Southwestern Burgers

Yesterday I shared with you a great Homemade Chipotle Ketchup, and while it is super good just with fries, I thought I would give you something else to put it on.  Southwestern Burgers.  This is a burger I created just to go with the ketchup! It’s a beef patty with corn and black beans, seasoned with cumin and chili powder and draped in pepper jack cheese.  Top it all of with the chipotle ketchup, and it’s one sassy burger!

Southwestern Burgers

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

½ cup corn (fresh, frozen, or canned)

½ cup black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

4 slices pepper jack cheese

4 hamburger buns

Homemade chipotle ketchup

Directions:

Combine ground beef, corn, beans, salt, cumin, chili powder, and cilantro in a large bowl.  Divide mixture and shape into 4 patties.

Grill burgers over high heat until cooked through.  Top each patty with a slice of pepper jack cheese.  Place on buns and top with chipotle ketchup.

Makes 4 servings.

I am not usually a fan of pepper jack cheese, but I really liked it on this burger.  The burger itself isn’t spicy, more of a smoky chili flavor.  The spiciness of the cheese and the ketchup was just perfect with it.  

This is a great way to perk up your burger night!

Eating The Alphabet: Mango Barbecue Sauce

Today is reveal day for the Eating The Alphabet Challenge.  This month we had to chose a fruit, vegetable, grain, bean, or legume that began with the letters M, N, or O.  Three options!  Lots of choices there.

I immediately knew that I wanted to do something with mango.  My husband pointed out that mango was an excellent option because it contained all of the letter choices: M, N, and O, in order!  Always thinking, that guy!  I like mango-flavored things, but had never cooked with fresh mango before.  Time to change that!  I remembered that I had pinned something with mango earlier this summer and quickly found it on my Pinterest board.  It is a barbecue sauce made with mango from What’s Cooking, Love?.  I thought it sounded amazing and couldn’t wait to try it.  We had several rainy days where grilling wasn’t possible, but finally the clouds left us and we were able to get out there and smother this wonderful sauce all over some chicken.  Here’s the recipe.

Mango Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:
1 large mango, chopped
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp onion powder
¼ cup ketchup
¼ tsp salt

Directions:
Combine the chopped mango, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, ketchup, and salt in a blender and blend until smooth.

Set some sauce aside (to be used for dipping later), then brush the remaining sauce all over whatever raw meat you want to grill.  Grill the meat as you normally would, then use the remaining sauce to dip at the table.

Makes enough for 4-6 servings.

This sauce is so good!  The onion powder and salt were my additions.  You may choose to add other things, or subtract some depending on the size and flavor of your mango.  My mango was super duper sweet, so that’s why I added the salt.  This sauce is definitely sweet, but it has a wonderful zesty tang to it as well.

I wrote the recipe as just the sauce, because it would be good on any kind of barbecued meat.  I didn’t want to limit it just to chicken.  It was awesome on the chicken, but it would also be great on grilled pork chops and even salmon.  Can’t wait to try that!

If you have never cut up a fresh mango, I suggest you google “how to cut up a mango” and watch a quick video.  I totally mangled mine cutting it up.  Mangos have an odd-shaped pit, so it’s best to cut it a certain way to get the majority of the meat off of it.  After watching a video, I was able to cut up the rest of them with no problem.

Be sure to check out all the other great recipes below, and come back tomorrow for another great homemade condiment recipe.

Secret Recipe Club: Grilled Ginger Lime Chicken Thighs

 It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means it’s Secret Recipe Club reveal day.   The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else’s dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It’s really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else’s recipes.  It’s a great way to “meet” other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

Again, this month I was assigned a blog that was new to me, A Fit and Spicy Life.  It is written by Mellissa, who describes herself as being a “30 something, food loving, wine drinking, weight lifting, traveling, yogi blogger and FitFluential Ambassador living in Minneapolis. A true Mid-Western girl.”  She started her blog as a way to document a trip to Italy in 2009, then found that she loved blogging so much that she wanted to continue.  Her blog isn’t just about food though; it is filled with posts about fitness, travel, and wine as well.  

Mellissa has a great collection of recipes on her blog.  She lives a very healthy lifestyle, and her recipes reflect that.  However, they are anything but bland and boring.  I saw several dishes that caught my eye. I recently bought a panini press and am totally obsessed with paninis right now, so her Grilled Ham, Prosciutto, and Pear Sandwiches got my attention.  I also liked the looks of her Cilantro Pesto with Lemon Pepper Pasta, and her Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas.  But I ended up with a recipe that included one of my favorite things to eat in the summertime: chicken thighs.  Mellissa has a great recipe for Broiled Ginger Lime Chicken Thighs that sounded amazing.  I decided to adapt it for the grill.  I love grilling chicken thighs because they don’t dry out and the skin gets crispy and delicious.  Here’s my adaptation of Mellissa’s recipe.

Grilled Ginger Lime Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:

1 lime

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 large clove garlic, grated

1 large shallot, minced

1 tsp salt

6-8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs 

Directions:

Zest lime and set zest aside for garnish later (if desired).  Juice lime and put juice in a small bowl.  Add ginger, garlic, shallot, and salt and mix well.

Divide ginger mixture evenly among chicken thighs and stuff it underneath the skin.  

Grill thighs over medium heat, 10-15 minutes per side.  Cook until internal temperature reaches 160°.  Remove from grill and garnish with lime zest, if desired.

Makes 3-4 servings.

It’s such a simple recipe, but man, it packs a flavor punch!  Mellissa used green onions instead of the shallots, but I just love the flavor of shallots and ginger together, and I don’t like how green onions get wilty-looking after being cooked.  I also threw some garlic in there for good measure. 🙂  Mellissa also put some curry powder in the mix, but I was afraid it would overpower the other flavors, so I left it out.  

I served this chicken over gingered brown rice with carrots on the side and it made the perfect summertime meal.  These thighs work really well on the grill, but I might have to use Mellissa’s broiler method when I’m craving them this winter.

Thanks for a great recipe, Mellissa!

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My 400th Recipe: Crispy Grilled Chicken Thighs

 Today is an exciting day!  Today I am celebrating another milestone on my little blog.  Today I am posting my 400th recipe!  Wow!  I can’t believe there are 400 recipes here!  If it wasn’t for Blogger keeping track of my post count, I wouldn’t believe it.  

I have chosen an awesome recipe to be my 400th.  Crispy breaded chicken thighs cooked on the grill.  Breaded chicken on the grill?  Yep!  I know, I was skeptical when I first saw it too, but it was a Food Network recipe and they very rarely steer me wrong, so I thought it was worth a shot. Best risk I ever took!

Crispy Grilled Chicken Thighs


Ingredients:
⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp salt
8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (about 2¼ lbs.)
Vegetable oil, for brushing
1½ cups dry breadcrumbs
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt


Directions:
Combine the mayonnaise, chili powder, 1 tsp onion powder, and ½ tsp salt in a large bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.


Preheat a grill to medium low. Brush the grill grates with vegetable oil. Combine the breadcrumbs, 1 tsp onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and 1 tsp salt in a shallow dish.  Add the chicken, turning to thoroughly coat. Grill the chicken, turning once, until golden brown and cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes per side.


Makes 4 servings.

I made a few changes, mostly adding seasoning to the breadcrumbs.  I thought they should be seasoned too. This chicken is amazing!  So crispy and crunchy on the inside, while tender and juicy on the inside.  Perfect.  

This was the meal I chose as my “grill take-over” on Father’s Day.  My husband had always done all the grilling at our house, but I was starting to notice that not everything was turning out so well.  I’m just going to come out and say it: things were being burned.  Badly.  Like, beyond recognition.  I had a hunch that the problem was that my husband was grilling everything (burgers, pork chops, bone-in chicken, you name it) on high.  As high as it goes.  Like 700 degrees.  I think it’s kind of a man thing.  Some fire is good, so more must be better, right?  Wrong!  Father’s Day was the perfect time for my grill take-over because I disguised it as giving my husband the day off from grilling.  “I will make the entire dinner, honey. You don’t have to lift a finger!”  My plan worked perfectly.  Until I noticed that every time I came back outside to check on the chicken, my husband was standing at the grill turning the heat up!  So I kept shooing him away.  I grilled that chicken on medium-low the whole time, while he sat there trying to read his book and not notice how I was doing it.  He was very impressed at how it turned out.  So I thought he had finally learned a valuable lesson that day and that he wouldn’t cook everything on high in the future.

He was grilling earlier this week, and he said to me, “You know, I think sometimes it works out better to have the grill on medium instead of high.”  *Forehead slap* Duh!  I guess sometimes you just have to learn things on your own!

Here’s to another 400 recipes!

Grilled Ginger Garlic Brussels Sprouts

It’s Day Two of the Fourth of July Blog Hop Series, hosted by Savannah of Hammock Tracks.  

 

Today we are talking veggies.  I love finding ways to grill veggies in the summertime.  It’s a great way to switch things up and make veggies more interesting to your kids.  I saw this recipe for grilled Brussels sprouts and couldn’t wait to try it.  My family likes Brussels sprouts, but only if they are roasted, never steamed or boiled.  I was pretty sure that grilling them would be similar enough to roasting that they would like them.  Then adding a ginger garlic marinade to them?   Amazing.

Grilled Garlic Ginger Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

1 lb. Brussels Sprouts, halved, ends trimmed, outer leaves removed

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced ginger root

2 tsp Kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat grill to medium.

Combine the oil, garlic, ginger, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until combined. Set aside.

Cook the Brussels sprouts in the microwave for 2 minutes, to get them ready to grill. Toss

Brussels sprouts into marinade and let sit for 10 minutes, tossing a few times while they do. 

Thread Brussels sprouts onto wooden skewers.  Grill for 5-8 minutes, turning to evenly char the outsides of each sprout.

Makes 4 servings.

In the recipe above, I call for halving the sprouts.  They were still a little bit firm on the inside, so I think halving them would cook them through better.

The flavor of these Brussels sprouts is amazing!  I love ginger and garlic together, and combined with the smoky flavor of the grill, so tasty!

Check out all of the other great veggie recipes and come back tomorrow for a great no-fuss appetizer.

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Hummus Turkey Burgers

Today is the first day of a fun Fourth of July Blog Hop series.  I was invited by the hostess, Savannah of Hammock Tracks, and signed up right away.  Each day has a theme, and all of the participating bloggers post a recipe with that theme.  Then at the bottom of each post is a collection of thumbnail links to all of the other recipes with that theme.  Today’s theme is burgers, tomorrow is veggies, Friday is appetizers, Saturday is ice cream (I’m sitting out that day bc I don’t have an ice cream maker), Sunday is desserts, and Monday is beverages.

For today’s burger, I chose a turkey burger seasoned with something unexpected: hummus!  We LOVE hummus around here, my husband could eat a whole container in one sitting, so I knew this would be a hit.  I got the burger recipe from Fried Ice and Donut Holes, but changed it up a bit.  (Tzatziki sauce recipe is from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.)

Hummus Turkey Burgers with Feta Tzatziki Sauce


Ingredients:
¾ cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
½ cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced small
⅓ cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp dried dill
1 lb. ground turkey
¼ cup prepared hummus, plus more for topping if desired
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
4 hamburger buns
Lettuce
Tomato


Directions:
Combine Greek yogurt or sour cream, cucumber, feta, garlic, and dill in a small bowl.  Mix well.  Refrigerate until ready to be used.


In a medium bowl, combine ground turkey, ¼ cup hummus, cilantro, and coriander.  Mix until just combined.  Divide into 4 equal portions and form into patties.


Grill burgers over medium-high heat, about 7 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.  Place burgers on buns and top with lettuce, tomato, prepared tzatziki sauce, and additional hummus, if desired.


Makes 4 servings.

Be sure to check out all the other great burger recipes below, and come back tomorrow to see a recipe for a veggie I bet you would never have thought to put on the grill!

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Improv Challenge: Grilled Cherry Almond Chicken

Wow, June is flying by!  I can’t believe it’s time for the Improv Challenge already.  The premise of this challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.

This month’s assigned ingredients were cherries and almonds.  So many possibilities!  Actually, the first thing that came to my mind when I heard “cherry almond” was that Jergens lotion that was cherry almond scented.  🙂  Then when I was perusing my assigned Secret Recipe Club blog back in May, I came across a recipe for Cherry Almond Chicken.  I thought about choosing it for SRC, but then I remembered that cherries and almonds were on the schedule for Improv, so I saved it for this.  I didn’t actually use the recipe I saw, but it was definitely my inspiration for what I came up with.

This is really a very simple dish.  I grilled chicken breast cutlets, then brushed on a three-ingredient cherry glaze, then topped it with toasted sliced almonds.  Makes a great meal served on a bed of brown rice with a green veggie on the side (I made Grilled Ginger Garlic Brussels Sprouts; recipe coming soon.)

Grilled Cherry Almond Chicken


Ingredients:
6 chicken breast cutlets
Salt
½ cup cherry jam or preserves
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp fresh ginger, grated
¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted


Directions:
Preheat grill to medium-high heat.  Season chicken on both sides with a sprinkle of salt.  When grill is preheated, place chicken on and grill until cooked through, flipping once.


Meanwhile, place jam or preserves, soy sauce, and ginger in a small saucepan.  Cook on low heat just until jam has melted and is smooth.  If there are large chunks of cherries, place mixture into a small food processor and process just until chunks are broken up.  


When chicken is almost cooked through, brush each cutlet with cherry glaze.  Remove from grill and top with toasted almonds.


Makes 6 servings.

I bought cherry preserves instead of jam and it had whole cherries in it.  I thought that was a bit much, so I pulsed it in my mini chopper a few times.  That worked out just fine.  You probably wouldn’t need to do that with jam.  The soy sauce gives the cherry glaze the perfect amount of savory-ness.  

You can easily adapt this recipe for colder weather by cooking the chicken in a pan on the stovetop instead of grilling.  That’s how I made my Savory Peach Chicken, which is similar to this but made with fresh peaches instead of the cherry jam.

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Foil Pack Potatoes

Here’s a super easy side dish that will perfectly compliment your grilled meats this summer.  And it’s made on the grill too, for maximum convenience and minimum clean-up!  Potatoes are tossed with flavorful spices and sealed up in foil so they cook to perfection.

Foil Pack Potatoes


Ingredients:
2 lbs. white potatoes, peeled and cut into ½” cubes
1 small shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter


Directions:
Place potatoes, shallot, garlic, paprika, and salt in a large bowl.  Toss to evenly coat potatoes with spices.  Transfer to an 18” square of heavy-duty foil.  Cut butter into pieces and lay on top of the potatoes.  Fold foil around potato mixture and seal tightly. 


Grill, covered, over medium heat for 15-18 minutes on each side or until potatoes are tender.  Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape.


Makes 4-6 servings.

The inspiration for this recipe came from Taste of Home, but I ended up changing it so much that it’s really not the same recipe anymore.  That one called for Parmesan, chives, bacon, mozzarella cheese, and cheddar cheese.  I’m sure those potatoes are tasty, but I wanted something simpler.

We’ve had these potatoes twice in the last week, that’s how good they are!  Another great thing about this recipe is that you can really cook these potatoes on any heat setting.  The first time we made them, the grill was on high heat, and the second time it was on medium-low heat.  They took a little longer on medium-low, obviously, but still turned out perfectly.  I found that they didn’t need as much butter when they cooked on the lower heat setting.

This is definitely my go-to grilling side dish now and we will probably have it several more times this summer.

Barbecue Pork Burgers

Here’s another one of my unique burger recipes.  I see tons of recipes for barbecue pulled pork in the summertime, so the idea hit me to make a burger version of that.  Instead of cooking pork, shredding it, and putting barbecue sauce on it, I thought it would be fun to add barbecue sauce to ground pork and shape it into burgers.  Kind of like a simpler, easier version of pulled pork made on the grill.

Now, I have to tell you that it took me no less than three attempts to get this right.  I started off putting all of the barbecue sauce inside the burgers with the pork.  That made them taste awesome, but they were so loose that they fell apart on the grill.  We were still able to eat them, but they were more like barbecued loose meat sandwiches.  So I figured we needed more binders.  For the next attempt, I added an egg and some bread crumbs to the pork and barbecue sauce.  They did hold together much better, but I had to add so much bread crumbs to achieve that, that the burgers ended up tasting really kind of bland and “bready”.  Not really what I was going for.  I was about to give up when an idea hit me while I was making my Teriyaki Turkey Burgers.  I put a small amount of the sauce inside the mixture, then brushed the rest of it on the outside of the burgers as they cooked.  It worked out perfectly for the teriyaki burgers, so I thought it was worth a shot on the barbecue burgers.  Finally, success!  They turned out great with this method.  My poor husband was not happy when I told him we were trying these burgers for the third time, but he was very glad we did after he tasted them.

Barbecue Pork Burgers


Ingredients:
1 lb. ground pork
⅔ cup plus 2 tbsp barbecue sauce, divided
4 hamburger buns
Cole slaw


Directions:
Place pork in a bowl and add 2 tbsp barbecue sauce.  Mix well.  Form into 4 patties.  


Grill burgers over high heat.  Grill for 5 minutes; flip over and brush cooked side with some of the remaining ⅔ cup barbecue sauce.  Grill another 5 minutes and flip again, brushing the second side with barbecue sauce.  Continue to cook burgers until they are completely cooked through and register 160°.


Place burgers on buns and top with cole slaw.


Makes 4 servings.

Jim loves cole slaw with anything barbecue, so that’s why I topped them that way, but they would be good topped any way you like.  I actually really like the combination of barbecue sauce and ranch dressing, so I think that would make a good condiment.  

This is a really easy way to have the great taste of pulled pork without having to spend all day cooking it!

This recipe was linked up at Everyday Mom’s Meal‘s Church Supper.

Teriyaki Turkey Burgers with Asian Slaw

I know this isn’t a great time to be posting a recipe involving ground turkey, but I made this about a week and a half ago, before I heard that it might have problems.  So tuck it away for later after that’s all over with, or you can also use ground chicken (or even beef, really).

This is a recipe I created.  I like to come up with fun and different burgers in the summertime and I wanted to try a teriyaki one.  It turned out pretty well.  Here’s the recipe.

Teriyaki Turkey Burgers with Asian Slaw


Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce, divided
2 tbsp green onions, finely sliced
½ cup red cabbage, shredded
½ cup carrot, grated
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
½ tsp sugar or honey
4 hamburger buns


Directions:
Combine turkey, 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce, and green onions.  Shape into 4 patties.


Grill burgers over high heat.  Grill for 5 minutes; flip over and brush cooked side with some of the remaining ¼ cup teriyaki sauce.  Grill another 5 minutes and flip again, brushing the second side with teriyaki sauce.  Continue to cook burgers until they are completely cooked through and register 165°.


Meanwhile, place cabbage, carrot, and cilantro in a small bowl.  In another small bowl, combine vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar or honey.  Whisk until completely combined.  Pour dressing over slaw and stir to combine.


Place each burger patty on a bun and top with the slaw.


Makes 4 servings.

Doesn’t the slaw look so pretty?  You can use any kind of cabbage you want, but I thought the red looked really pretty with the orange of the carrot.  I forgot to add the cilantro; that’s why you don’t see it in the picture.  If the sesame oil is too much for you, you can use only 1 tsp of sesame oil and the rest olive oil.  That’s what I did, actually, because I don’t like very much sesame oil.

My husband skipped the slaw and topped his burger with a pineapple ring.  He raved about it, and while I did try one bite, I can’t handle fruit on my burgers, so I think I’ll stick with the slaw!

Brushing the burgers with the teriyaki sauce was a great idea.  I have been trying to make barbecue pork burgers and have failed twice now.  If I put enough of the sauce inside the burgers to achieve the flavor I want, the burgers fall apart on the grill because they are too loose.  Then a light bulb went off, and I thought about basting them with the sauce as they are grilling.  That way I still get all the flavor, but it won’t make the burgers fall apart.  Now that I see how well it worked on these teriyaki burgers, I can’t wait to try that method on the barbecue pork burger.