of the peanuts.
(Oh, p.s.: We aged all-natural peanut butter, right peanuts and salt. So presumably that used to be our fault as neatly. Have to you should presumably be utilizing processed PB, you will are making an try to tweak the flavors to your possess. Indulge in, you nearly surely wouldn’t hang so as to add extra salt and sugar.)
Anyway, the sauce — with our microscopic adjustments — made a truly marvelous complement to the burgers. Warmth and bright, with a sizable mix of candy and salty, the sauce is de facto terrific.
We served the burgers with arugula fairly than horrifying lettuce, as the recipe requires. The arugula right added that mighty more flavor, its peppery zest making a sizable counterpart to the peanut sauce.
We would for bound affect these burgers all but again — we’ll right be determined to oil them forward of we grill!
Hen Burgers with Exciting Peanut Sauce
Meals & Wine (June 2010)
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TOTAL TIME: 30 MIN
SERVINGS: 4
INGREDIENTS
. 1 1/4 kilos ground chicken
. 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons very finely chopped purple onion
. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for brushing
. 2 teaspoons chile powder
. Salt
. 1 teaspoon garam masala
. 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
. 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
. 2 tablespoons sizzling water
. 2 tablespoons chopped salted peanuts
. 4 spherical ciabatta rolls, spoil up and toasted
. Lettuce, for serving
DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, combine the ground chicken with 1/4 cup of the chopped onion, 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of the chile powder, 1 teaspoon of salt and the garam masala. Utilizing a runt moistened fingers, affect the ground-chicken mixture into four 4-inch patties.
In a medium saucepan, heat the final 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add the final 2 tablespoons of chopped onion and 1 teaspoon of chile powder and cook dinner over moderate heat, stirring, till the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk and elevate to a boil. Snatch faraway from the heat and stride within the peanut butter and sizzling water. Fling within the peanuts and season the sauce flippantly with salt.
Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Brush the chicken burgers with vegetable oil and grill over fairly high heat, turning as soon as, till they’re golden and crusty and right cooked thru, 8 to 10 minutes. Unfold the peanut sauce on the rolls. Prime with the burgers and lettuce, end and abet.