Chicken Zucchini Burgers

I’m glad you all enjoyed the zucchini recipe I posted the other day, my One Pot Summer Squash, Beef and Rice Skillet.  It is really great and I hope you try it.  Today I thought I would share with you the runner-up from the poll I posted on my Facebook page, about which zucchini recipe to share.  This one is a burger, but it’s not your typical ground meat burger.  It’s a burger made with cooked chicken (or turkey) breast meat and shredded zucchini.  It’s an adaptation of one I saw over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen.

Zucchini Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, shredded (1½ cups)
2 cups canned chicken (or turkey)
½ cup dry breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tsp shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, grated
½ tsp dried dill
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
4 slices cheese
4 hamburger buns
Mayo, lettuce, tomato, if desired

Directions:
Place shredded zucchini in a clean kitchen towel and gather up corners.  Squeeze as much water out of the zucchini as you can.  Place zucchini in a large bowl and add chicken or turkey (breaking it up with a spoon if it’s in large chunks), dry breadcrumbs, egg, shallots, garlic, dill, and salt.  Stir all ingredients together until evenly distributed.

Divide the mixture into 4 equal patties.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.  When oil is hot, place patties in the pan and cook about 5 minutes per side or until warmed throughout and lightly browned.  Place a slice of cheese on each patty and cover skillet with lid for a few minutes to melt cheese.

Place patties on buns and top with lettuce, tomato, and mayo, or any condiments/toppings of your choice.

Makes 4 servings.

This is a really neat twist on burgers.  Lighter and fresher than a normal hamburger.  I actually used turkey instead of chicken, because that’s what I had on hand at the time, but I know that canned turkey can be hard to find in regular grocery stores (I get mine at Sam’s), so I wrote the recipe for canned chicken.  You could actually use any cooked chicken breast meat, doesn’t have to be from a can.  It would be a good use for leftover roasted chicken breast or rotisserie chicken breast.

I used provolone cheese on these, but probably any kind would be good. I served them with my Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes.  My husband wasn’t crazy about these burgers, but the girls and I loved them.  Great way to use up all the extra zucchini!

Sausage Pizza Joes

I suddenly realized that the last four recipes I have shared with you have all been sweets.  I think it’s time for some savory!  Here is a great meal idea for you, especially if you have kids.  It’s not so much a recipe as a method.  Think sloppy joe, but instead of ground beef and a slightly sweet tomato sauce, think Italian sausage and pizza sauce.  If you think you can get away with it, sneak some common pizza veggies in there too: onion, mushroom, peppers, etc.  Then top it off with melty mozzarella cheese and it’s a pizza on a bun!

Sausage Pizza Joes


Ingredients:
Olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
4 oz. mushrooms, chopped
Any other pizza veggies you like
1 lb. ground Italian sausage
14 oz. jar pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Hamburger buns


Directions:
In a large skillet, heat olive oil and sauté onions, mushrooms, and any other veggies you like on your pizza.  When soft, add sausage and break up with a spoon.  Cook until sausage is completely cooked through.  Drain off grease.  Pour in pizza sauce and stir to combine.  


Place sausage mixture on buns and top with shredded mozzarella cheese.  Serve warm.


Makes 6 servings.

Couldn’t be easier.  It has all the convenience of a sloppy joe meal, but with a super fun twist.  This was a huge hit with my family.  My two-year-old asked for thirds and ended up eating more of it than I did!  She ate one and a half sandwiches.  I served them with Baked Zucchini Fries, which were also a huge hit.  My kids couldn’t shove them in fast enough, and I have photographic proof!  That recipe coming soon.

Crazy Cooking Challenge: Smoky Steakhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

It’s a busy day for this blogger!  Two of my monthly blog challenges, The Secret Recipe Club and The Crazy Cooking Challenge, are posting on the same day at the same time.  This post is for the Crazy Cooking Challenge, click here for my Secret Recipe Club post: Honey Mustard Roasted Salmon, Potatoes, and Mushrooms.

It’s time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge!  In this challenge, all the participants make and blog about the same dish each month.  Each blogger is to scour other blogs for a unique version of whatever that month’s dish is.  The goal is to highlight and promote personal food blogs. This month’s assigned dish was grilled cheese sandwiches.  So we were to find a unique grilled cheese sandwich recipe, make it, and blog about it.

The timing was awesome for this challenge.  April was National Grilled Cheese Month, so grilled cheese recipes were EVERYWHERE.  This was a good thing, but it made it really hard to decide which to choose!   My head was spinning with all the possibilities.  I saw tons of grilled cheese recipes that looked amazing, and I probably bookmarked 5 that I JUST HAD TO MAKE.  While I saw recipes on several different blogs that caught my eye, one blog in particular had me drooling every day.  Suzanna at Galley Kitchen posted a unique grilled cheese recipe EVERY SINGLE DAY in April.  Yep, she now has 30 awesome grilled cheese recipes on her blog that you must go check out!  While I still have several of them bookmarked to try in the future, one of hers really grabbed me and I knew that it was THE ONE.  Her Roast Beef and Blue Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich sounded amazing to me.  It contains all the flavors of a steakhouse dinner: hearty beef, tangy blue cheese, and even the creamed spinach side dish!  It sounded incredible and I couldn’t wait to make it.  I changed her recipe only very slightly; here’s my adaptation.

Smoky Steakhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups fresh baby spinach, packed
2 tbsp smoked bleu cheese crumbles
2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
4 slices Texas toast
8 slices very thinly sliced deli roast beef
Butter

Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Add spinach and sauté until wilted.  Remove spinach to a paper towel to remove excess moisture.  Wipe out skillet with a paper towel.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and blue cheese.  Mix well.  Spread the mixture on all 4 slices of bread.  Top two slices of bread with the roast beef and the other two with the spinach.
Close it up and butter the outsides of the bread.

Griddle on high heat until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown.

Makes 2 servings.

I used Texas toast instead of regular bread because I love how hearty it is.  It can really stand up to the bold flavors in this sandwich.  I also sauteed my spinach instead of putting it in the sandwich raw.   The only other thing I changed was that I used a smoked bleu cheese.  I didn’t even realize smoked bleu cheese existed, but when I went shopping for bleu cheese, I saw it and couldn’t NOT try it.  I love smoked gouda and other smoked cheeses, so I thought it sounded fabulous.  It was AMAZING in this sandwich.  The smoked flavor goes so well with the beef and the spinach; it’s just incredible.

This is a very messy sandwich, but after one bite, you are not going to care one bit!  

Thank you, Suzanna, for all of your awesome grilled cheese sandwich recipes, but especially this one!

Secret Recipe Club: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

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.  This is my fifth month participating.  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.

I was excited when I got my assignment for this month and it was My Fiance Likes It So It Must Be Good.  I discovered Peggy’s blog when she was assigned mine the first month I joined the SRC.  I’ve been a follower ever since.  I was excited for the opportunity to reciprocate!  Peggy is a busy gal; she works full time and is also in her first semester of culinary school (yay, Peggy!).  Despite her super busy schedule, she has taken the time to share what she is learning at culinary school with all of her blog readers.  She posted a tutorial on breaking down a whole chicken, which was really helpful.  Then she posted a great recipe for Buffalo Chicken Breast Sandwiches, which is one of the first recipes they made in school.  I knew I wanted to make that, because it is something I had never made before, and I love to use my SRC assignments to challenge myself in areas I haven’t yet explored.  So this recipe was perfect.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches


Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets
½ cup of Frank’s Wing Sauce
4 hoagie rolls, split
4 slices bacon, cooked
Lettuce
Bleu cheese dressing


Directions:
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add oil.  Combine flour and salt and coat each chicken cutlet in flour mixture, shaking off any excess.  When oil is shimmering, add chicken to pan.  Cook chicken until golden brown all over, about 5-7 minutes per side.


Remove from pan and coat each cutlet in wing sauce.


Assemble your sandwiches by stacking chicken, bacon, lettuce, and bleu cheese on each bun.


Makes 4 servings.

I didn’t change Peggy’s recipe very much at all.  I dredged the chicken in flour before browning it, just to give it a little more texture.  The only other thing I changed was to top the sandwiches with bleu cheese dressing.  I love the combination of the hot and spicy with the cool and creamy!  And I know that bacon probably isn’t a traditional component to a buffalo chicken sandwich, but I happened to have some in the fridge, and it looked so good on Peggy’s sandwich that I thought, who am I to mess with success? 🙂  I really liked the crunch it provided.

I made these sandwiches for myself, my husband, and my mother, who was visiting from out of town.  None of us like really spicy food, so I was kind of afraid that these sandwiches would be too much.  I really doused the chicken breast that I used in the pic above, but I told Jim and Mom that they could just brush a little bit of the sauce on their chicken.  We were all pleasantly surprised to find that the sandwiches weren’t really that spicy.  I ate the one that was completely doused in sauce and I loved it!  Jim’s only complaint was that I didn’t make enough; he wanted another sandwich!  

Thanks so much, Peggy, for taking us along on your culinary school journey.  I can’t wait to see what else you have been learning!

On a side note, one of my recipes was chosen by the Today Show as a finalist in their Home Chef Challenge. I would love it if you would take a minute and drop by their Facebook page to vote for my Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza. If I win, I will be featured on the Today Show’s website and could possibly even appear on the Today Show!

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Slow Cooker Sandwiches

This is kind an unusual recipe, but it’s fun.  It’s a recipe for making sandwiches in the slow cooker.  I don’t mean “sandwich filling”, I mean the entire sandwich, bread and all!  Kind of like grilled cheese sandwiches with deli meat in them.  It’s certainly not the best way to make a sandwich, but it’s fun to try.  I saw this recipe on the Crock Pot Recipe Exchange blog.  Here’s my adaptation.

Slow Cooker Sandwiches


Ingredients:
1 round loaf of a hearty bread
8 slices of cheese
8 slices of deli meat
Condiments


Directions:
Slice the bread if it didn’t come that way from the store. You should get enough slices to make 4 sandwiches out of it.


Start stuffing the loaf with the cheese and meat. Start in the center and stuff every other slice.  Make sure the cheese is touching the bread, not the meat.  So each sandwich will be bread-cheese-meat-cheese-bread. 


Wrap the loaf tightly in parchment paper (or foil).  Then wrap it again in foil.


Place a small glass or ceramic dish upside down in a 6 qt. slow cooker.  Add ½ cup of water to slow cooker. Place the wrapped sandwich loaf on top of the upside down dish and put the lid on the slow cooker.  Turn to low and cook for 6 hours.


Once it is done, remove the sandwich loaf from the slow cooker.  Unwrap it and lay the individual sandwiches on a cooling rack.  If desired, place sandwiches in a toaster oven to crisp up the bread.  Add any condiments you like.


Makes 4 sandwiches.

Now, obviously, in the picture above, I did crisp up my bread in the toaster oven.  You don’t have to do this step.  I wouldn’t say that the bread was soggy when I unwrapped it, but it was really super soft and kind of “moist”.  Laying the sandwiches out on a cooling rack helped a lot and actually we ate ours that way for dinner that night.  There was one sandwich leftover, and so the next day I heated it up in the toaster oven and that’s the one in the pic above.

The benefit to using parchment as the first layer of wrapping is that the cheese won’t stick to it as much as it will to foil.  I was out of parchment, so I used foil.  The cheese did stick a little bit, but it wasn’t too bad.

Here are a few pictures of the process.

 The loaf stuffed and ready to be wrapped.  I got a loaf of sourdough that was already pre-sliced.  The original recipe said to slice it yourself, and not slice it all the way through, leaving a little bit at the bottom still attached.  I didn’t really see the point in that, and I think it would be more of a hassle to finish slicing it after it was cooked and softer.  So go ahead and buy the pre-sliced stuff if you want.

For my sandwiches, I used turkey and thin slices of havarti cheese.

 Wrapped and in the crock.  The loaf sits on a little upside-down dish to keep it out of the water.

The loaf after cooking.

I served these sandwiches with my Bleu Cheese Tomato Soup.  Perfect soup and sammie meal!

Like I said above, it’s not the most efficient way to make sandwiches, it’s probably a lot easier to just make them on the stovetop, but it’s kind of fun to make them in the slow cooker.

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Manchego Squash Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

This is a recipe that my husband saw in Food Network Magazine and decided we HAD to try.  The recipe comes from Jeff Mauro, who won the most recent Next Food Network star.  He has a new show called Sandwich King.  We really like Jeff, his show, and his recipes.  So I was excited to try this recipe too.  I had never bought Manchego before and had no idea what it would taste like.  It’s great in a grilled cheese!

Manchego Squash Grilled Cheese Sandwiches


Ingredients:
4 tbsp butter, plus more for the bread
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ butternut squash, peeled, seeded; and sliced ¼” inch thick
1 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
8 slices country white bread
1 pound manchego cheese, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted


Directions
Preheat the oven to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt 2 tbsp butter. Combine butter, maple syrup, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Toss the squash with the syrup mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Roast until golden and soft, about 15-20 minutes. Set aside and let cool.


In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Sautè the sliced onion strips for 5 minutes on medium high heat, stirring often.  Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium, stirring every 2 minutes until onions are golden (about 10 minutes).


Sandwich build! Butter 1 slice of bread. On the unbuttered side, add the ingredients in this order from the ground up: manchego, squash, caramelized onion, sliced almonds, and more manchego. Close with another buttered bread slice, buttered side up. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 3 more sandwiches.


Heat a heavy griddle or flat pan over medium heat. Melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in the pan. Lightly cook each sandwich, in batches if necessary, until the cheese starts to melt, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Low and slow is the key here so you don’t kill your bread before the delicious innards get gooey.


Makes 4 servings.

I didn’t change much from Jeff’s original recipe.  His called for adding balsamic vinegar to the caramelized onions, but I didn’t have any and I love them just plain anyway, so I left that out.  I also changed the method of caramelizing the onions, because Jeff’s method didn’t work for me.  I used the method I used when making Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas.  Speaking of quesadillas, you could totally make these as quesadillas instead of sandwiches.

These sandwiches are really good!  They’ve got the whole salty/sweet thing going on with the salty cheese and sweet butternut squash.  Then you throw in some crunch with the sliced almonds.  Awesome.

I made this as my meatless meal of the week, served with a zucchini cheddar soup that I will share with you later.

I am intrigued by Jeff’s show because I don’t make very many sandwiches for dinner.  I’ve always thought of sandwiches as boring lunch food, but Jeff has some great ideas for turning any meal into a sandwich.  I like that idea!  If you haven’t checked out Jeff’s show, I highly recommend you do.  I think the first season is over, but he’ll be back with a bunch more awesome sandwich recipes.

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Shared at:

• This Week’s Cravings at Mom’s Crazy Cooking
• Recipe Sharing Monday at Jam Hands
• Totally Tasty Tuesday at Mandy’s Recipe Box
• Meatless Monday at Midnight Maniac