I don’t really remember where this recipe came from, or rather, I don’t know when I invented it. I remember trying to recreate a chicken burger I once had on Portobello Rd in London that was juicy, spiced and delicious, but this isn’t anything like it. Somehow I went from recreating the Portobello Rd burger to this and they are nothing alike, except for being supremely delicious.
When I serve these to friends the conversation usually goes like:
“Hmmm, what’s on the chicken?”
“Caraway seeds”
“Oh, I don’t think I’ve had them before, but what else?”
“Just a bit of salt”
“Really, is that all?”
“Yep”
They really do taste like you’ve spent a lot of time balancing the right amount of a range of spices on the burger, but really it’s just caraway and salt. Put it on a nice burger bun with some cheese and salad, and you have yourself an excellent and easy burger.
Hmmm, hello my delicious little friend
Caraway Chicken Burgers
15 minutes preparation plus 25mins cooking
1 free range chicken thigh (no skin) per person
Some caraway seeds
A sprinkle of salt
A dash of oil
A burger bun per person
Cheese slices (we like blue cheese, but cheddar or such like is still good)
Tomato, red onion, mushroom, cucumber all sliced
Salad leaves
Butter and mayonnaise
So simple, you’re friends won’t believe all the flavour is from just one spice
Sprinkle caraway seeds and salt over you chicken thighs plus a little oil. The picture has more seeds than I would usually use because my caraway seeds were getting a bit old and weren’t as punchy. Probably about half a teaspoon of caraway seeds per person would be plenty. The store didn’t have chicken thighs this night so I used chicken breast, and it wasn’t quite as good. Chicken thighs stay more moist when cooking and have a little more flavour, this really works better with burgers than drier, blander breast meat.
Grill, fry or barbeque your chicken, however you best like to cook burgers (and depending on the weather and your availability to a BBQ). While the chicken is cooking slice your vegies and cheese.
I think the order of the layers really makes this burger: from the melty cheese to the cool crisp lettuce
Build your burger. I like butter on the inside bottom of the bun, then the red onion slices and mushroom as then they get a little cooked when you put the chicken on next. So then chicken with cheese on top of it to get the cheese to soften and get a bit melty, next goes tomatoes because they’re ok if they’re warm and they protect the cucumber and lettuce from the heat so the cucumber and lettuce are on top next to the mayo and they stay cool and crisp.
These burgers are great for a quick weeknight dinner or if you need to feed a crowd.
theLABkitchen 