Do you want to know the secret ingredient in Grandma’s Best Chicken Burger? To make it juicy, Grilling Grandma adds butter! Yes, glorious butter along with some simple seasoning will turn your next chicken burger into the best chicken burger ever.
The burger is elevated even more with Hickory Smoking Chips and smoking salt! To continue the boost the flavor fresh avocado cream is dotted with cilantro and scallions and spiked with spicy salsa verde. And finally, seasoned tomatoes and lettuce add a fresh light finalizing flavor to this Best Butter Chicken Burger ever!
“Ground Chicken is a Blank Canvas Ready For You To Decorate!” ~ Grilling Grandma
Elevating a Chicken Burger with Butter
After my first bite of a butter chicken burger I was convinced that dding butter to lean ground chicken really makes a difference, and needs to become a trend!
Ground Chicken Burgers are notorious for tasting bland and being dry. In brief, I always add butter to ground wild game like wild boar, venison, and buffalo, due to their leanness. So one day, when reaching for a package of ground chicken my culinary genius moment shined. If butter boosts the flavor and texture in lean ground game meat it will add fat to lean chicken as well. And so I did just that!
I absolutely love eating ground chicken burgers. Even though there is butter they are still lean, easy to digest, and easy to change up through seasoning and toppings.
I have grilled so many different versions of ground chicken burgers, the only element that is the same is the quantity of butter. I have grated butter, even tried smearing room temperature into the ground chicken. Read on to find out what butter I think is best!
How to Serve a Moist and Flavorful Ground Chicken Burger
It’s super easy to improve a ground chicken burger, simply add butter, smoke, seasoning and toasty buns!
- ADD SMOKE and grill it! I love hickory, cherry, peach, or mesquite smoking chips, on my gas grill, when grilling a ground chicken burger.
- ADD FAT to the lean ground chicken. Oh Yes You Can do this; butter adds flavor and increases the moisture in a chicken burger! Add salted or unsalted butter, either one works well.
- SEASON the ground chicken! I love the flavor of coriander, garlic, salt, and pepper. There are a lot of chicken season blends that are tasty when added to ground chicken. There is a few no-no’s though when seasoning ground chicken. What could it be??? Continue to read and you will find out!
- TOAST BUNS! I competed at the World Food Championships for many years, and there is one thing I learned. Toast your buns with a brush of oil not butter. Butter on a bun will add moisture…and we all hate soggy buns!
Toppings for Ground Chicken Burgers
- Crunchy: Add lettuce or shoestring potatoes! If you love a crunchy pickle, go for it!
- Fresh: A slice of fresh tomato or a freshly made tomato salsa. Do you dare add crunchy julienne carrots? Why not?
- Creamy: Of course you will add cheese that has melted. I love pepper jack, mozzarella, Monterey jack or Gouda. How about avocado spread, special sauce, or a mix of mustard and mayo?
- Pickled: A pickled element like onions, cucumbers, peppers, radishes, jicama or apples will bring balance or/and umami to your burger!
Seasoning No-Nos When Building the Best Chicken Burger
- Do not over season! I lightly season ground meat at first and test the flavor. To do so, make an 1-inch ball, and microwave for 20 seconds or until cooked through. Sure the texture will be tough but you can taste and then adjust the seasoning.
- When adjusting the seasoning, don’t salt to the max as you mix the seasoning into the ground meat. The outside of ground chicken burgers needs a flavor boost. Think of it this way, our tongue touches the outside of the cooked meat first. If it is seasoned our taste buds are awakened. As we continue to chew we taste the ground meat interior, and if it is seasoned our palate is satisfied.
- Don’t add extremely hot fresh chile peppers. Too much minced spicy pepper is going to blast your palate. A Serrano pepper is the hottest pepper I would recommend for a ground chicken burger. And even at that, a teaspoon per pound of grated pepper is plenty for a chicken burger. Please don’t use cayenne in a chicken burger!
- Don’t allow the spice to dominate. Ground chicken is mild. You want to compliment the flavor of the ground chicken not camouflage it with strong spices. Here are the dry spice culprits I stay away from when seasoning ground chicken: ground oregano, ground cumin, ground tarragon, and ground rosemary. Remember fresh herbs are milder than the concentration of flavor found in dry spices. Subsequently, if you love those flavor try a little chopped oregano, coriander, tarragon or rosemary leaves instead.
Tips For Building the Best Chicken Burger
- Salt Tip: If you use salted butter please reduce the salt in your burger by 1/4 teaspoon.
- Butter Tip: I found that soft room temperature butter is the best! Although we know that grated butter adds air pockets in baking, not so for burgers! Use butter that has been sitting out for a few hours and is soft.
- Quantity Tip: Use 1/4 cup of butter for per pound of ground chicken.
- Size Tip: Don’t get skimpy when serving a chicken burger. Get this: I use 2 pounds of ground chicken to make 6 burgers!
- Grill Tip: Ground chicken butter burgers are fragile on the grill! Please use a grill safe skillet. With that in mind, a pizza pan or skillet cooks up a very juicy chicken burger.
Another “Best Burger” from Grilling Grandma!
Western BBQ Has More Burgers HERE!
Check Out My Favorite Hickory Smoking Chips!
Grandma's Best Chicken Burger
A juicy ground chicken burger recipe thanks to Grilling Grandma's secret ingredient, butter! The burger is elevated with Hickory Smoking Chips and smoking salt! And add freshnes, homemade avocado cream, dotted with cilantro and scallions and spiked with spicy salsa verde! Best Butter Chicken Burger ever!
Ingredients
- 2 cups Western BBQ mesquite hickory smoking chips or Cherry or Mesquite
- CHICKEN BURGER:
- 2 pounds ground chicken
- 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoons chopped scallions
- 2 1/2 teaspoons smoked salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 6 slices pepper jack cheese
- GARLIC BUNS
- 1/4 cup garlic olive oil
- 6 large hamburger buns
- 3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
- AVOCADO SPREAD:
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 soft avocado, skin and pit removed, cut into chunks
- 1 large scallion, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup green salsa verde, refrigerated tub or jar
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- TOPPINGS:
- 3 large tomatoes, slice 1/4-inch thick
- 2 tablespoons Mediterranean olive oil
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 6 curly leaf green lettuce
Instructions
GRILL
- Prepare a gas grill for direct medium high heat.
- Place 2 cups of smoking chips in a smoker box or perforated foil packet, and place over the hottest part of the grill.
BURGERS
- Lightly mix all burger ingredients, except the cheese, on a sheet of parchment or wax paper.
- Form patties by hand, or in a 4-inch prep ring, 4-inch wide by 3/4 inch high. Place patties over indirect heat directly on the grill grates or onto a cold cast iron griddle or cast iron skillet.
- Smoke patties at low heat, 300°F for 15 minutes or until the center of the burger reaches 140°F. Remove partially cooked patties for a few minutes, and turn grill temperature to high.
- Transfer patties to the hot cast iron pan. Cook patties for 3 minutes then turn over.
- Place a cheese slice on each chicken burger and cook until the center of the meat reaches 160°F to 165°F. Remove chicken patties from the grill and let rest for 3 minutes before serving.
BUNS
- Brush olive oil on top bun, and only the cut side of the bottom bun. Sprinkle all sides of buns with granulated garlic.
- Toast buns for about 2 minutes, directly on the cast iron pan or the top cooking grate to prevent burning.
AVOCADO SPREAD
- Mix all Cilantro Avocado Spread in a mini food processor or by hand until smooth, and set aside.
TOPPINGS
- Place sliced tomatoes and lettuce leaves on a cutting board, and sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and black pepper as listed in instructions.
ASSEMBLE
- Spread 1 tablespoon of Cilantro Avocado Cream on both cut sides of buns. Top the bottom bun with 1 lettuce leaf, 1 tomato slice, 1 cheesy burger, 3 cilantro sprigs, and the top bun.
Notes
- Use Monterey Jack Cheese if you can't stand the heat in Pepper Jack!
- If your grill does not have a rack that is elevated then create your own by using a grill safe baker's rack on top of an inverted cast iron skillet!
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