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Cacciatore Burgers
Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats Copyright 2005

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
1 1/3 lbs ground chicken or ground turkey breast I used 1 pound of ground chicken
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
4 garlic cloves (2 cloves, minced and 2 cloves cracked from skins and reserved)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 medium yellow onion (1/4 finely chopped, 3/4 thinly sliced)
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
10 fresh basil leaves, shredded
parmigiano-reggiano cheese
salt
fresh ground black pepper
2 portobello mushroom caps, thinly sliced I used some bellas - they were on sale
2 cubanelle peppers, seeded and sliced
2 hot cherry peppers, chopped (plus a splash of the pickling juice) I used some hoagie spread
4 slices provolone cheese, deli sliced
4 crusty rolls, split
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 (12 ounce) bag prewashed mixed baby greens
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1 lemon, juice of
(I skipped the garlic butter and salad)

Preheat a large skillet or grill pan over med-high heat.

Drizzle some olive oil in a bowl; add to it the chicken, Worcestershire sauce, chopped garlic, red pepper flakes, chopped onions, parsley, basil, Parmigiano (a generous palmful), salt, and pepper.

Combine mixture; for into 4 large patties; place patties on hot skillet; cook 6 minutes, then flip burgers and cook 5 minutes on the other side.

Heat a second skillet over med-high heat; add 1 tablespoon olive oil; add in the mushroom caps, sliced onions and cubanelle peppers.

Season with salt and pepper; cook 5 minutes, stirring often.

Turn the heat off; add in the hot cherry peppers and a splash of their juice.
Place the provolone over the burgers and turn off the heat in the pan; tent the pan with foil to melt the cheese and carry-over heat.

(I skipped the toasted rolls, garlic butter and salad)

Preheat broiler to high; toast the crusty rolls until golden; melt the butter with the remaining cracked garlic in the microwave or over low heat in a small pan; brush the garlic butter on the rolls.

Place the cheese-covered patties on the bottoms of the buns; top with the peppers and onions; replace the top halves of the buns.

Toss the greens with the thyme, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Serve the greens alongside the cacciatore burgers.
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Another winner from Rachael Ray. These burgers were sooooooo good. I made the pepper, onion and mushroom mixture the day before I served these. In the morning I made the patties (I think it's good to give seasoned burgers some time to let the flavors meld - it certainly doesn't hurt.). After work I just needed to throw the burgers on the Griddler and I nuked the vegetable mixture for a couple of minutes and then threw it all together. I skipped the part where the rolls get toasted and slathered in garlic butter which I'm sure is fantastic but totally not necessary.

This reminded me of a sausage sandwich (I love sausage sandwiches) minus the fennel seed. Then I saw that she has a very similar recipe in this book, for chicken sausage patties which has fennel seed. I can't wait to try that one too.

These had a slight kick from the hoagie spread (which is basically just chopped cherry peppers) in the topping and the pepper flakes in the patty. They had so much flavor. I thought about these all day and they didn't disappoint.

In a perfect world I would have the metabolism to have eaten two of these at dinner but I soothed myself thinking of the leftover burger. Ha! There was no leftover burger. My husband ate three of these.

I'll add this recipe to my ever-growing list of awesome ground chicken recipes.

Question of the Day: Do you like Italian sausage? I think it is one of my favorite foods - hot or sweet.