Rachael Ray: Buffalo Chicken Burgers

As I flip through Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats, one group of recipes that keeps catching my eye is her burger recipes. For us, a burger usually means simply a beef patty slapped on the grill and that's it - I rely on burgers for really quick and easy meals in the summer. But that doesn't mean I can't still try fancier burgers once in a while, right?

DH, the kids and I all love Buffalo wings. Well, except I don't like the wing part (veins and sometimes hair - ew!), so I tend to order Buffalo tenders instead. Actually, we love just about Buffalo anything, so this recipe was a natural one for us to try.

Buffalo Chicken Burgers with Blue Cheese Dressing

It's actually pretty straightforward - ground chicken (or turkey, if you prefer), spices, a bit of celery and scallion (I had to use chives) to form the patty and a simple sauce of blue cheese and sour cream to spread on the buns. The recipe calls for far too much sauce for 4 burgers - a whole cup of sour cream and a 1/2 cup of blue cheese. Knowing there was no way we'd use that much sauce, I cut it in half and we still had a little bit leftover. The blue cheese was a bit overwhelming and had I been thinking straight, I probably would have realized that I could have gotten away with a couple of tablespoons of blue cheese - it can be so overwhelming.

As with the Spanakopita Burgers, I found these burgers a bit too salty even though I remembered to cut back on the seasonings a bit. With the blue cheese and the hot sauce, I don't think the burger needs the steak seasoning at all - maybe just the poultry seasoning. The rest of the family didn't seem to think they were too salty and it certainly didn't prevent me from devouring mine.

These burgers are cooked inside so that you can dip them in the sauce before serving. I supposed you could grill them first and then dip them in a pan of sauce, but that would create more clean-up, something I try to avoid. I served the burgers with celery sticks (along with the leftover blue cheese dressing and ranch dressing) and store-bought sweet potato chips (baked, no salt added - surprisingly good!) - both were perfect for cutting the heat (and the salt).