Chicken and Bacon Burgers

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best.  There are few things tastier than chicken-and-bacon-anything.  Pizza, pasta, anything.  So I wanted to make a chicken and bacon burger that was quick to throw together and tasted fresh and beautiful.  When I was in Vanuatu many years ago, I encountered the dijon mustard and mayonnaise combination on a number of chicken recipes.  I found it to be a fresh and delicious flavour combo that I would not have considered myself.  I've found dijon mustard to work well with chicken generally (and of course mayonnaise works with everything) so I should not have been surprised.  This is a simple to throw together and reasonably healthy burger that works for us.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast.  Slice lengthways, and then halve to make 4 portions of chicken.  Season with salt and pepper
• 8 slices shortcut bacon, all fat removed
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 8 baby cos lettuce leaves
• 4 thin slices of tomato
• 4 thinly sliced rings of red onion, separated
• 2 tsp low fat mayonnaise
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 4 slices cheddar cheese
• 4 wholemeal buns

Serves 4. 

Potential Spins

The obvious spin is to swap mayo and dijon for a basil pesto based sauce, or a peri peri mayonnaise or any other option.   Marinating the chicken or crumbing it would also add some beautiful layers to the flavour of this meal.  Of course swap out/ add any other extras you like, such as grated carrot, jalepinos, sliced chilli, cucumber, pickles, etc. If you are aiming for a low carb option, leave off the top bun.

Method

1. Pan fry the bacon and seasoned chicken using as little oil as possible.  Squeeze a little lemon juice over the chicken towards the end of cooking and stir around.  Place between two layers of paper towel to remove any excess fat.
2. Slice open your buns, spray with a thin layer of spray olive oil and toast them in the same pan as the bacon for about 1 minute on a medium heat.

   

   Two servings done to perfection
3. Layer lettuce, red onion, tomato, two slices of bacon then chicken.
   
    Apply the dijon mustard and mayonnaise onto the cheese or to the top of the bun.  You could also place a layer of mayonnaise on the bottom bun before stacking other ingredients if you wanted.   Top with cheese then the bun.
4. Serve with a side salad.  I recommend My Favourite Side Salad.

Our Take Aways

Yum yum yum yum.  This was very filling and tasted as good as I had hoped.  It is actually quite a simple meal.  I recommend throwing the salad together while the chicken is cooking.  Next time I'd pre-heat the grill, then put the burger (without the top bun) under the grill for a minute or two to melt the cheese before topping with the bun and serving.

I put waaaay too much side salad on the plate, so I couldn't finish it all.  Turns out this is quite the filling burger.  The combo was beautiful, though.  Omanomanom.  It couldn't be simpler to make or more satisfying to eat.