I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I just discovered my broiler. I don't know what the heck I thought it was - a really hot drawer under my oven? Seriously, I just ignored it the last 4 years I've lived in this apartment. When a recipe calls for broiling, I just turn the dial to broil and stick the food in the oven. Anyway, when I read Elly's post about how great the
broiler is for indoor cooking, I thought maybe I should get down on my kitchen floor and explore that mysterious drawer a bit. I am convinced that what I found will change the way I cook from now on. The broiler is like a little inverted barbeque pit! There's real flames! I've always been bummed that we can't have propane grills on our balconies, but now I no longer have to sulk in the hot summer months when everyone else is barbecuing because I have another option. Sure, you might argue I could have made these burgers on my gas range, but have you ever tried making burgers without an exhaust fan near an over-active smoke detector? I cannot even tell you the number of times I've had to jump up and down waving a kitchen towel to silence the shrill sound. This is when all of you out there with nice, well-equipped kitchens should realize how lucky you are! :) Hopefully some day . . .
Although this recipe is for Chicken Parmesan
Burgers, I didn't have any hamburger buns, and sometimes Bob and I just like to have meat and salad for dinner, so we just had these without buns. They were great! We both gave this recipe two thumbs up and will make them again.
Chicken Parmesan Burgers
Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken
1/4 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 clove garlic, grated
1 shallot, minced
salt and pepper
spaghetti sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
1. Mix burger ingredients. Form into 4 patties, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
2. Preheat the broiler and cover a broiler pan with aluminum foil lightly coated with olive oil or cooking spray.
3. Broil the burgers until browned on top, then flip and brown other side. The length of time will depend on your broiler. Elly recommended 4 minutes on the first side and 3 on the other. For me, it took more like 8 minutes per side.
4. After burgers are cooked through, top with sauce and cheese and place under broiler for about a minute until cheese is melted.
Posts
I've been meaning to make these, yours look fantastic and that picture with all the melted cheese is making my mouth water! Good to know I'm the not only one that sets off the smoke detector - hey, at least we know it works.. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea! I am planning to make burgers soon and have no grill... so I tend to use a grill pan, but I bet my broiler would produce better results. Time to put those flames to use! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo happy you liked them, and also that you've discovered what the broiler can do! I am always singing its praises. :)
ReplyDeletelol..you just discovered thr broiler! Silly girl! These do looks wonderful
ReplyDeleteWell I feel pretty silly but I had no idea the broiler was in the drawer under the oven either! I did the same as you--just turned the knob to broil and thought I was broiling!
ReplyDeleteBut I am thinking maybe my oven doesn't have a broiler like that.... do you have a special oven? The drawer below my oven just holds pans, etc. lol. I must sound like a total retard.
Your chicken parm burgers look really delicious.
Most older gas stoves have the broiler in the bottom drawer You can tell because usually there are slots on the sides to raise and lower the broiler pan to make the food closer or farther away from the flames...depending on what you are broiling. Newer gas stoves have the storage drawer in the bottom and the broiler flames in the top of the oven. In your defense, you probably didn't have an instruction booklet with the oven in your apartment, right? So much for the lesson....the burgers look really good. I think I will try them, too.
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