CARAMELIZED ONION GORGONZOLA TURKEY BURGER
CARAMELIZED ONIONS MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER…just like bacon.
In my mind, caramelized onions can do no wrong. It’s like bacon in that way. Put it on anything and it’s automatically better. I wanted to take this one step further and put it in my burger. Now, the conundrum, when it comes to turkey burgers, of any I’ve had in the past, the best ones were simply made—ground turkey, salt, pepper and that’s kinda it. So, if loading the inside up makes it worse, I definitely didn’t want to do that BUT I did want to try give it a little extra flavor and general pizazz. Enter topping it before cooking it. LOVED IT! Adding the onions early imparted extra juiciness and great flavor throughout—WIN!
CARAMELIZED ONION GORGONZOLA TURKEY BURGER
Yield: 4 1/4 Pound Burgers
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 35 MinInactive time: 10 MinTotal time: 50 Min
Ingredients
FOR THE CARAMELIZED ONIONS
FOR EVERYTHING ELSE
KITCHEN ITEMS
Instructions
TO MAKE YOUR ONIONS
- In your frying pan, over high heat, melt your butter together with your olive oil.
- Add sliced onions. Use your rubber spatula to move them around about every 3 minutes for the next 15 minutes. You are looking for them to be softened and slightly yellowed.
- Pour your red wine over your onions. Mix until your onions are coated.
- Cook for 5 minutes. These are slightly under caramelized. Don’t worry, you’re on track! They will caramelize further when cooking in the burgers.
- Transfer them to your medium mixing bowl.
- Refrigerate to room temperature—about 10 minutes.
TO MAKE YOUR BURGERS
- Preheat your oven to 350º.
- In your large mixing bowl, season your ground turkey with salt and pepper.
- Mix in 1 tablespoon of crumbled gorgonzola.
- Divide your turkey mixture into 4 equal parts. Roll each into a ball and place it on your cutting board.
- Place a thin layer of caramelized onions onto each burger. The layer should be about as thick as one caramelized onion slice.
- Press your caramelized onions into each ball causing them to embed into the turkey while also flattening your turkey ball into a disc that’s about a 1/4 inch thick.
- Coat your frying pan with vegetable oil and heat it over high heat.
- Use your metal spatula to place all of your burgers onion side up into your oil. Cover them with your splatter guard. The oil is hot enough if the burgers sizzle when they touch it. FYI. the oil can splatter aggressively, so take caution with the splash guard and or apron.
- Cook for 3 minutes. Then use your spatula to flip all of your burgers.
- Cook for 2 more minutes. Then use your spatula to flip all of your burgers so that the onions are facing up again. Don’t be worried if some of your onions have fallen off their flavor has already been infused into your burger. That said, the texture and flavor burst from them being on top is awesome so use your spatula to scoop any strays back on top of the burger.
- Put your oven-safe frying pan into the oven and bake until they have an internal temperature of 165º—about 7-10 minutes. Test by dipping a meat thermometer into the middle of your turkey burger.
- Cut your burger buns in half and place them cut-side-up on your baking sheet.
- Bake until lightly toasted—about 6 minutes if you are cooking them at the same time as the burgers. If you are cooking them separately, crank your heat up to 400º and let them cook for about 4 minutes.
TO ASSEMBLE YOUR BURGERS
- Place the bottom half of your bun on a plate.
- Use your spatula to place your turkey burger on it.
- Sprinkle on crumbled gorgonzola to your liking.
- Cover with the top half of your bun.
