I have to take a moment to brag on my husband (yes honey, I do). Not only is the man a BRILLIANT accountant, and a ROCKIN’ guitar player, the man CAN COOK.
In fact, he’s been cooking a lot lately. And it’s a good thing because I think our can opener is wearing out on me. (Ha! You think I’m kidding, don’t you).
But the thing is, as with everything my husband does, he puts 150% of his energy into whatever he’s focused on at the moment, and right now? He’s focused on cooking. (Well, cooking and his business). Not only cooking, but cooking new (and strange?) foods.
This week, we are having chicken burgers, southwest breakfast and meatballs (not in the same recipe though …?), not spaghetti and meatballs, but just meatballs, with mashed potatoes.
I don’t help. In fact, I stay out of his way. I only assist with preparing ingredients, sauces or whatever he might need to be mixed and/or added while he’s concentrating on the main ingredient of the moment. I also wash the 1001 dishes he dirties up as he’s cooking.
The man is not afraid to use every conceivable kitchen tool he can to obtain perfection.
He cooked us Southwest Chicken Burgers last night. It was an interesting concoction of ground chicken, jalapeno peppers, avocado and salsa.
Jazz promptly scraped off the avocado and salsa (which I knew he would), but Dude actually tried it as is. (He later scraped off the avocado. Oh well, they don’t know until they try, right?)
Did we like it? Welllllll ….. we didn’t hate it. We’ll definitely put it in our recipe rotation, but I doubt we have it very often. However, it’s worth trying so I thought I would give you the recipe so you could try it for yourself.
Southwest Chicken Burgers
Prep: 20 minutes | Grill: 13 minutes | Makes: 4 servings
3 Tablespoons finely chopped green pepper
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound uncooked ground chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey-Jack cheese w/ jalapeno peppers (if desired)
4 Kaiser-rolls (or large hamburger buns – toasted is best)
1 medium avocado, seeded, peeled and sliced.
Bottled salsa (optional)
One
In a large bowl combine sweet pepper, chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Add ground chicken, mix well. Shape chicken mixture into four 3/4 inch thick patties. (Which is rather hard to do as the mixture doesn’t want to stick. But it firms up while it cooks).
Two
Grill burgers (we used our George Foreman grill, but you could use a grill-grill too, only be careful the mixture doesn’t seep between the grill bars) for 14 to 18 minutes or until no longer pink (165 degrees), turning once halfway through grilling.
Three
Sprinkle each burger with cheese. Grill for 1 to 2 minutes more or until cheese melts.
Four
Serve burgers on rolls/buns. If desired, top with avocado and salsa. (Also, toast the buns. TASTY!)
We made a note to actually make guacamole next time and skip the salsa. Though the salsa was good, we think guacamole will be better.
Enjoy!
(I daresay there will be more recipe posts in the future. He has sticky notes on a ton of pages in many of our cookbooks. Stay tuned).
Write From Karen 