Spicy Asian Turkey Burgers

The Mom Chef is a food blogger who takes on "the challenge of making magazine recipes at home."  She's exactly like me.  Except she writes better.  And cooks better.  Fine, I'm not worthy, I shouldn't really even mention her name in vain.

Anyway, one of her recent posts discussed a Food Network recipe for chicken burgers that sounded delicious.  Well, not literally sounded; most posts are silent text (but I digress ...).  Either way, it made me go defrost some ground turkey (since that's what was in the freezer) just to try it out.

Of course, I didn't see the part about a red onion when I hit the supermarket for supplies, so a yellow onion is in the burger mixture (because I thought no one would notice the difference there), and completely left it out of the mushrooms (because the difference would be noticeable there).   You can use red if you'd like, but the yellow was a nice mellow alternative.   But I hope to see red, for at least the mushrooms, next time.

A quarter cup of panko crumbs didn't look like enough so I upped it to one-half, and (as far as my family was concerned) I was correct.  I also tweaked the way the quantities in the ingredients list was arranged.  IMHO if an ingredient is divided over several steps, it should be listed as such to prevent me careless cooks from accidentally dumping in the entire amount of something all at once.

Poultry is never served medium-rare, so the burgers are baked first to ensure that the meat is cooked thoroughly, then broiled to give them that lovely charred look. 

Family enjoyed these spicy burgers very much, although youngerSon, the one with the steel stomach, added Franks Red Hot to his serving.  Speaking of spicy, if you are the type who thinks graham crackers should take it down a notch, leave out the teaspoon of chili sauce in the meat mixture and reduce the amount in the sauce to one teaspoon.

The original recipe calls for grating the carrot and onion.  Maybe it was because I used a yellow onion instead of red, but every time I try to grate an onion I wind up with onion juice.  So I finely chopped the onion along with the carrot instead.  If you are less inept than I am, feel free to be grating.

I made the burgers Salisbury-steak style, with mushrooms on the side.  As an alternative, you could make them meatball size and serve as h'or deuvres (dipped into the spicy sauce using fancy-schmancy party picks) or inside slider buns.  Yum!

Spicy Asian Turkey Burgers
adapted from Food Network Magazine

Cooking Spray (olive oil preferred)
1 small carrot
1 small yellow onion
1 pound ground turkey (or chicken)
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup hoisin sauce, divided
1 tsp. ground ginger
4 tsp. soy sauce, divided (low-sodium okay)
3 tsp. Sambal Oelek chili sauce, divided
4 ozs. white mushrooms,  thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped red onion (optional)
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 Tbl. water

Preheat the oven to 375F. Tear off a sheet of aluminum foil about 1 1/2 times the length of your rimmed baking sheet.  Lightly crumble up the foil, then carefully uncrumble (leaving bumps and valleys remaining to allow grease to drain off). Line baking sheet with the foil; lightly mist foil with cooking spray.  Set aside.

Place turkey in a large bowl.  Finely chop carrot and onion, then add to ground turkey along with panko, 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, ginger, 3 teaspoons soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sambal oelek.  Mix with wooden spoon or your hands just until combined; mixture will be soft.

Wet hands with cold water, then shape mixture into 4 patties; place on prepared baking sheet. Because I was serving them Salisbury Steak-style, I made them oblong rather than round.  Bake in preheated oven on highest rack until cooked completely through, about 15-20 minutes.

Turn on broiler and broil for an additional 1-2 minutes on each side, watching carefully to make sure burgers do not burn too badly.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, toss together mushrooms, red onion (if using), sesame oil, lime juice and  remaining 1 teaspoon soy sauce.

In a small bowl, mix together the remaining 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce and 2 teaspoons Sambal Oelek along with 1 tablespoon water.

Serve the burgers with a drizzle of the hoisin sauce mixture, with mushroom mixture and Chinese Sesame Slaw alongside.