BUFFALO CHICKEN BURGERS

I love Buffalo everything. Even the Bills! Of course it started with chicken wings but those flavors are so good in other preparations. I got the idea to do a buffalo chicken burger after I watched Rachel Ray do “Chicken Patty Parmesan.” If you can make chick parm burgers, why not a buffalo chicken burger? There are a couple of tricks to making chicken or turkey burgers stay together on the grill. One is you need some kind of “binder” – in this case dried bread crumbs and the butter in the buffalo sauce. The other is a really hot grill or frying pan to sear the burger quickly so you can actually flip it.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken breast

3 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs

½ cup blue cheese crumbles or 2 tbs parmesan if you’re not a fan of blue cheese

3 tablespoons buffalo wing sauce, plus more for drizzling (Recipe to follow)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Ranch or blue cheese dressing

Instructions:

Preheat your grill or skillet to high. If you’re grilling, let your grill pre-heat for about 20 minutes.

In a large bowl combine the ground chicken, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, seasoning, cheese, and buffalo wing sauce. Mix until just combined. Form into patties. I do either 3 large (1/3 pound) patties or 4 medium (1/4 pound) patties.

Grill or pan-fry patties until brown on both sides but not quite cooked through about 4 minutes on one side, 3 on the other. Remove from the grill or pan and wrap tightly with foil. Let rest for 5-10 minutes. The burgers will finish cooking, the cheese will stay inside the patties, and they will stay juicy if you do this.

To “flavor build,” spread more wing sauce on the bottom bun, dressing of your choice on the top, burger in the middle. You can also top with lettuce, tomato, and onion.

BUFFALO SAUCE RECIPE

It’s really just 1 part butter, 1part hot sauce. That’s the classic Buffalo “hot” sauce. If you want it milder or hotter, just adjust the ratio.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

8 tablespoons of hot sauce (Frank’s Red Hot is traditional)

2 chopped cloves of garlic (optional, not traditional but delicious)

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Off the heat, whisk in the hot sauce. Sauce is done!