Buffalo Turkey Burgers

Coming off the winter season carb-binge, Antoine and I are trying to make an effort to watch what we eat and make more of our meals at home.  Eating out and getting things to go is just so easy, but now that we get to spend our evenings together (because he's not consulting), we need to get back into the swing of things.  I enjoy cooking (though I enjoy baking more) and lucky for me Pinterest makes finding and organizing recipes so easy.  So, when I stumbled upon Can You Stay For Dinner? via Pinterest I was immediately intrigued by Andie's story and interested in trying out her recipes.  I've been craving a burger lately so I ultimately opted to try out her recipe for Buffalo Turkey burgers first.

In general, I am not a fan of spicy foods!  In fact, I'm an utter wimp when it comes to spicy things.  But, strangely enough, over the last year or so I've developed a deep infatuation for "Buffalo" items...namely, Dewey's Ryan Inferno pizza.  It, my friends, is pure heaven in a pizza box!  Seriously, my mouth immediately starts watering the second I think about it!! Mmmm.  Anyway, back to buffalo turkey burgers.  I altered Andie's recipe just a tad and I was pretty pleased with the results.

The only thing I had resembling poultry seasoning was herb chicken seasoning, so I used about 1/2 tsp of that and 1/2 tsp of Spike.  Instead of Frank's original red hot sauce, I picked up some of Frank's Buffalo sauce.  And, being the wimp I am, I used about 1/8 cup of sauce instead of 1/4 cup, as the recipe called for.  Though, I probably could have handled 1/4 cup, and those of you who like hot sauce should probably add more.

Instead of making a bleu cheese spread as the recipe suggested, I opted to add gorgonzola directly to the turkey mix.  I personally like the way bleu cheese/gorgonzola caramelized and burns up a little when it hits the frying pan.

Once the gorgonzola was mixed in, I formed the turkey mixture into four relatively even sized patties.  This was kind of a messy job since the mixture was very moist and sticky.  I ended up placing the patties on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat and stuck them in the freezer until Antoine got home from work.  This really helped firm them up and made pan-grilling them so much easier.  I think this step would be essential if you were thinking about grilling them, otherwise I think they'd just fall apart on you before they had time to cook up.

The finished product, complete with low-cal slim bun and some spinach.  Oh, and yummy roasted garlic red potatoes on the side!  I know they aren't technically "healthy", but I had the calories for them that day so I went for it!  Plus, I've been craving roasted potatoes like nobody's business.

For roasting, I like to cover my potatoes in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and a couple cloves of garlic.  Then I toss in some springs of rosemary (which I remove later), if I have it on hand, because the aroma is fantastic.  I bake them at 450 degrees for about 35 to 45 minutes, giving them a stir at the half way point.  In the last 5 or 10 minutes I like to drizzle a little balsamic on them, it helps caramelize them a bit and, really, you can't go wrong with balsamic!

I left the cooking of the turkey burgers up to Antoine, because he's the expert when it comes to cooking meats properly!  The finished result was pretty flippin' tasty.  The burger had great flavor, with little pockets of gorgonzola, and was really moist. Lucky for us, we've got the other two burgers hanging out in the freezer for another dinner, later in the week.

Buffalo Turkey Burgers (adapted from Can You Stay For Dinner?'s recipe)
recipe makes 4 decent-sized burgers

1 tsp olive oil

1lb ground turkey (93% lean, white meat)

1/8 to 1/4 cup Frank's red hot wings buffalo sauce (or more if you like things spicy)

1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/4 cup sweet onion

1/2 tsp Spike seasoning

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning of your choosing

1/4 cup Gorgonzola or bleu cheese 

salt & pepper to taste

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil.  Then add diced peppers and onions and saute for about 2 minutes until the onions become translucent and the red pepper lose some of their bright red color.  Transfer onions and peppers to a small bowl and set aside.  

In  medium mixing bowl, add turkey, hot sauce, cooled onions and peppers, seasonings and salt & pepper to taste.  Mix with your hands (or a spoon, if you're a sissy!) until everything is well incorporated.  Then add cheese and gently incorporate it into the the turkey mixture.

Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.  Form turkey mixture into 4 even patties, placing them on the lined baking sheet. (I like to make my burgers and turkey burgers slightly concave, so that when they cook they don't turn into a burger ball!)  Place the baking sheet in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, this will firm up the turkey for easier cooking.

Grill or pan fry (over medium high heat) the turkey burgers until center starts to firm up or the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.  

*All photos taken with my iPhone 4

**This recipe was not sponsored Pinterest, I'm just a Pinterest fiend.