Chicken Burgers

** Umm anyone catch that I called this post chicken burgers and then proceeded to use ground turkey in the recipe? Yeah me either, until now, haha. That would be because when I got the idea for this post I first made these burgers with ground chicken :) The second time round I used ground turkey. Both work equally well!

Since Matt and I have been eating healthier I've been having some fun in the kitchen. I really love burgers and so does Matt. We wanted burgers that were still really tasty but that were lower in calories and fat. I've always been a fan of turkey burgers but sometimes they can be a bit dry and bland. I decided to do something about that!

You may remember a recipe I posted for zing zang meatloaf maybe a month ago. Well, I decided to kind of start with that sauce and build a burger around it. Zing zang is a spicy bloody mary mix. Like I said in the original post I dislike bloody marys and was scared to try it. But, in recipes it is absolutely delicious. 

I start with a pound of extra lean ground turkey (the blue pack of Jennie-o :))

1/2 cup Zing zang sauce*

1 1/2 cups mushrooms 

1 jalapeno, diced (feel free to add more, i can't handle more than 1!)

2 cloves of garlic chopped

2 tablespoons of canned black eyed peas (any beans you have will work) smashed
1/4 cup shredded cheddar

salt and pepper to taste

evoo

So right now you're probably looking at the smashed black eyed peas and you're all like what in the world? Trust me here. I use it as a binder because the turkey is so lean and it also gives you some extra protein. And I think black eyed peas have a kind of smokey taste!

Sautee the mushrooms, peppers and garlic in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. Cook until peppers and mushrooms are soft

Mix mushroom mixture, black eyed peas, cheese and zing zang sauce in to ground meat. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix lightly until just combined. Make either 4 larger burgers or 6 medium sized burgers (depends on if you are eating them on or off the bun, I make 4 big burgers).

Lightly drizzle pan with evoo. Now here's the part where I really don't keep track of anything :) I then cook on medium high heat until done, haha. Yup who knows how long this takes. Usually I'm doing like 12 things at once. And Matt says I cook my food for too long. Don't see anyone getting salmonella over here though!

Here's a picture of the final product. Served on a light wheat bun with roasted broccoli and hash browns (basically diced potatoes roasted in the oven on the same pan with the broccoli!). 

These are so tasty and meaty you won't even miss the beef!