Hot Buffalo Chicken Burger

Like most southern men, my husband really enjoys watching sports on TV. In fact, the Superbowl ranks right up there with Christmas in our house. We tend to celebrate such major events as the Superbowl with friends and family and lots of food. My job is to do the cooking for these events and I love to please. Our favorite foods to eat when watching sporting events are hamburgers and hot wings. With this recipe I have combined our two favorite sporting event foods into one.

Because people can identify with eating wings and watching sports, I believe this burger could certainly be an example of a great local American burger.

Ingredients:

Blue Cheese Mayonnaise:

1 ½ cups Mayonnaise
¾ cup Blue Cheese crumbles

Wing Sauce:
1 ½ cups hot sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
¾ cup butter, melted

Patties:

2 lbs ground chicken
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 eggs, slightly beaten
¼ cup onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced

Vegetable oil, for brushing the grill rack
6 onion rolls, split
3 ribs of celery, ends removed and grated
3 carrots, ends removed, peeled, and grated

Instructions:

Preheat gas grill to medium-high heat

To make the Blue Cheese Mayonnaise, place mayonnaise in a small bowl. Add the blue cheese crumbles and stir until well combined. Cover bowl and chill until burgers are ready to prepare.

To make the wing sauce, place hot sauce in a small bowl and add ketchup and melted butter. Whisk all ingredients until thoroughly blended.

To make the patties, place the ground chicken in a medium sized bowl. Combine the chicken, breadcrumbs, black pepper, eggs, onion, and garlic. Handle the meat as little as possible to keep from overworking it. Divide the mixture into six equal portions and form into patties approximately the same size as the bun.

When the grill is ready, brush the grill rack with oil and place the patties on the rack, cover, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes then turn. Brush onto browned side of each patty a generous amount of the wing sauce. Allow patties to cook an additional 6 to 8 minutes, turn again and brush on another generous amount of wing sauce. Allow patties to cook an additional minute or two and remove from grill.

To assemble the burgers, spread a generous amount of Blue Cheese Mayonnaise over the top and bottom cut sides of the rolls. On each roll bottom, place a patty, a dollop of celery and carrots. Add the roll tops and serve.