Chicken Veggie Burgers

These burgers are deceptively good. They're actually a reworked burger version of mini meatloaves I made this past winter (and never managed to share). If you are avoiding carbs, you can omit the panko bread crumbs and make the mini meatloaves. I'd still leave the oats, but you can omit those too if you really want. Just put the mixture into a muffin pan and bake at 375º for 35-40 minutes. I got the idea from sarahfit.com and changed it up a little.


This recipe will make 10-12 burgers, depending on how big you like them. Go ahead and get a big bowl to mix them up in. 

Even if you don't have many people to feed, I'd suggest making the full recipe. It freezes well. Just make the patties, put some parchment paper between each one, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the freezer. We'll wrap ours in sets of two since it's just the two of us. Tonight we'll cook all of them since we need dinner and lunch for the whole week and will be really busy through Thursday. 

Ingredients
2 lbs ground chicken
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup thyme, roughly chopped (2T dry if you don't have fresh)
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 cup parmesan (or similar) cheese - I used a parmesan, fontina, asiago blend from Whole Foods
2 eggs
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp chipotle pepper powder (less if you don't like spice)
1 tsp crushed red pepper (less here too if desired)
8-10 dashed of Worcestershire sauce (mine had one of those little spouts, if your's doesn't, about 2T)

Mix everything together in a large bowl and form into patties. Cook in a skillet or on the grill and garnish as desired. I have been craving these buffalo chicken burgers I used to make. They have a lot of sodium if made from that recipe, so maybe I'll put just a little blue cheese and buffalo sauce on these. They're good just on their own though. I ate 2 right out of the muffin pan when I made them last time! If you're really worried about the sodium in the Worcestershire sauce, as I usually would be, use a bit less. Since I ended up with 12 burgers, it's not really a lot per burger.

We made Smitten Kitchen's Chopped Salad with Feta Lime and Mint to go with it. Minus the feta because I forgot to buy it (SAD) and subbing cilantro because my Whole Foods NEVER has mint. WHY?!