Roasted green chile peppers bring a moist and spicy element to these ground chicken burgers. Add some Southwestern seasonings and you’ve kicked up your burger game to Fiesta level.
If I were to choose a “last meal” it would be beef burgers, grilled or pan fried, doesn’t matter. Cheese not necessary, topped with onion and some mustard. It’s my favorite thing on earth to eat.
But when I feel the need to lighten up my burger game, ground chicken burgers are a great choice. Especially if they’re stuffed to the brim with everyone’s favorite Southwestern ingredient, roasted Hatch chile peppers.
Using ground chicken makes this a healthier choice than ground beef without losing that burger feel that we all love.
But How Do You Make Juicy Chicken Burgers?
And one that’s not dry and boring?
If not prepared correctly, ground chicken burgers can feel mushy which can cause them to break apart once they hit a hot grill or hot stove-top pan.
A way to fix that problem is by adding bread crumbs to the ground chicken mixture. It’s an easy trick to insure a solid chicken burger patty recipe that will stay together.
The chicken burgers will cook up like a charm, and by adding a vegetable with a high moisture content, such as chopped Hatch chile peppers, they’ll stay nice and moist.
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Hamburger Buns: Sesame works well here.
- 1 Pound Ground Chicken: Either ground chicken breast or a mix of ground chicken breast and chicken thighs.
- Chile Peppers: Use roasted, peeled, seeded Hatch Chile or Pueblo Chile Peppers.
- Lettuce: A soft leaf lettuce works well here, such as red leaf, Bibb or Butter Lettuce. Want more of a crunch? Iceberg lettuce would also be a good choice.
- Tomato, sliced.
- Cilantro: Fine chopped.
- Panko Bread Crumbs
- Cumin
- Mayonnaise
- Dijon Mustard
Ingredient Substitutions
- Cilantro: If you simply don’t like cilantro, just omit it.
- Dijon: Substitute regular yellow mustard for Dijon.
- Chile Peppers: If you don’t have access to fresh chile peppers, purchase canned chopped chile peppers on the Mexican food aisle.
- Mayonnaise: Substitute Sour Cream for extra tang. Or be brave and use Chipotle Mayo in it’s place.
Tip: On Cleaning Roasted Chile Peppers: Friends don’t let friends use water to remove the blistered skins off roasted chile peppers. Just scrape the skins off with your hands. If you rinse them with water, you’re washing away some of that smoky flavor that we all love.
Step by Step Instructions
- Step 1: Combine ground chicken, cumin, chopped chiles, chopped cilantro, bread crumbs and salt and pepper.
- Step 2: Using your hands, gently mix until well combined.
Tip; Hands are always the best tool for mixing ground meat. Using a large spoon will crush everything together, creating a tighter mix, which can cause the meat mixture to be dry and too dense in texture.
- Step 3: Divide the meat mixture into four patties.
- Step 4: Brush grates or grill pan with oil and grill burgers, flipping a few times, until good grill marks are present and a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees internal temperature. 8 – 10 minutes.
Yes, and It’s so easy. Buy 16 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pat them dry, chop them into large chunks and pop them into food processor. A few pulses and voila, ground chicken meat. You can also combine boneless skinless chicken thighs with chicken breast for a fattier blend, which will add flavor and texture.
Buying ground chicken breast from the store is easy and readily available. Most ground chicken is a mix between dark and white meat. The bit of added fat from the dark meat is a plus in adding flavor and texture to your chicken burger. You can also use ground chicken breast.
Don’t have an outdoor grill? Yes, you can use a cast iron skillet or grill pan to make these indoors. Just spray the pan with non-stick spray and brush the pan with olive or canola oil using a brush. Get that pan nice and hot to insure those initial sear marks.
I usually like to prepare three pound burger patties from one pound meat. However, with the added ingredients in this ground chicken burger, this recipe will make four good sized chicken burgers.
That’s the beauty of chile peppers. You can purchase mild, medium or hot. Which puts you in control of the heat level.
Tips For Success
Here are more tips to make a great chicken burger even greater.
- Mix fine chopped vegetables into the ground meat. Vegetables have a high water content and will help bring moisture and texture to that chicken burger. Example. This recipe contains chopped Hatch Chile Peppers.
- Don’t cook them to death! Start with a high temperature to develop a sear, cooking about a minute or so each side, lower heat and finish cooking the burger.
- Remove your chicken from the heat before you think it’s done. For example, if you like your chicken slightly pink, take your chicken off the grill when it’s a bit pinker, tent it with foil for about 5 minutes. It will continue cooking on its own. Please remember that chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Use a digital meat thermometer to determine temperature.
- Add tomato and lettuce to your chicken burger bun, they will bring a juicy slice of moisture to the overall experience.
The French get involved for a delicious finish to this recipe. A mixture of Dijon and mayo make a great condiment for chicken burgers.
Storing
It’s easy to freeze chicken burgers. For just the two of us, I make the chicken patties, then cook just two and freeze the other two raw patties to cook at a later date. Just wrap them individually in plastic wrap or a freezer zip lock bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Let them thaw overnight in the refrigerator and grill the next day.
Recipe for Southwest Chicken Burger
I hope you give this unique Southwest chicken burger recipe a try. And if you do, please come back and let me know how you liked it and give the recipe a star rating.
These homemade chicken burgers are easy enough for a weeknight meal and so satisfying with flavor. They may just be the perfect chicken burger.
More Popular Burger Recipes
And if you’re a burger fanatic like us, don’t miss my post which features a line up of Best Grilled Burgers recipes. I’m positive you’ll find something you’ll fall in love with.
And if you’re looking for more chicken recipes, don’t miss my Chicken Category. You’ll find lots of chicken recipes for dinner, including the most popular on my site for Chicken Mushroom Spinach Skillet.
Are you green chile crazed? Take a look at the most popular and most classic chile recipe on my site, How to Make Hatch Green Chili, Colorado Style.
This recipe is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe = always reliable.
Southwest Ground Chicken Burgers with Green Chile Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken Either ground chicken breast, or ground chicken (combo of breast and thigh meat)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 6 large roasted Hatch Chile tops and skin removed, chopped (or two cans diced green chile, drained
- 1/4 cup cilantro leaves fine chopped
- 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs or fresh bread crumbs, chopped well.
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- Canola oil for brushing
- 1 tomato sliced
- leaf lettuce Soft lettuce like red leaf, butter or bibb
- 4 sesame seed buns
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise or sour cream.
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Heat grill to medium high, or heat a grill pan over medium high heat stove top.
- Combine chicken, cumin, chiles, chopped cilantro, bread crumbs and salt and pepper.
- Using your hands, gently mix and divide into 4 patties.
- Brush grates or grill pan with oil and grill burgers, flipping a couple of times, until good grill marks are present and a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees internal temperature. 8 – 10 minutes.
- Grill buns, just until toasted, about one minute. Serve burgers on buns with tomato slices, mayo and mustard mixture, and lettuce.
Notes
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Hatch Green Chile Chicken Burgers … They’re what’s for Dinner.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Im down for that! Looks yummy! Green chili anything is ok in my book!
Thank you for mentioning Hatch Green Chile. We would love to send you a free box of our Hatch Green Chile as a thank you. If you’re interested, please send me an email with your mailing address.
Mm, this sounds so good! I love the side items you went with-very refreshing! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
These look amazing. I am with you on Martha. I have almost all of her books and have never been steered wrong by one of her recipes.
Me too – so far.
I go back and forth on washing the skins off my Hatch chilies. You absolutely do lose some flavor, but they’re already so flavorful that I don’t know if it matters much. I should do a taste test one of these days! Anyway, I love burgers too. And almost always beef for me. Need to try these chicken burgers. Need to wait until later this summer when I can get Hatch chilies again — I’ve exhausted my frozen supply!
I’ve got a freezer full – come for a visit. 😉
I know I’m missing out on something very special with those Hatch chilies! Wish I could find them here. What a great idea to switch up the burger menu and give it a Southwestern twist. They look wonderful!
You can always order them. There are companies in NM that ship frozen.
I have never tried a chicken burger, probably because I’m not a fan of turkey burgers. However, this one sounds and looks delicious, so I think I’ll give it a go!
I’ll take my beef burgers any time, but it’s nice to try something new.
Love Hatch green chiles and love this burger. The flavor pairings sound amazing. (Glad the French got involved at the last minute!)
I’m glad the French got involved also – love that Dijon. 🙂
I’ve never eaten a chicken burger but this sounds very good. Green chiles make everything better and we plan to restock while out that way.
If you’re coming in July, we won’t have any available yet. Signed Debbie Downer.
What a great recipe! I am very into ground turkey but have texture issues and never thought of adding bread crumbs. This is a game changer. Thanks!
Martha’s original recipe didn’t call for bread crumbs, my idea. It seemed to work pretty darn good. I was just too afraid of that odd texture without.