Turkey Burgers

As often happens when I cook for a large crowd, I end up having leftovers. Now I know that the brisket and chicken (mostly) will go but the turkey has fans and less so simply because there are those who find it a bit dry. This turkey breast was moist and delicious but even we are less inclined to nibble on it after a day or two. So what to do? DH looked at me hopefully and said, how about turning them into burgers? Now I won’t lie, we both are croquette and burger fans, whether it be tuna, salmon etc. The idea appealed to me and away I went. My food processor for meat is kinda small so it took a few batches of grinding up the turkey breast but was so worth the effort. The amount I made (lotsa leftovers) is large, you can halve the recipe depending on what you have and how many burgers you wanna make. This was eaten both hot off the skillet and cold the next day and was really really delish.

So, gather your ingredients

As you can see, it’s not a complicated number of ingredients. Also, I used five eggs, the pic is with two. Onward!

Now technically you could use a chopper to chop the turkey but it won’t give you the correct texture, you want it ground, as well the carrot. Carrots simply won’t cook in time in the skillet unless they are ground otherwise you’ll get nasty bits of hard carrot in your burger and that’d be a shame. Start by grinding/finely chopping the carrot and onion

Add the cooked turkey in batches and chop/grind fine.

It should be the same consistency as finely chopped tuna.

Place the chopped onion, carrot and turkey into a large bowl. Add the paprika, garlic powder, salt, breadcrumbs, baking powder (yes, you need it for the right consistency) and the eggs. There are a lot of eggs in this and it’s necessary both so that the burger will form properly and stick together, and it adds the fat that the turkey lacks to make it juicy and tasty.

Using your hands or your hand in gloves, mix it all up together till a nice mass forms with enough stickiness to form a proper burger that doesn’t fall apart, it should not be dry and crumbly.

Now form burgers/patties from the mixture and place on a piece of tinfoil like soldiers in a row near your stovetop, ready for the frying. I made really big burgers and I yielded ten burgers but you can smallify them if you prefer and get 12-14 as you please.

Now pour a decent puddle, about 4 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and heat the oil to medium.

Wanted you to have the visual. More oil than perhaps I normally use to get the right level of crispiness. K.

Place the burgers in the pan without crowding them and merrily fry away for about 4-5 minutes on each side till golden brown and crispy.

They will puff up a bit from the baking powder which is what you want which prevents them from being too dense. Crispy and delicious and good next day cold – either in buns or with a nice salad, these will make you glad you made too much turkey!

Turkey Burgers

600 grams ( about 1 1/3 pounds) cooked turkey breast, ground

1 large or 2 medium carrots, ground (not chopped! ground to bits in food processor)

1/2 large onion chopped fine

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2-3/4 cups (75 -112.5) grams – dry breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon baking powder

5 eggs

Oil for frying

Directions:

Grind up your carrot, onion and turkey breast and place in large bowl. Add paprika, garlic powder, salt, breadcrumbs and baking powder and toss well. Add eggs and using your hands mush all together till ingredients form a nice, slightly sticky mixture that holds together well. Form burgers – I made huge ones, 10 or you can make ’em smaller and get 12-14 out of this amount of mixture.

Pour 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons oil in skillet. Heat to medium hot and add the burgers, not crowding them. Fry for about 4-5 minutes and flip when golden brown on the bottom and continue to fry till golden brown and crispy on other side. Fry all the burgers and serve either straight away hot from the skillet, at room temp or even cold the next day. Makes a fab sandwich on a burger bun with condiments or nice with a tossed salad on the side.