Turkey bacon Turkey cheese burger
Turkey burger, Turkey bacon, cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese, pink salt, black pepper, brioche bun, thousand island dressing CHERRY PEPPER.
Blackened Bacon Turkey Burger (among the best burgers you'll ever eat!)
An absolutely scrumptious burger, combining the beauty of bacon with lean ground turkey, and adding a delicious, spicy Cajun spin. You'll crave these burgers for days after eating your first.
Here was the original email written to Jeff's best friend the day after we made these for the first time (August 8, 2007). We since have featured them on our restaurant menu (we weren't a burger joint, but slotted these in because they're SO DAMN GOOD).
Hi Tim,
We made the most delicious burger/fry combo last night. Thought that you might want to give it a try. We came away from the burger-- kind of a combination of things that I'd been playing with, but one that finally won out-- thinking Man, that's competition worthy.
Blackened Bacon Turkey Burger
2 lbs fresh ground turkey
(we used 85/15, which I'm sure was part of the reason for its deliciousness, though I originally asked Michelle to get the 97/3-- I will try this again with the lower fat ground turkey. I vouch, at this point, for the higher).
1/2 lb thick cut center-cut bacon (the center cut, again, is lower in fat-- though not too low)
1/2 cup minced (or finely diced) red onion
Cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground tellicherry pepper
Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic
Loaf of harvest grain french bread
1 avocado
baby swiss, sliced
(for sandwich garnish, as desired: lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, A-1 (I've always liked A-1 on a turkey burger, since growing up eating them at the golf course)
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Start with your large Le Crueset frying pan. Pepper the bacon and fry in the pan. No need, as you know, to oil the pan as the bacon will create plenty of grease. Cook to crisp, but not burned. Remove to drain on paper towel, and then set aside to cool. When cool, cut and crumble into un-uniform pieces. Do NOT yet drain your pan of bacon grease.
Now, incorporate onion, bacon bits, and 1/2 - 1 tsp of cayenne, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and several good twists of your pepper grinder (set on coarse) into ground turkey meat. Mix and form into nice size patties. Ours were probably about 1/3 lb apiece.
Liberally sprinkle the patties with Poultry Magic (a seriously liberal amount, as this is the blackening powder), then add a twist or two of tellicherry pepper and a light sprinkle of kosher salt (note: I tend to do only one side of the burger at this point, opting to do the second side in the pan... I think that you can see the wisdom of this, but it may not make much of the difference. I just want my field of spices on the outside to remain as unadulterated as possible).
Now, take your pan with the bacon grease and pour off most of it. Wipe bacon crumbs out with a paper towel, while at the same time giving the whole pan a light coat of the bacon grease. Heat pan back to med-high heat. At the moment that it starts to smoke, add the patties with the pre-spiced side down. Spice face-up sides and flip. Press burgers in the pan with a flat spatula (I know you would never do this on a grill, but you're not losing juices in a pan the way you would be on a grill, you're just cooking in them). Blacken both sides delightfully. Add swiss after the final turn and allow it to melt over meat in the pan.
Meanwhile, get your bread in the oven to heat. I don't have to tell you that you want a crunchy but giving crust and a nice soft interior.
I stacked it the following way, but it's certainly a matter of preference. The only thing that I'd mandate is the inclusion of the avocado slices atop the swiss-- it just looks so sharp:
From Bottom to top:
bread
light mayo/mustard combo
lettuce
burger patty w/ melted swiss
avocado slices
light a-1
tomato slice
top bread
(note that there are no onion slices on here... I think that there is plenty in the meat, but they have great color so you might opt to add them).
Tim, my god, this was a perfect spicy burger, with unexpected crunches of bacon; juicy through and through, and a lot healthier than your average beef burger (well, especially if you use the lower fat turkey). When Skye said that she couldn't finish hers, Michelle and I almost bonked heads in rushing to assist her. I'm awake this morning, hungry, and all I want to do is have another one.
Music used in this video includes: Right Place, Right Time by Silent Partner, and licensed via the YouTube Audio Library. Thanks, Guys! Also, from the YouTube Audio Library, the song that has become our theme, Next Funk by Everet Almond. We're not required to note either of these things, but we greatly appreciate the effort that went into their music and the fact that they allow us to use their work!
Turkey Burgers with Bacon-Wrapped Patty
*Ingredients*
bacon, basil, burger bun, cheddar, ketchup, mayonnaise, meat, onion, red onion, vegetable oil, wholegrain mustard, turkey, turkey patty
*Recipe*
Preheat the oven to 360 degrees F/180 degrees C.
Weave the bacon slices. Make 2 bacon weaves, each from 8 bacon slices.
Heat vegetable oil in a skillet and cook the turkey patties.
Wrap each turkey patties in the bacon weave.
Heat 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet. Fry the bacon weaved patties on one side.
Turn them on the other side and put the skillet in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Slice the red onion and the spring onion into rings.
In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise and the whole grain mustard.
Slice the burger buns horizontally and grill the slices.
Assemble the burgers: spread 1 tablespoon of mayo and mustard mixture on one bun, add the bacon wrapped patty, one slice of Cheddar cheese, ketchup, red onion rings, spring onion, basil leaves.
Top each burger with bun slices and fix with skewers.
Enjoy!
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