Grilled Chicken Teriyaki Burgers with Pineapple Rings

I am so happy that it's Saturday! Sleeping in and a leisurely cup of hot coffee is my way to start a weekend. I feel so much better.

I've been cooking all week, but nothing I could really post about. I re-invented my version of my Mexican Rice Casserole on Wednesday night. I had leftover ground beef and rice from two previous meals, so I just started tossing things in. I liked a comment that UNCONFIDENTIAL COOK left-- that this recipe reminds her of the inside of a burrito. She is so right! I added corn to the recipe and it was a great addition.

I did make my corn and black bean salad for an office potluck-- something that's always a hit at potlucks. It's a simple recipe of corn, black beans, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, fresh lime juice, olive oil and salt pepper. I even photographed how I made it...and then, the next night I attended my digital photography class. I went to delete a lot of practice shots and deleted my food photos. D'oh! So much for posting that recipe!

I made these chicken burgers about two weeks ago, and never got around to posting them. It's raining today-- after a week of searing hot weather-- so let's pretend that I made these last night.

I was inspired to make these chicken burgers because I had a delicious pineapple that I had just sliced with my pineapple slicer gadget.

I also try to limit how often we eat red meat. Don't get me wrong-- I'm a carnivore. I've made a version of Rachael Ray's Chicken Fajita burgers over the years-- but I've noticed that chicken burgers are hard to grill. They are much softer (and leaner) that ground beef, so I decided to add bread crumbs to hold these together. It worked!

I was cooking by instinct, so I will do my best to give approximate measurements. What I wanted to achieve was the flavor of teriyaki. I decided to flavor the chicken, itself, rather than relying on basting a thick teriyaki sauce. Besides, I didn't have teriyaki sauce, so I improvised.

For my sauce I used:

Low-Sodium Tamari sauce (1/4) cup, 2 Tbsp. Brown sugar, 2 Tbsp. Rice vinegar, 2 tsp. freshly grated ginger, and 1 garlic clove, finely minced.

For the burgers:
2 packages of ground chicken (almost 2 pounds)
1/2 red onion, finely minced
1 cup bread crumbs (I used stale bread in my food processor)
Tamari-Teriyaki Sauce, Reserving about 1/2 of the sauce for basting

OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup freshly chopped cilantro (that I grow in my herb garden)

This made 6 chicken burgers. These were grilled until thoroughly cooked (who wants raw chicken), and at the end pineapple rings were grilled. I considered basting the pineapple with a little melted butter and brown sugar, but I changed my mind.



These were delicious! The teriyaki flavor was very subtle, but gave a sweet-savory flavor to the ground chicken. We found that we didn't need any kind of traditional condiments-- like mayonnaise.

I was very happy with my quick invention of teriyaki sauce. I think that the next time I make this, I will quadruple the sauce and heat this with a little cornstarch. I'd like to see how this thickens as a BBQ sauce. Stay tuned....

I served broccoli salad as a side dish, but coleslaw would also have been a great side, too.



Today is "Pamper Me" Day. I am long overdue for a haircut and hair color and that's where I'm headed late this morning.

For Date Night, I have two DVD's to choose from. I'm making dinner, but hubby cleans up. It's cuddle night. I hope it rains, so that we can start a fire. My son is here, so wine and ... well, romance is kinda limited. My guess is that "Date Night" will morph into "Family Night". Who says that kids leave home at 18? At least my son works and is taking college classes. For the most part, it's not a bad arrangement.

I have the urge to bake a cake... big time! I don't possess the gift of cake artistry that I see on so many blogs. I've been eyeballing "Hummingbird Cake" on about a dozen blogs. Key ingredients are bananas and pineapple. Will this be my next posting?