Mini Thai Chicken Burgers

Yes! Summer’s finally here. Ok, it’s not yet a full-time guest, just popping in from time to time, showing its most lovely face, then popping out again to leave lower temperatures and greyer skies to rule this month of June.

So, we have to make the most of every single sunny, warm day this summer! These Thai inspired chicken burgers scream summer to me! Fragrant lemongrass, ginger, coriander and a dollop of fiery sirarcha sauce make these little patties the ultimate summer burgers! What’s best is that they’re easy to make in the oven, so if the BBQ weather is not showing up, you can still have a summery meal inside.

You could of course grill these burgers on a BBQ, in which case I’d recommend refrigerating the uncooked patties for at least an hour, to firm them up before they go on the hot grill.

Ingredients

For the pickled onions:
1 red onion
1 tbsp olive oil
70g sugar
80ml white wine vinegar
1 ½ tsp black peppercorns
1 ½ tsp salt

For the burgers:
1 lemongrass stick
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 handful fresh coriander
1 tbsp soy sauce
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sirarcha sauce
4 tbsp breadcrumbs

50g mayonnaise
½ tsp sirarcha sauce
10 gem lettuce leaves

Method

Prep: 30min – Makes 10 burgers for 5 people – Easy

Preheat the oven to 220°C fan

Peel, halve and finely slice the onion. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and briefly fry the onion for 1 minute. Transfer into a bowl.

Put the sugar, white wine vinegar, peppercorns and salt into a small saucepan and heat up, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.Pour the sugary vinegar over the onions and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.

Finely chop the lemongrass, cut the chicken breasts into cubes and put both into a food processor, together with all the other burger ingredients.

Pulse the food processor in short intervals as to chop the chicken, but not make it mushy. Once you have a roughly chopped consistency, stop the pulsing process.

Shape small burgers out of the meat, about the size of a ping pong ball. Flatten and lay onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake the burgers in the preheated oven for 10 minutes until cooked through.

Meanwhile, mix the mayonnaise and the sirarcha sauce.

Lay out the salad leaves, top each with a burger, with some pickled onions and with a dollop of mayonnaise.