Zesty Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa

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This is the first turkey burger I’ve ever made. Ever.

Actually? This is the first turkey burger I’ve ever eaten. True story.

I’ve made plenty of chicken burgers in the past (though I was admittedly nervous about making one of those for the first time, too, and still think that, in the vast majority of cases, a beef burger is best) but never turkey. See, I’m not too crazy about turkey. It’s just…not that great? I guess if you drown it in gravy it’s edible, but I would never go so far as to say I like it. This means I don’t look forward to Thanksgiving as much as most people because I really don’t like most of the food associated with Thanksgiving – turkey, ham, candied sweet potatoes, etc.

But, here’s the thing. I am constantly trying things I’ve never particularly liked and in many cases, I’ve been surprising myself. Recently, we started ordering meat from a local farmer and he has ground turkey for a good price. So, I thought, what the  hell? Let’s try it out.

And THEN, I decided to conquer another thing I don’t really love all that much, which is fruit with my meat. By making a pineapple salsa. Holy hell, y’all.

Can you guess what happened? Yep, I liked it. Liked it a lot, in fact.

I decided to try the rub from this pork tenderloin in the burger, because 1. I really like that rub and 2. It was originally intended for turkey, so it make sense to use it on turkey. Rather than use onion and garlic powder, though, I just used fresh for both.

This is basically light years better than roast turkey, at least in my opinion (though I do love the skin, but that’s beside the point).  My only problem was overcooking the burgers which is a result of both my fear of undercooking poultry and the fact that I started them too early and my sweet potato fries weren’t done, so the burgers sat in a cast iron skillet continuing to cook for too long. Oops.

Zesty Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa

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12 thoughts on “Zesty Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa

  1. I don’t really love Thanksgiving food either (except for dessert, I’m always up for dessert) but I do enjoy turkey burgers. Love how many spices you added to these and I’m sure the salsa puts them over the top 🙂 I’m saving the recipe for sure!

  2. I love turkey burgers. This one sounds wonderful. I often make them with some grated ginger, cumin and other yummy things then grill pineapple and pepper jack cheese on top. Can’t wait to try yours.

  3. ha! My very first thought was, “Elly is doing sweet + meat, whoo hoo!” And then right after that I remembered your thoughts on ground turkey… yup, things are really turning around for ya. Maybe soon you will be eating some crazy peanut butter chocolate pie concoction for dessert 🙂

  4. I think the key to turkey burgers is that you need to add lots of flavor to them because on their own they are pretty bland. Seems like you did just that! And the salsa is like the icing on the cake…

  5. I make turkey burgers quite often as they are much healthier. They sound delicious and I am looking forward to your pineapple salsa.

  6. So we might not agree on watermelon, but at least we agree on Thanksgiving! As well as sweet+meat, apparently, which I don’t hate, but I’m definitely not as into as other people seem to be. So if you say this is a good combo, I guess I’ll have to believe it!

  7. This looks so nice. I might try to use blender to make the pineapple salsa into a salsa sauce, it may easy to spread it on the patties and burgers evenly. 🙂

  8. I made these last night (same thing as you….good turkey from the local farmer) and they were DELICIOUS! Officially my new favorite burger!!!! Thanks SO MUCH for posting!

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