Hooked on Mexican? Apparently!

I think that we are hooked on tacos, yet we haven't eaten actual tacos in about a month. Over the course of our relationship, we've created Sweet Potato Tacos as well as Slow Cooker Taco Meatloaf and now we've made Texas Chicken Burgers, which have the flavor of tacos.

Texas Chicken Burgers

Makes 4 servings

Nutritional Facts (per 1 serving):

201 Calories, 8.4g Fat, 70mg Cholesterol, 665mg Sodium, 115mg Potassium, 4.3g Carbs, 1.4g Fiber, 1.9g Sugars, 24.6g Protein, 42.6% Vitamin A, 12.8% Vitamin C, 2.0% Calcium, 8.2% Iron

Ingredients:
1 lb. Lean Ground Chicken Breast
12 Baby Carrots
1 small Zucchini
1 tsp. Cumin
1 Tbsp. Chili pepper
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Cajun Seasoning

Steps to create:

1. Dice up the baby carrots and zucchini. 

2. Once diced, blend them finely in a food processor with the ground chicken breast.

3. Divide the mixture into 4 equal parts and form patties. Try and make the patties thin, with the thinnest area in the middle for equal cooking time.

4. Cook on a griddle, in a skillet, or on a grill.

5. Cook on each side for roughly 3-4 min. Do not smash down the patty while on the grill or it will lose any juiciness and become dry.

6. After flipping a second time, if you want to add cheese, feel free to do it 1 min before removing and use the below listed tip to melt it.

7. Let stand for 2 min., serve and enjoy.

Tip:  So I've been dying to try this trick I saw Bobby Flay use on a cooking show to melt the cheese on a burger, rather than the typical slice of cold cheese or microwaving it. So when the opportunity presented itself, I took it. Right before the burgers were ready tonight, I grabbed out some shredded cheddar cheese and covered the top of my burger. I pulled out a small metal mixing bowl to use to capture the steam. Unlike Bobby, I didn't have a squirt bottle to quickly circle the burger patty so I improvised. I grabbed a glass, filled it with about 1/4 cup of water. I slowly circled the burger and then as the steam started to kick up, I covered the burger. After about a minute or two, I grabbed the bowl to remove it (yea dumb move on my part) and about burned off my hands it was so hot. But below is the pleasant result I got from my first attempt at melting the cheese on a burger by steaming it.

Let's play a quick game. If you keep up with our blog, you probably already know I'm a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy and Jesse is the veggie lover. So with that in mind, how hard is it to figure out who's meal is which?

Obviously, mine was on the left and Jesse's was on the right. I had a Texas Chicken Cheeseburger with chipotle roasted potatoes and baked beans. Jesse topped her burger with tomato, mayonnaise, and slaw. She also enjoyed some slaw on the side as well as baked beans. Jesse will have to write up the slaw recipe; she used a bag of shredded cabbage but created a vinaigrette type mixture to combine with the cabbage rather than using mayonnaise.

Don't fear, even with Jesse's famous "coma nap" she takes every Friday for two to four hours, we still got our cooking in and made it to the gym for a nice hour and fifteen minute workout. Sometimes I think she thinks I'm a little overboard when we head to the gym at 10 pm for an hour.