Feta Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Feta Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Adapted from allrecipes.com

1 pound ground turkey
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced (I used 1/2 cup regular back olives)
1/8 cup pine nuts (or more, or if you don't have them- omit!)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1/8-1/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth (or in desperate times, olive juice from the can of olives)

1. Preheat the grill for medium high heat (or plug in ye olde George Foreman)
2. In a large bowl, combine turkey, feta cheese, olives, pine nuts, oregano, garlic, and pepper and liquid of choice. Mix together and form in to patties.
3. Lightly oil the grate (spray with pam), place patties on the grill. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through.

I was going to make Tzitki to put on top of the patties but kind of forgot until too late in the game, so I topped with greek yogurt that I had added a little fresh basil to. Certainly sour cream would get the job done as well. I also served with my failed attempt at baked sweet potato fries.

And also I am waiting for an onslaught of salmonella because Ivy got her hands, and subsequently her mouth, into the uncooked turkey patties. Spring break so far has been epic. And not in a good way.

But these burgers, oh my! They were delicious! Certainly you could serve them on a bun, or just plain, or topped with the greek yogurt, or in a pita, the possibilities are endless!

Grilled Malibu Chicken

*Picture credit to Perrys' Plate!

Sad times at the Bassett house in June when we moved to our new place, we tried to have some family over for a bbq and it turned out that wrapping our grill in plastic wrap, shipping it across the country and then keeping it stored for a year somehow broke it. It was a sad, lonely, bbqless summer. The good news is that you get to know your neighbors real fast when on your second day living in your new place you have to go door to door with a plateful of raw meat asking to borrow a grill. Oh yeah, that's how friends are made.

Anyway, I've learned to work with my George Foreman and I have one of these on my Christmas list, so hopefully the sob story won't continue much longer.

I made this Malibu Chicken from Perrys' Plate on Sunday, it was delicious, mmmmm. Perfect easy meal.

PS I hope you appreciate the recipes I put on here, because somehow copy and paste is disabled on our computer so I painstakingly retype each recipe, by hand, for you.

Grilled Mailbu Chicken
From Perrys Plate via Patio Dadio BBQ via Tasty Kitchen...please someone repost this on their blog so I can be added to the geneology of the recipe.

6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
2 T Montreal Steak Seasoning, or BBQ seasoning
12 slices deli thin ham (thin)
6 slices canned pineapple
6 slices swiss cheese
1/2 c pineapple juice (from the can)
4T butter, melted
1 T plain yellow mustard
1T honey
1 T molasses ( I used brown sugar)
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 t chili powder

Season both sides of each breast with the BBQ/Montreal Steak seasoning, cover and refrigerate at least an hour (whoops, I did not cover or refrigerate and still tasted fine!)

Combine the butter, pineapple juice, mustard, honey, molasses, worcestershire sauce and chili powder in a medium mixing bowl and whisk until smooth, set asaide.

Prepare your grill for two zone cooking (direct and indirect) at medium-high heat (about 400 dgs) . Or if that last sentence makes you panic, turn on your grill pan to medium high heat. Or plug in the George Foreman

Quickly grill one side of each braest and each pineapple ring over direct heat until they are seared and have nice grill marks (doesn't happen in the George Foreman, sorry peeps), about two minutes. Flip each breast and ring, brush with the sauce, and cook another two minutes.

Move the chicken to the indirect part of the grill (or a not so hot part of your pan) and brush the top of each with sauce. Top each braest with two slices of ham and drizzle the ham with the sauce. Put a slice of cheese on them and a pineapple ring on each braest and drizzle again with the sauce. Continue cooking with the grill lid down (or cover with aluminum foil) until the intermnal temperature reaches 160dgs, about ten mninutes.

Serve with another drizzle of sauce.

* I have raw chicken issues so I divided my sauce in two bowls, one to use to drizzle the raw breasts and stuff and one to serve the chicken with. Do what makes you happy.

Rosemary Chicken Skewers with Berry Sauce

Picture from Simply Recipes

I made this tonight and it was phenomenal. I served it with artichokes and PW's potatoes along with some homemade blackberry lime ice cream for dessert..perfect.

Recipe here.

Grilled Mediterranean Chicken Vegetable Kabobs

I got this recipe from Emily Page. I actually never use all the (expensive) suggested ingredients (read: I don't splurge on asparagus, orzo, and feta). I usually use whatever we have around (onion, tomatoes, bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.). I'm sure it would be even tastier if you actually followed the whole recipe, crumbled feta cheese and all. But even with just chicken in this marinade and whatever veggies you have around over rice, I might give this 4 stars.

Rosemary-Lemon Marinade:
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsps fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Chicken and Vegetables:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 lb asparagus spears
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

In shallow glass or plastic bowl or resealable food-storage plastic bag, mix all marinade ingredients. Add chicken, stirring to coat with marinade. Cover dish or seal bag. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 30 min but no longer than 6 hours.

Preheat grill. Remove chicken from marinade and reserve marinade. Thread chicken and all veggies except asparagus on skewers. Brush vegetables with marinade.

Grill kabobs covered over medium heat 10 to 15 minutes, turning and brushing frequently with marinade. (Or you could be lazy like me and just pour all the marinade over the kabobs just before you grill them and call it good... it still turns out good.) Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add asparagus to grill for the last 5 minutes of grilling, turning occasionally, until crisp-tender. Discard any remaining marinade.

Sprinkle feta cheese over kabobs. Serve kabobs with asparagus. The recipe also suggests tossing rosamarina (orzo) pasta with chopped fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, or marjoram) for a delicious side dish.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Kabobs ***

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Kabobs

1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Cider Vinegar
2T honey
2T oil
2 Green onions minced

Bacon
Chicken cubes
Mushrooms
Green or Red Pepper
Onions
Pineapple
Cherry tomatoes

Cut chicken into cubes and marinade in the soy sauce/vinegar/honey/oil/green onion mixture for 1-2 hours. Boil bacon for 5 minutes (this prevents burning on the grill). Wrap the chicken cubes with half slice of bacon and put on skewer, add other kabob items as desired (something really yummy is to wrap a piece of chicken AND pineapple together in the bacon). Cook on grill for 15 minutes-- be careful, they overcook quickly so keep an eye on them. Be sure to boil the bacon first!

This is a very easy and delicious grill recipe. Blaine's not home tonight so I am not serving it with anything else, though I imagine some rice (with teriyaki sauce?) would be good or noodles or whatever. Very yum.