The Chickenator - Ranch Chicken Burger

You can tell when I run across a new ingredient - or rediscover an old one. I have a thing with burgers - a slight manic obsession. I ADORE them - and constantly try out new combinations of meat, toppings, sauces and cheese. I buy huge amounts of ground chicken when (IF!) I can find it, because it's a little scarce around here. But I did find tons lately, so I've played with several recipes.

Including some for burgers. My goal was to make a really juicy, tasty, 'chickeny' burger that held together and had tons of flavor. Ground poultry doesn't like to stay together. It does like to get dry, tasteless and fall apart. What to do?

I needed flavor additives that wouldn't overwhelm the chicken itself, and a binding agent. Most of the standard binders were out - wouldn't cook correctly on the grill (yes, it MUST be grilled). Not sure where I got the idea for egg white, but I think it might have been for a recipe for an Asian sausage.  And when I thought of ranch flavors and looked around for ideas, I kept finding the same recipe - calling for crunched up Doritos.

Now I'm not fanatical about nutrition - I believe in moderation - but it did bug me to take a really healthy thing - ground skinless chicken - and add chips to it. I thought that was the wrong approach. Instead I decided to use the little packet of dressing mix (y'all know the one), and crank the flavor with some 'real' ingredients in order to capture the true 'ranch' flavor, but avoid the chemical, processed taste of using all pre-packaged ingredients. The trick was to whiz it all in the food processor - this gave a really smooth mixture that blended beautifully with the chicken without interfering with the texture. It also allowed a mechanism to really get the egg white blended in well.

Anytime all four children plus assorted neices and nephews eat something - all of them - and love it - I feel it came off a keeper. 

Bombshell.

2 lbs ground chicken
1 packet ranch dressing mix (not dip)
1 egg white
1 Tbl SOS (see blog entry for SOS)
1/4 cup onion
2 small cloves garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
2 Tbl fresh parsley
Oil for the grill

To assemble:
1/2 cup sour cream
16 slices thick cut bacon
Red leaf lettuce
8 burger buns (you can use the 123 bread dough for this if you like - it's yummy)
1 cup crumbled goat cheese (or sliced something else but this is delicious)

1.  Put all ingredients except chicken in the bowl of a food process and process until pretty smooth. You'll have a very loose paste.
2. Add paste to ground chicken, and mix well, but as little as possible. Handling the meat more than necessary will make it tough.
3. Divide meat into 8 equal portions, and shape into patties. Chill until ready to use.
4. Cook bacon until crisp, set aside and keep warm.
5. Preheat grill to medium high. Make sure the temp is nice and hot, and that the grill is well oiled. This is what keeps the burgers from sticking - and helps insure that you'll have beautiful grill marks.
6. Grill the burgers on the first side - without turning them! - covered for 7 minutes. Flip them - ONCE. The grilling pixies will come bite you in the night if you flip them more than once, uncover them, or squish them to hear the little sizzle sound.
7. Grill the second side for 6 minutes. Remove to a platter to rest. Top with the goat cheese while they rest.
8. To assemble - while the burgers rest, grill the buns for just a minute until toasty. Spread the warm buns with sour cream, and add the burgers. Top with lettuce and a couple of slices bacon each.

Get the good napkins out.