Grilled Veggie-Stuffed Chicken Patties

Including a recipe for avocado salsa to complete any tasty chicken burgers, you create with these baddies...

baddies = bad boy patties ;)

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Grilled Chicken Patties

Difficulty:

Ingredients:

For the chicken patties:

• 1 lb ground chicken (or ground turkey)

• 1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced

• 1/4 cup green onion chopped

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach

• 2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro

• 1 tbs chopped fresh basil

• 3 cloves of garlic diced

• 1/3 cup diced oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes (I buy these little guys from my local grocery store all the time, they are great for recipes)

• 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles

• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice

• 1 tbs kosher salt

• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds

• 1/2 tsp dried oregano

• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

For the avocado salsa:

• 2 medium ripe avocados diced

• 1/4 of a red bell pepper diced (using the other half of the pepper from your patties works great here)

• 1/2 of a poblano pepper diced

• 2 tbs fresh cilantro chopped

• 1/3 cup chopped green onion

• 1/2 cup fresh diced cherry tomatoes

• The juice from1/2 of a lime

• 1/2 tsp cumin powder

• 1 tsp salt

Putting it all together:

For the avocado salsa

1. Dice the avocados, bell pepper, poblano pepper, cilantro, cherry tomatoes and green onion combining them into a medium bowl.

2. Add the juice of half of a lime, cumin and salt to the bowl and stir.

3. Store this creation in the fridge until your burgers are done.

4. That's it for the salsa, there really is not much to this recipe besides chopping.

For the chicken patties:

1. Chop and dice the bell pepper, green onion, spinach, cilantro, basil and garlic placing all of these ingredients into a large bowl. Give them a good stir until they are combined.

2. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, sesame seeds, oregano and pepper to the bowl and give it another good stir.

3. Add the ground chicken to the bowl and mix your creation again this time using your hands to mash the chicken in. Be sure to not over-mix the ground chicken...Just knead/mix until all of the ingredients are spread evenly into the chicken.

4. Form the chicken patties by making what are essentially giant chicken meatballs. (I made 6 patties, but you can make more or fewer patties than this. It all just depends on what size balls you form them into. At the end of the day, it's really up to you or fate if you are not a fan of decision-making.) ;)

5. Place a shallow "dimple" in the center of each patty with your thumb or the back of a spoon so your chicken patties will sit flat in your buns after they are grilled.

6. Preheat and prep your grill as needed. (If you are making any other sides/toppers like grilled onions, or say the avocado salsa above this is a great opportunity to prep those guys if you haven't already.)

7. Place your patties onto the hot grill and grill them for about 7 minutes on both sides or until they reach the internal temperature of 165° (for a total grilling time of around 14 minutes depending on what size you made your patties).

8. Place them on buns, top them with some avocado salsa and grilled red onion and...

13. Et Voila!

A lovely summertime dinner!

Additional burger topping ideas:

• grilled red onion slices

• mango salsa

• raw tomato slices (not my thing personally, but my mom loves this topping so I had to give it a quick shout-out).

• pickles

• avocado slices (if you don't want to make the salsa you can just go the simple avocado route)

• lettuce

• spinach

Side ideas:

• grilled zucchini and yellow squash

• baked sweet potato fries

• Jasmine rice

• sautéed spinach

• baked beans