Chicken Burgers with Oven “Fried” Onion Rings and Smoky Beer Cheese Sauce

Check out this pub-worthy, mouth-watering burger bonanza!! I’m not usually one to toot my own horn – BEEP BEEP – but I am truly amazed I pulled this off last night. THREE new recipes, all in the same meal? Motivated by pure desire and propelled by hunger, I decided to go for it.

There’s only one good explanation as to why I was able to accomplish this feat.  I’ve been doing a lot of yoga — I mean a LOT — over the past few days. Seriously, if I am not an inch taller and as limber as a two-year-old soon, I’m going to be very disappointed 😉 But being able to hone in on my Third Eye? Totally unexpected! That has to be the reason I was able to keep one eye on EACH of THREE recipes, ingredient lists, and directions, and get everything ready on time 😉 

Subsequently, this allowed my one mouth to concentrate on chowing down.  Yes, it was absolutely as amazing as it looks! The grilled chicken burgers were light and simply seasoned, the perfect base for the savory smoky cheese sauce and amazing onion rings. Seriously, this is the stuff junk-food dreams are made of. But, here’s the best part…it’s really not as artery-clogging as it looks! Lean chicken breast meat, whole grain rolls, baked oven rings made with reduced-fat potato chips, and the cheese sauce. Yes….ahem…the cheese sauce…Well, I will admit the cheese sauce is a symphony of butter, whole milk cheese, and half-n-half. The good news?  A couple of tablespoons of the stuff is more than enough to get your taste buds dancing. Please believe me when I tell you that it is absolutely and totally worth every calorie. Do you need to look at the photo again?

There are a lot of balls in the air here, so below is how I timed it out, if you are curious about how to plan things. A bit hands-on, but chances are you are more focused and organized that me, so you should be able to handle this no problem. And you won’t be snapping pictures of everything along the way, so that ought to simplify things as well 🙂

First, make the burger mixture, form the patties, and set aside.
Then, get your cheese sauce ingredients ready to go.
Next, prep the onion ring ingredients and preheat the oven and grill.
Dip the onion rings and start them cooking.
Once the onion rings are in the oven, whip up the cheese sauce (takes only ~5 minutes if ingredients are right there)
Keep sauce warm, and put the burgers on the grill.
Dress ’em up and chow ’em down!

Ready to go for it?! Perhaps you should practice some yoga-type breathing first. Or, just put on your yoga pants (who cares if they’ve never even been to yoga). Now get to it!

Chicken Burgers with Oven “Fried” Onion Rings and Smoky Beer Cheese Sauce
Makes 4 burgers with the works

Chicken Burgers
1 pound ground chicken breast
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/4 cup grated onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Several turns of salt and pepper grinders
4 whole-grain hamburger rolls

Add all ingredients to mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with clean hands (or the back of a large spoon). Divide mixture into four equal servings and form into patties. Preheat grill and coat grill rack with spray oil. Grill over medium heat 5-6 minutes per side, until fully cooked and no longer pink in the middle. Serve immediately or keep warm in low oven until ready to serve. 

Oven “Fried” Onion Rings
Adapted from BrownEyedBaker

1 large Vidalia onion, sliced ½-inch thick, separated into rings
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup buttermilk
1 egg
¼ cup + 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1½ cups crushed reduced-fat kettle cooked chips (like Kettle brand)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Set out three small mixing bowls.  In first bowl, put ¼ cup flour. In second bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg, additional flour, salt, and pepper, whisking until a smooth batter is formed. In a third bowl, place the crushed potato chips.

Prepare the onion rings by first dipping a ring into the flour, then into the batter (let the excess batter drip off). Put the onion ring on a piece of waxed paper and press potato chip crumbs onto it with your hand. *Do Not add the battered ring to the bowl of crushed chips, or you will have a gloppy mess of crumbs and they will not adhere to the rest of the onions after that* As you finish the rings, place them on a large plate. Repeat until all rings are coated.

Drizzle the vegetable oil onto a cookie sheet and place it in the oven for 6-8 minutes. Carefully remove the sheet from the oven and tilt cookie sheet back and forth carefully to spread heated oil around. Working quickly, spread your onion rings on the baking sheet and return to oven. Bake for 8 minutes, then flip onion rings and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown.

Smoky Beer Cheese Sauce
Adapted from The Slow Roasted Italian
Makes ~ 2 and 1/2 cups

¼ cup butter