Chicken Burger Wraps

Chicken burger wrap

I finally decided the use the meat grinder my mom bought me for my birthday back in February. I decided to make little chicken burgers. Lately, I've been on a kick of wrapping my food in lettuce wraps. It's a little trick I learned when I lived in California from In-n-Out burger. I always order a protein burger and animal style fries when I go there (even before I was gluten-free). The people at In-n-Out really know how to do a lettuce wrapped burger. They have a very good proportion of lettuce to burger so your hands don't great burger juice all over them. I think that is the main point of the bun on a burger. 

Anyway, this burger has a slice of CSA cheese, mustard and a good amount of lettuce wrapped around it. You can add tomatoes or onions or whatever other veggies you like. I'm pretty minimalist with my burgers, I like to go big on my fries. Here's the recipe for my chicken burgers.

Baked chicken burgers

Chicken Burgers

recipe modified from smitten kitchen

Ingredients

500 g chicken thighs (if you don't have a meat grinder, get 1 lb ground)

3 slices gluten-free bread, torn into pieces (~1 cup)
1/3 cup milk (I use hemp milk)
50 g prosciutto, finely chopped
3 green onions (or scallions as New Yorkers call them), finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
3 tablespoons finely chopped basil
1 large egg, beaten

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 f.
2. Grind up the chicken thighs in the meat grinder. If you are using pre-ground meat, just open the package and dump it in your bowl.
3. Pour the milk over your bread pieces. Set aside (watch out, the gluten free bread can get really runny).
4. Cook the prosciutto on the stove over medium. Add the green onions and the garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes. Take off the stove and let cool for a bit, or else it will cook the egg when you mix everything together.
5. Drain the milk that didn't get absorbed by the bread you set aside earlier.
6. Now mix everything together! I think it works better to use your hands, you get a more even mixture. If you don't want to touch the raw chicken, use a spoon, it's your prerogative.
7. Make the chicken mixture into balls. If you want burger use about 90 grams per burger. If you want meatballs like the original recipe, use about 50 grams per ball.
8. Pop those suckers in the oven. I set my timer for 20 minutes, but I know it will take 25 minutes. I'd rather check before everything is cooked than burn my burgers. Enjoy.