Cheesy Stuffed Chicken Burgers with Sour Cream and Guacamole

Let’s consider these the Southwestern version of Juicy Lucy’s but with chicken, okay? Also, am I stretching with including a burger in sandwich week? It’s between two pieces of bread, so I say it counts. Lastly, this burger-in-the-hand photo might be my new thing. This is a super-easy burger to throw together: mix some ground chicken (preferably dark meat) with seasonings and spices, stuff with cheddar cheese, grill and layer toasted buns with sour cream, lettuce, burgers, guacamole, salsa, and red onion slices. Or whatever you want to top them with.

The secret to these burgers lies in the panade, which is a mixture of fresh bread crumbs and whole milk. The panade helps the meat retain moisture, keeping the burgers juicy and tender. It’s my secret weapon to just about anything I make with ground meat! The panade completely mixes into the burgers, so it’s never like you’ll be chomping down on hunks of bread. You can use any variety of starch and fatty liquid; varying the components will add different flavors to your final product.

If you’re unfamiliar with a Juicy Lucy, it’s an inside-out beef burger stuffed with cheese to fully enclose, which forms a molten lavaflow of cheese when you bite into it. When they’re good, they’re really good, but they can be very disappointing if the cheese-to-meat ratio is off. I’m going to perfect the Juicy Lucy one day and take an obligatory burger-in-the-hand photo of it. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of the inside of these burgers, but the photo just didn’t turn out. Guess you’ll have to make them to see for yourself!

[tasty-recipe id=”37126″]