Turkey'n' Stuffin' Burgers

Last weekend, during Turkeypalooza (also known as our Canadian Thanksgiving festivities), Brad's extended family came to our house for lunch. Since we all had just had a full turkey dinner with all the fixin's the previous day we were aiming for something a little lighter and easier for our celebration.

My SIL (sister-in-law) brought turkey burgers for us to grill up for lunch. Now, in our house we're more into ground beef than ground poultry but these burgers have definitely made me see ground turkey in a new light. These burgers had a nice consistency and a great taste due to the stuffing mix. I loved eating them on ciabatta buns with gravy, cranberry sauce and a special sauce SIL brought that was a combo of cream cheese and cranberries mixed together. Yum!

Try using ciabatta buns instead of normal hamburger buns because they're a little denser and don't soak up all the yummy toppings like a traditional hamburger bun tends to do. I liked the burger so much I had another the next day!

Recipe Originally From: Allrecipes.com

1/4 cup butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
3lbs ground turkey breast
1 (6oz) pkg chicken-flavoured dry bread stuffing mix
2 eggs
16 chiabata buns, split
1 jar turkey gravy
1 (16oz) can whole cranberry sauce
whipped cream cheese

Preheat BBQ to medium heat and lightly oil grill.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Cook onion and celery until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Place cooked onion and celery in large bowl with the ground turkey, stuffing mix and eggs. Mix thoroughly to combine. Form the mixture into 16 patties.

Note: Unlike hamburger patties these patties will not change shape while cooking so make them even in size.

Grill the turkey burgers on the preheated BBQ until no longer pink in the centre and the juices run clear, about 5 minutes per side. Insert a thermometer into the centre of a patty. The thermometer should read at least 165F (74C).

Meanwhile, heat up the gravy and set aside.

Place each patty on a bun and top with warm gravy, cranberry sauce and a dollop of whipped cream cheese (or try mixing up the whipped cream cheese with a bit of the cranberry sauce like my SIL did!).

Note: My SIL omitted the onion and celery in her recipe. Leave them out if you're not a fan.