More weekend recipes: Feta Stuffed Chicken Burgers

Our Stay At Home Moms club did a recipe exchange last month. Lots of tasty sounding dishes among them, and I am slowly working my way through them all! This weekend we tried Feta Stuffed Chicken Burgers. These burgers satisfy two of three features all the best recipes should have: they were easy to make, and tasted great. Unfortunately, the ingredients are not necessarily things you'd already have on hand, but they are easy enough to find at your local grocery store. If I get adventurous later this summer, I may try to make all the ingredients myself (like the roasted red peppers, maybe grow my own lettuce and make homemade rolls, too) but buying them now satisfied my curiosity and my appetite!

Feta Stuffed Chicken Burgers

1 lb uncooked ground chicken breast
1 Tbsp fresh oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
7 Tbsp feta cheese, crumbled
4 hamburger rolls
1 Cup lettuce
2/3 Cup roasted red peppers sliced
5 small black olives

Preheat Grill or Broiler

In a medium bowl, combine chicken, oregano, garlic powder, and feta. Divide into 4 balls and then press them gently into patties.

Grill or broil patties until internal temp reaches 165 degrees F, about 7-8 minutes per side.
Serve each burger on a bun with lettuce, peppers and olives.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe since I didn't have a couple of the exact ingredients. I substituted dried "Italian seasoning" for the fresh oregano, and I used fresh crushed garlic instead of garlic powder. I doubled the recipe and ended up making 10 patties instead of just 8, which made a couple of smaller patties that were just right for Renee. Don't forget to grill the hamburger rolls, too! Along with extra olives and roasted red peppers, I also served them with sliced tomatoes, and either mayo or sour cream to spread on the rolls. I personally liked the flavor of the sour cream, but others preferred the mayo. I suppose you could just use ketchup, too, but that's up to you.

Renee loved these burgers, ate a whole one all herself! The grownups scarfed these up, too! I'd like to think these are a little healthier than your average red-meat hamburger, since it's lean chicken (even with the added feta) but I can't prove it! Happened to have a little leftover cold sundried tomato pasta to serve on the side, which went really well with this! Stay tuned for the sundried tomato pasta recipe! Note about ground chicken breast: I couldn't find ground chicken at my favorite local grovery store, so I asked at the meat counter if they could grind some for me, but they could not. However, going to the larger grocery store across town (Hy-Vee) was a success. Hy-vee had prepackaged ground chicken, sold by the pound. I was going to try and grind some whole chicken breasts in my food processor, but I'm not sure if that would have produced good enough results! No way am I spending money on a meat grinder. Even though I am a happy, meat eating, ex-vegitarian, I just don't feel right spending money on that.