Cooking for two teaches a thing or two about scaling down recipes. Instead of a pork roast, you have pork chops, and chicken parts make more sense to you than a whole roaster.
Now there’s an appealing trend for the smaller household: miniburgers.
These one-bite morsels are showing up in food magazines, on restaurant menus and even at wedding receptions. Although miniburgers are having their moment of fame for special occasions, you’ll find the concept makes sense for everyday dinners, as well.
Working with smaller patties has one drawback. You may be tempted to overwork the ground beef or chicken, which toughens it. To avoid this, scoop the ground meat into six equal-size portions using a large spoon. Then gently shape into patties.
Make minibuns by cutting out small circles from toasted sandwich bread.
This recipe calls for ground chicken. You can opt for ground chicken breast if you prefer. It’s lower in fat but may not be as moist.
Mini chicken burgers
1/2 pound ground chicken
2 teaspoons hoisin sauce
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon hot Chinese mustard
1 tablespoon minced chives
6 slices bread, optional
6 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
6 slices baby lettuce
Gently mix ground chicken, hoisin sauce and ground pepper together in a bowl. Spray a 9-inch nonstick skillet with olive oil flavored cooking spray. Shape chicken into 6 small patties. Arrange in skillet so patties don’t touch. Cook on first side for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat. Turn over and cook second side for 3 minutes or until cooked through.
While chicken is cooking, mix together mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard and chives in a small bowl. Set aside. Toast bread slices (or brown on a grill if cooking the burgers outdoors). Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut 2 circles from each bread slice for a total of 12 rounds.
To assemble, place one miniburger on each of 6 bread rounds. Top each with a small dollop of mayonnaise sauce. Arrange 2 tomato halves over the mayonnaise and finish with a lettuce leaf. Close with remaining 6 bread rounds.
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