BLT Turkey Burgers

Warmer weather weekends mean it’s time to fire up the grill!  Down here in Georgia, I look for as many opportunities as I can to cook on the grill so I don’t have to heat up my house with the oven.  Thankfully, my husband loves to hang out at the grill, and he’s really good at it.  I do the prep, he does the grilling, we all enjoy the meal together. It all works out perfectly!

As the weather warmed up last weekend, I grabbed one of my favorite grilling books from the good people at Cuisine at Home.  Rather than make something we’d had before, I decided to try this new recipe for dressed up turkey burgers.  I love a good burger, fresh off the grill.  My girls, however, do not.  They don’t like ground beef in any form…at all.  They don’t mind turkey burgers as much, though. I can usually get them to eat at least half of a turkey burger.  My husband, on the other hand, LOVES a good beef burger, but isn’t a big fan of their turkey counterpart.  He usually complains that they are too dry or flavorless and dense.  I saw this recipe and thought that maybe, just maybe, I could get my kids to eat this burger AND my husband wouldn’t mind the turkey because there was enough pizazz to distract him.

I crossed my fingers, headed to the grocery store to stock up, and then got to work.

I started by mixing together my burger ingredients and making up the patties.  In a large bowl, I mixed together some ground turkey breast, shredded provolone cheese, chopped fresh chives, Dijon mustard, and black pepper with my hands.  Once the meaty mess was well combined, I carefully patted the mixture into patties.

As the burgers were waiting for the grill, I prepped my burger toppings.  I sliced up some beautiful vine-ripened tomatoes (I can’t wait for real summer tomatoes!!  These will have to do for now.), cooked up some bacon and thinly sliced up some green leaf lettuce for the slaw.  The recipe called for romaine lettuce, and when I make this again, I’ll use romaine.  The lettuce slaw on the burgers is wonderful, but the green leaf lettuce broke down really quickly.  I think romaine would hold up in the dressing better.

Before I served the burgers, I tossed the lettuce in a quick dressing made of mayonnaise, lemon juice, honey, and a dash of cayenne pepper.  I also buttered the sliced buns and had Aaron grill those up a bit as well.

When it was time to eat, we built up some BIG MOUTH burgers!  Boy, were they tall! Mixing the ground turkey with the cheese and mustard kept the mixture moist and flavorful.  The crisp bacon, fresh tomatoes and that delicious slaw matched perfectly!  Everyone was satisfied with their dinner that night.  I even heard my oldest daughter say, “That’s a good burger” and I’m pretty sure she’s never, ever uttered those words.

Have a great weekend!

BLT TURKEY BURGERS

Adapted from Cuisine Tonight: Grilling