No more chickening out, part I: Annalena makes chicken burgers

Yes, ragazzi, after a much needed respite , she's back.  No, she was not going to abandon you, although to be honest, Annalena was thinking "do I have anything left to say that I haven't said already."  And yes, she is fine with some (or all) of you laughing.  You may have your fun.  But sheeeeeeeeeeeee's back, and she's starting with a couple of chicken recipes that she thinks you will all appreciate.  Then, she will follow with a twist on one of her favorite vegetables, nettles.  We are in full swing with Market season, amici.  Let's get our aprons on, and get to work.


This one, though, transcends seasons.  And Annalena shall be blunt:  she did not have time in her life for burgers made of ground chicken.  In fact, at home, Annalena did NOT make burgers.  This is one of those iconic foods which, for various reasons, Annalena leaves to the experts.  She has never quite figured out how to make a beef burger at home that measured up to those she can get at just about any restaurant, and since the redoubtable Dr. Goldstein has advised Annalena that she has to watch her cholesterol, there was no question:  burgers were NOT to be made at home (although she did devour a great cheeseburger on vacation).

Ok, so how does this get us to chicken burgers?  Well, in the convoluted and scary place that is Annalena's thought processes:  she really does not know.  One day, she literally decided  "let's give this a try."  She followed a recipe, and it's a winner.  And she will tell you how to vary this to suit your taste.

What Annalena likes about this recipe is the absence of filler, and eggs.  She had her doubts.  But it works.   We're going to call this an Asian burger, for reasons you shall see, but you can vary what goes in.  They key is making your meat mixture tasty.

For two rather nice sized burgers, you need 3/4 pound of ground chicken.  And let's start here, because the choice of ground chicken is important.  If you buy ground breast meat, you are going to be sorry.  It contains too little fat, and it will cook to a tough, dry mess.  Get ground thigh and leg meat.  ASK.  And it will not surprise you that this ground chicken is darker than ground breast meat.    Put this in a bowl, and now, we start adding the good stuff.  A shallot, diced fine (you may of course use onion.  Probably about 1/4 cup).  A clove of garlic, minced fine  . (Don't leave this out, whatever variations you may make.  The garlic and onion are , to Annalena's taste, what makes it a GOOD burger).  For the Asian flair,  you now add a tablespoon of fish sauce (you can use ketchup, worchester, soy, garum if you have it, anything with a salty edge), and about half that much mustard (for this one, use honey mustard.  Use another one if you like, but don't use one with seeds here).  Finely zest the rind of one lime and squeeze the juice of half of it into the meat as well.  And, finally, a tablespoon of finely minced ginger.

The next step freaks a lot of people out, but deal with it, or, in deference to the many people who have taught Annalena Italian, 'farcela"  .  Get your hands in there, and mix the stuff up well.  Again, deal with it.  Taste a little bit of it.  It won't kill you, and you need to adjust salt and pepper to suit yourself.    When you have it the way you like, mold the meat into two soft burgers.  This may take some patience and some delicacy, but you can do it, and chicken has enough internal "stickiness" to make it work.  Then, let this rest on a plate while you heat up a pan.  A good slick of oil, in what is preferably a non-stick pan, heated to the point where you can "smell the heat" is what you need.  This is hard to explain, but metal pans seem to have their own "fragrance" when they heat up.   Chinese do know this as "the smell of the wok."  Get used to smelling it.

Gently, put the burgers into the pan, and lower the heat to medium.  Cook for about 5-7 minutes on each side.   More than 7 is going to give you a dry burger, and what's the point of that?  And, incidentally, those of you who, like Annalena, like your burgers rare, should not do rare chicken burgers.  Cook them all the way through.

Ideally, you serve this on a toasted bun, with a spicy mayonnaise.  And here's how you make a great spicy mayonnaise:  take a quantity of sriracha, and 3 to 4 times that amount of regular mayonnaise.  Mix it together.  Taste it. You want it a little too hot for you, because the burger and the bun are going to cut the heat.  But adjust as you need.  Spread it over the buns and burger, slap em together, and sink your teeth in.


So there we have it, ragazzi.  Please, no questions about whether you can barbecue them.  Annalena knows not of barbecuing. But if some of you out there do in fact know how to barbecue chicken burgers,  let's get those recipes up.    Sharing is a GOOD thing.