Okay, I’ll admit it. Things didn’t work out exactly as I thought they would. I had planned to do smoked turkey part II for Christmas this year. Bigger and better, brined and slowly smoked. Yum.

But as is sometimes the case with me, my grand plans didn’t match up with how many hours I had to get everything done. Between making jewelry as gifts for family, finishing odds and ends of Christmas shopping, cleaning the house and getting ready for my in-laws to arrive, the whole 20 lb turkey thing didn’t happen.

Instead, my husband, Kent, and I did a sort of off-beat Christmas dinner on Sunday night for his family. You see, we knew the next two days would be filled with Christmas favorites like cheese balls, cookies, candy, hot buttered rum and other heavy holiday fare. So we fired up the grill and I started mixing the fragrant ginger, jalapenos, cilantro, red onion, garlic, paprika, soy sauce, cumin, mustard and worcestershire sauce for our favorite spicy turkey burgers (recipe at end of article). I like to put all of these savory ingredients in a bowl together before adding the ground turkey to delight in the colorful, nose-tingling mixture that results, and to let their flavors mingle a little.

When I told Backyard Bash Owner Jay Mathiesen that we grilled turkey burgers for our Christmas get-together, he had a look on his face that said it all: Bland, too-lean to taste good– filling, yet flavorless diet food. Yuk. I explained to him how spicy and delicious these gourmet burgers are–how the three kids at the dinner table loved them as much as the adults, and with 8 people to serve and 15 burgers, we only had a few left over when we left to go see National Treasure Book of Secrets. We always make extras of these, as we can either freeze the raw patties and cook them later or put the cooked left-overs in the fridge for the next day.

We served our spicy burgers with dijon mustard, greens and a festive tomato and avocado salad that could double as garnish for the burgers. Other great toppings for these burgers are pepper jack cheese, pico de gallo and anything else you have on hand to compliment the savory flavors in the meat. White beans with tomato, basil and parmesan rounded out our dinner. We left for our movie full (no $10 tubs of popcorn for us!), satisfied and feeling like we were starting the holiday on the right foot.

So even though I had planned a bigger is better turkey dinner for Christmas, we still got our bird. We just spiced him up and made him into patties. I guess at least this way I didn’t have to worry about giblets and necks!

Hey, Jay! Ready for turkey burgers at the store on Saturday? You’ll like them, I promise!

Spicy Turkey Burgers
Original recipe from AllRecipes.com.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds lean ground turkey (If you go too lean, it’s a bit harder to hold the patties together. Do-able, but harder)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
• 2 fresh green chile peppers, diced (Add more for more heat, but be careful! Peppers vary in hotness!)
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt (if you don’t have low-sodium soy sauce, don’t add as much salt)
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon ground dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce

Kick up the flavor a bit by adding a little extra of any of the ingredients, except the liquids, that you’re particularly fond of.
Directions:

1. Preheat the grill for high heat.
2. In a bowl, mix the garlic, ginger, chile peppers, red onion, cilantro, salt, soy sauce, black pepper, paprika, mustard, cumin, and Worcestershire sauce. Add the ground turkey. Form the mixture into 8 burger patties.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place turkey burgers on the grill, and cook 5 to 10 minutes per side, until well done.

Makes 8 burgers.