Intro: Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: I am so glad that I am finally recording. I tried to record this episode three times. The first time I didn’t have it set to record. The second time my microphone was not on, and here we are, third time. Third time’s a charm. We are ready to go.

Happy Thursday everybody. We are making such a delicious side dish today. I know that normally I go over dinner recipes, but this time we’re going to talk about a side dish that’s going to complete your meal. I am an Iowa girl, so I feel like I have authority to talk about corn on the cob. We’re not just making corn on the cob, we’re actually going to make creamed corn. Maybe some of you say cream corn. When I was actually publishing this recipe and trying to get all the words right and everything, I realized that some people say creamed corn, and some people say cream corn. In my house where I grew up, we say creamed corn with a D on the end. So that’s how I’m going to say it. I hope you’re not bothered, and I hope you’ll stick around for the full recipe. 

Tips and Tricks: So before we get to the full recipe, let’s talk a little bit about the ingredients. You actually only need five ingredients to make really, really delicious homemade creamed corn. Of course, the main ingredient here is going to be fresh corn on the cob.

I want to go over how to find really fresh corn on the cob. Of course it has its season. Corn on the cob is really great in late June, July and August, that’s when it’s going to be in season and fresh and super sweet. Like, so sweet that if you eat it on the cob, you don’t need any butter or salt. It’s its own beast. It’s so delicious. So, of course, in that timeframe, if you can buy corn on the cob from a local farmer, do it. Absolutely do it. So a lot of times, at least in Iowa, farmers will come in town and set up on a corner with their truck, and the back bed of the truck will be open and it will just be heaped full of corn on the cob. You go and you buy it by the ear, and it is usually absolutely delicious. So that’s how we do it. So if you can find somebody that’s selling it local or from a local farmer’s market, do that. It’s going to be really, really sweet and delicious. 

Now if you’re buying it in the grocery store and it still has the husk on, here are some things to look for to make sure that you’re getting really good sweet corn. So the outside husk should be really green and vibrant and not dry and dead. The silk that’s coming out of the top should be a yellow tan color and be kind of damp. It shouldn’t be dry and dead. Now you’re going to want to grab an ear of corn and you’re going to peel back just the very top so that you can see that point of the corn cob and the kernels on that corn cob should be nice and juicy and go all the way to the top.

The tip of the corn should not be dry and dead with shriveled up little kernels of corn. This is going to be gross. I know we’re talking about recipes, but when you peel back the silk of the corn, look for bugs or worms on the corn cob. It’s very possible. I mean, it was out in the dirt. It was out in the country. So just look for that because you don’t want to get home and find bugs in your corn cob. Always use your nose when you’re in the produce aisle. Give it a smell. If it smells sweet, it’s going to be delicious. This is the true test. I don’t usually recommend this, but if you know you’re going to buy it, pluck a little kernel off your corn cob, taste it. If it’s sweet, the whole thing is going to be delicious. 

Now that you’ve picked super delicious corn on the cob for your creamed corn, you’re going to need to remove the corn from the cob. There are two ways that I’m going to recommend you do this. The first way is using a bundt pan. So if you have a bunt pan, you know that you would make a bundt cake in, pop that on your countertop. Take a corn cob, pop it right in the, you know that center hole that comes up in the bundt pan? That’s a great little holder for your corn cob. Then hold it there and run the knife all the way down the corn cob and the bundt pan catches all the corn. If you can’t quite picture what I’m, what I’m talking about here, there will be a link to the recipe in the show notes. You can click through that link and there’s actually a picture of me using this method right in the post, so you can check it out. 

The other way is actually just to lay the corn cob on a rimmed baking sheet and run your knife down the side of the corn cob. So you’re not standing the corn up, you’re actually laying it down, cutting the corn off, flipping it over, cutting the corn off, flipping it over, and cutting the corn off. That way works really well too, and I definitely recommend doing that on a rimmed baking sheet because when you do it, some of the corn kernels are going to fly all over the place, and by using the rimmed baking sheet, it contains all of that corn for you.

The other thing, when you’re cutting the corn from the cob, after you have all the corn off of the cob, turn your knife over to the blunt side and run it down the corn cob and the cob will actually release what is called corn milk, or at least that’s what I call it. It’s a super flavorful juice that is in the cob underneath the corn kernels. So that just adds a little bit more corn flavor to your creamed corn. We actually use this method in our corn chowder as well. 

Creamed Corn Recipe: All right, so now that we’ve got those little tips and tricks out of the way, you need to grab your five ingredients, which are going to be 12 ears of fresh corn on the cob with the corn removed like we just talked about, one cup of buttermilk. Four tablespoons of butter, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and half a teaspoon of onion powder. So let’s get started. You’re going to start by removing all of that corn from the cob. Then in some boiling salted water, you’re going to boil that corn for about 10 minutes, and that’s just going to get it cooked and tender.

You’re going to drain that just like you would pasta, and then scoop out two cups of that corn and add it to a blender. Pour in one cup of buttermilk into the blender, and then blend it up until it is smooth. That’s your cream part of your creamed corn. So we’re not diluting that really delicious sweet corn flavor. We’re actually adding to it. That kind of high tangy note of the buttermilk is what is going to really enhance the flavor of your corn. 

Now pour that mixture back in with the whole corn, and then you’re going to add in the four tablespoons of butter, the one teaspoon of kosher salt and a half a teaspoon of onion powder. Warm that over low heat for about five minutes and it is ready to go. Oh my gosh, you are going to love this. This is not your canned creamed corn. This is so incredibly delicious. 

So now that you have your side dish, here are some things that I recommend serving with the creamed corn. Really, anything that comes off the grill is going to be perfect here. You’re talking about a grilled pork tenderloin, barbecue ribs, hamburgers. We love a roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken with this creamed corn. Or pulled pork sandwiches with a little barbecue sauce on top is excellent. 

All right, so that does it for this full recipe. As always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode, right in the show notes so you can find it, you can pin it, you can cook right from the recipe card. You can even print the recipes. Or if you’re going to the grocery store and you’re on your phone, you can even text yourself the full ingredient list and a link back to the recipe. 

Outro: So until next week y’all, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little bit easier. See ya. 

Double Dip: I am drinking coffee, y’all, and it is knocking my socks off. I am 100% addicted to coffee, and this coffee is freaking delicious.

All right everybody. Welcome to the Double Dip. Every week, you can stick around after the episode and hear what we’re going to make next week on Let’s Make Dinner and then you can have the groceries ready and know what we’re going to make. You’ll be ready to make dinner with me next Thursday. So since we are in summertime, if you’re listening to these episodes real time, we are taking advantage of all of the summer bounty. Next week we are making a pasta with a roasted cherry tomato sauce. Really good, really fresh. If you grow tomatoes, this is a perfect recipe for you to take advantage of all of those yummy, fresh tomatoes. 

So what you’re going to need is one pound of spaghetti or spaghettini, angel hair pasta, some kind of pasta that you like. One and a half to two pounds of cherry or grape tomatoes, half a cup of delicious, extra virgin olive oil. Four plump garlic cloves, one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt, red pepper flakes, two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar and one teaspoon of sugar. Then optionally, when you serve this, you can make a little breadcrumb mixture for the top. If you want to do that, you’ll need half a cup of panko breadcrumbs, one tablespoon of butter, some fresh basil. Fresh grated Parmesan cheese and just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil to make everything nice and crispy. So that’s it. I will link this recipe in the show notes for you. So if you want to take a look at it before you make it for dinner, you can go ahead and click through that link. But until then, I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend and week ahead and I’ll talk with you next Thursday.

Intro: Welcome, welcome everybody, to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right. Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode here. I’m so excited you’re here. It is Thursday and I am ready to think about making dinner.

So last week we did a salad recipe for a Grilled Chicken Caesar salad. We’re going to double dip here, and we are going to make another salad for dinner tonight. We are making a Frito Taco salad. This is going to be a meatless Monday-type recipe. This is a meatless salad. However, you could add some grilled chicken or some ground beef if you’d like. But if you like to do a meatless dinner every once in a while, this is going to be a great option for you. I mean, a really, really good option because it’s super flavorful. It has beans, which add a little bit of protein, and it has chips. I love chips. It has Fritos in it, and I think that that just makes this salad. It is so delicious. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s get into a couple of tips and tricks for this salad. There’s not going to be a ton today, and actually, the recipe goes really quick too, so we’re going to be in and out really quickly. 

First of all, let’s talk about the lettuce you’re going to use. It is made traditionally with iceberg lettuce. It’s what I use. I know there’s not a ton of nutritional value in iceberg lettuce, but it is a great base for the salad. It’s nice and crispy. But I know that a lot of people have very strong opinions about whether or not they eat iceberg lettuce. So if you prefer to use a romaine, absolutely you could sub that in. I probably wouldn’t go with a spring mix or any kind of really tender lettuce here. You need something that’s hearty that’s going to hold up to the dressing, the beans, the sauce, the cheese, the crunchy Fritos. So romaine is probably a better secondary option. 

Now if you do choose to go with the iceberg lettuce, I love this tip. When you chop up iceberg lettuce, there is a large core that’s at the bottom, and that’s basically the stem end of the iceberg lettuce. To remove that, I love this tip. You take the whole entire head of lettuce. Make sure you have that core side on the bottom and hit it really hard on the countertop. That pops the core up into the lettuce, and then you can just pull it right out and all of the hard bits come with it. Perfect tip. Definitely use that in your kitchen. 

Now, another ingredient that you need is called Catalina Dressing. It’s an orange dressing that looks like French dressing, but it doesn’t quite taste the same. It is the perfect sweet, tangy, tart dressing for the salad. Now you don’t need a ton, so if you’re not going to use it again or you’re not going to use it for a while, I would just buy one of the smallest little bottles that they have. They usually come in a small little bottle that just has a few ounces in it, and I would grab that bottle at the grocery store. 

Another ingredient you need is chili beans. For chili beans, you want to make sure that you buy the chili beans in sauce. You want it to have that sauce because that actually becomes kind of part of the dressing of the salad. When I was growing up, we always used Brooks’s chili beans, and so that’s usually what I look for in the grocery store, and I like to just buy a mild chili bean in sauce. Now, if you like it spicy and your family likes it spicy, then kick it up a notch and go with the hot. You do not want to drain all of the sauce off of those beans. Maybe there’s a little bit of extra juicy, loosey juicy on the top. You can get rid of that, but then once it starts to get thick, you want to make sure you save that and that goes into the salad. 

All right. So I think those are all of my tips and tricks for this recipe. So let’s go ahead and get into making the full recipe for your Frito Taco salad.

Frito Taco Salad Recipe: This is going to take about two minutes. Are you ready? So you’re going to start by washing and prepping your lettuce. Whenever you’re making a salad, you want to make sure that the leaves are nice and dry so that the salad dressing actually adheres to the leaves of the salad. Go ahead and wash, dry up the lettuce, and then pop that in a large bowl.

Then you’re going to take the can of chili beans, pour that over the lettuce, and then pour in your desired amount of Catalina dressing. Then go ahead and toss that all together. That is the base of the salad, which is basically the lettuce and the dressing. 

Next, you’re going to add two cups of Fritos. For this salad, I do like to just use the classic Fritos. You know, they have all sorts of different flavors of Fritos now, and different sizes like the scoops. I just like the regular old Fritos. But if you’ve got something else or your family likes a different type of Frito, use whatever you guys like.

So add in two cups of Fritos and one cup of fresh chopped tomatoes. I like to use just the cherry tomatoes. You could use a Roma tomato, but then you’ll want to make sure you chop it into bite-size pieces. One cup of shredded cheddar cheese and half a cup of chopped green onions. So toss that all together, and that’s the complete salad. Your dinner is ready. Now you can add in some other items if you’d like. It’s not necessary by any means. If you want to add in some meat, you could certainly top it with some crumbled ground beef, maybe seasoned with a little taco seasoning. You could do some grilled chicken, maybe black olives, corn, cilantro, maybe salsa, or sour cream. Whatever kind of taco toppings you like, you could add in here. But that’s it. That’s the full recipe. Really, we don’t do a lot of side dishes with this. We usually just serve it up as is, and everybody eats a heaping bowl full of Frito Taco salad. 

As always, I will link this recipe in the show notes for you so that you can click through and go to the recipe. You can pin it, save it, make it, you can even text the recipe to yourself, well, not the recipe, a link to the recipe and all of the ingredients. So if you’re on your phone, right in the middle of the recipe card, there will be a button that says, text me the recipe link and all the ingredients. So that if you have to go to the grocery store, it makes it super user-friendly for you to have the list of ingredients that you need. 

One last thing before we end this episode, I would love to have you guys subscribe to my weekly newsletter. It goes out every Thursday and Sunday. On Thursday I send out this podcast episode, and on Sunday it’s the full newsletter that has all of our new recipes, kitchen tips, and tricks, dinner ideas for the week, and everything that we’ve got coming up. So I would love to have you guys subscribe. You can click through the link right in the show notes, or you can go to momsdinner.net/subscribe and just sign up with your email and you’ll start to receive our emails.

Outro: So, until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your Dinner Time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right, guys, now it’s time for your double dip. Woo-hoo. Thank you so much for sticking around. Every week if you are enjoying these episodes and they’re helping you get dinner on the table, you can stick around for the double dip and hear what recipe we’re making the next week so that you can have the ingredients be ready and cook along with me.

So, next week, next Thursday, you can join me and we will be making homemade creamed corn. I love creamed corn. I’m from Iowa and we grew up with really great sweet corn in the summer, and I love creamed corn as a side dish. So obviously we’re not making a full dinner. We’re making a side dish. But creamed corn goes along with just about anything summery. So grilled chicken, grilled burgers, hotdogs, even barbecue ribs. If you want to pick up some barbecue ribs from Costco or your local grocery store, or your favorite barbecue, make some creamed corn and have a wonderful dinner. 

So, For the cream corn, you don’t need much. Let me tell you what you need to make this wonderful, wonderful side dish. So this actually makes a lot. So you could also half this recipe if you’ve got fewer people that you’re feeding. But you’ll need 12 ears of fresh corn on the cob and remove that corn from the cob. One cup of buttermilk, and four tablespoons of butter. One teaspoon of kosher salt and half a teaspoon of onion powder. That is it. So be ready to make that creamed corn with me next week and plan out what main entrée you want to have with your creamed corn. So until next week, I hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead, and I will see you then.

Intro: Hey. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody? Hello. Hello. Happy Thursday. I am so glad you’re here. We are kind of jumping right into summer, which I talked about last week. So we’re trying to make some dinner recipes here that are easier, lighter, aren’t going to heat up your house, and don’t require a ton of work or focus, and this one is one that I absolutely love. It’s newer on my website, Mom’s Dinner, but it is so delicious and when we serve this for dinner, everybody loves it.

We’re making Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad for dinner tonight. So the thing about this recipe is that we are making our own Caesar dressing, and we’re going to make it without anchovies. I have to be honest. I don’t love it, I don’t eat a ton of fish. I will say, when I have Caesar salads I don’t love the really strong, fishy flavor that some Caesar dressings have. So I wanted to set out to make a Caesar salad dressing that was still really deep in flavor, rich in flavor but didn’t contain that fish element. If you are like me or if you have trouble finding, you know anchovies, this is going to be a great recipe for you to make for dinner this summer. 

Tips and Trucks: So let’s go over a couple of tips and tricks for making your Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. The very first thing that I do want to say is that the recipe calls for Worcestershire sauce. If you look at the ingredients of Worcestershire sauce, usually it does contain anchovies. However, I am very sensitive to that anchovy flavor, and I personally cannot taste it there. If you are making this dressing, because you can’t have the anchovy, if it’s an allergy thing, you’ll want to avoid using the Worcestershire sauce or find one that is anchovy free completely.

Another ingredient that we are putting in the dressing is Parmesan cheese. I say this with all of our recipes that contain any kind of Parmesan cheese, always buy the best one you can. Parmesan cheese will vary greatly in flavor. So you can get just the little processed triangle at the store, it will definitely do the job. But if you go to a grocery store that has a larger wheel of Parmesan cheese that they’re cutting chunks of Parmesan from, it is going to have a completely different flavor for you. It is a little bit more tart and way more nutty and deep in flavor, which is what you want when you’re making a Caesar salad dressing. 

Let’s also talk about serving size really quickly. In this recipe for the dressing, one recipe will coat about one large head of romaine lettuce. So you can kind of start to do your math from there. If you think that one large head of romaine lettuce will feed your entire family, then you just need one recipe of the Caesar salad dressing. If you think it’s going to take two, then go ahead and make two recipes of the Caesar salad dressing. For my family, if we’re having salad, we’re probably going to eat a lot of salad. So we have a family of four and I would probably most likely use two heads of romaine lettuce.

Now obviously we’re making a Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. So for the grilled chicken, if you have a grocery store that has grilled chicken in the deli section, grab that, chop it up, and put it on top of the salad. If you want to actually get your grill out and maybe you’re even planning ahead of time, I have a fantastic recipe for buttermilk marinated grilled chicken on Mom’s Dinner that I will link in the show notes for you. When you marinate your chicken breast in buttermilk, woo. It makes it so tender and juicy and amazing and flavorful. I’m telling you, when you grill chicken, it is the only way to go. So I will link that for you right in the show notes. 

Let’s go ahead and get into making the full recipe for Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad for dinner tonight. You’re going to want to start by processing your romaine lettuce. Anytime you’re making a salad, if you’re going to wash the lettuce leaves, you want them to be dry so that the salad dressing will stick to the actual leaves. So what I recommend is washing up your romaine lettuce, wrapping it either in paper towels, or you can put it in a salad spinner, and then just let it sit while you get everything else ready.

If you’re going to grill the chicken, go ahead and do that now. Otherwise, we’re going to go on to make the Caesar salad dressing. You know what, I’m going to preface this by saying we’re making one recipe that will coat one large head of romaine lettuce. So if you want more, then you’re going to double what I’m saying here.

So you’re going to take one large clove of fresh garlic, you’re going to put that on your cutting board, and then you’re going to take a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt. You’re going to put that over top of the garlic, and then you’re going to take the backside, just the flat side of a large knife, and you’re going to run it across that garlic using the salt as an abrasive. You’re going to mash that garlic down into a paste. Once it’s down to a complete paste, you’ll scrape it up with that knife and transfer it to a bowl. Then you’re going to add in a quarter cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese, one tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice, two tablespoons of mayonnaise, one teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. Half a teaspoon or just a couple of dashes of hot sauce. This would be like Tabasco or whatever your favorite hot sauce is. Then a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. You’re going to whisk or stir that all together. Let me tell you this if you’re making more than one recipe, so if you’re making 2, 3, or 4 recipes of this, you can actually do this process in a blender or a food processor.

All right, so after you get that all mixed, you’re going to slowly drizzle in a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil while you’re whisking. So maybe if you’re right-handed, have the whisk in your right hand, have a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil in your left hand, and just slowly drizzle it in while you’re whisking with your right hand, or if you’re left-handed, vice versa.

So at the end of this process, you’re just going to taste it for additional seasoning. Salt, pepper, if you want more lemon juice if you want more garlic, maybe it’s too tart, you can even add a dash of honey if it’s too tart. Then you can use it or you can store it in your fridge for up to a week.

But since we’re making it for dinner, we’re going to go ahead and toss that on our washed and dried romaine lettuce. Then what I like to do after I toss that, is add the croutons and the shaved or shredded Parmesan cheese and I toss it again. Then when I serve it, I top each person’s portion with a little bit of grilled chicken and maybe serve it up with some garlic bread or some warm ciabatta bread and dipping oil, and that’s the complete dinner.

Super easy and super perfect for summertime. Now, the Caesar salad, I will also tell you it’s a great side dish to any Italian dinner. You can make it and not add the grilled chicken and just have it as a side dish. Amazing. 

All right, so that does it for the full recipe and for this episode today of Let’s Make Dinner. As always, I will link all of these recipes for you in the show notes, but also just to let you know, you can find all of my recipes on my website, Mom’s Dinner, and that is momsdinner.net. That’s where I share all of these recipes and they are free. You can print them, pin them, you can cook them right from the website.

If you need to go to the grocery store and you’re on your phone, you can actually text yourself all of the ingredients in the recipes that you want, and a link back to the recipe. Super user-friendly. Let me tell you about this other feature. If you are cooking from your phone, and you know how sometimes when you’re cooking and your phone goes dark, and then you’re like, oh God, now I gotta touch my phone and my fingers are dirty, there’s something on my recipe card called Cook Mode. If you click it on, it’s right in the middle of the recipe card, it will prevent your screen from going dark while you’re cooking. Super user-friendly. 

Outro: All right, until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little bit easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right guys, now it’s time for your double dip. Thank you so much for sticking around. If you are loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner and they’re helping you get dinner on the table, every week, you can stay and listen to what we’re making next week. You can grab the ingredients and be ready to cook along for dinner next Thursday.

We are making Frito Taco salads. This is a great meat-free dinner salad idea. It’s hearty enough to be filling but easy and light enough that it’s perfect for summer. So let’s go over the full ingredient list that you want to have when it’s time to make dinner next week. You need one large head of iceberg lettuce. You could also use Romaine if you prefer that. 15-ounce can of chili beans in sauce, Catalina dressing. It’s an orange dressing that you’ll find just with all of the other salad dressings, and you only need a little bit, so you can just buy the smallest container that they have available at the store. You’ll need two cups of Fritos, and one cup of chopped fresh tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, or Roma tomatoes work really well here. One cup of shredded cheddar cheese and half a cup of chopped green onions and that’s it. It makes a wonderful dinner. So I hope you’ll join me then and make a Frito Taco salad with me next week.

Until then, have a wonderful week ahead. See ya.

Intro: Hey. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Hello. Hello everybody. Welcome in. Happy Thursday. All right, I’ve got a great dinner recipe for you today. I feel like summer is basically here. I mean, if we’re listening to this real-time, my kids have, I don’t know, seven and a half days of school left. So we are right on the cusp of summer. In our house, summer means we are grilling dinner and we are getting outside, enjoying the warm weather. It’s wonderful. I fully look forward to it. 

So sometimes we get sick of grilling just the same old hamburgers over and over again. So over time, I have created a few different recipes for different types of burgers. So pork burgers, which actually is really popular in my hometown in Iowa. Pork burgers, Turkey burgers, regular hamburgers, some different toppings, some different aiolis, bacon jam, and now, we have such an amazing recipe for Grilled Chicken Burgers that I cannot wait to share with you. This is not your traditional, dry, bland chicken burger. It is pumped up with flavor. Then, when you serve it, you’re going to make a dill pickle slaw that is so delicious. It just amps the flavor up of the whole entire thing. Then, the piece de resistance is a garlic aioli that you’re going to put together. It’s just three ingredients and you stir it together and slather it all over your chicken burgers. When I eat it, I’m actually dipping my burger into more of the garlic aioli. It’s that good.

Tips and Tricks: So tips and tricks. Today I want to talk about a few ingredients and methods. For these chicken burgers and the slaw. So let’s start with the chicken burgers. If you’ve been here a while, you know anytime we’re making a ground meat recipe, we are adding a panade to that ground meat to keep it really juicy when it bakes or cooks or grills. So in this case, we are going to add a mixture of bread and milk. The mixture of those two together is going to keep that grilled chicken, that ground grilled chicken, nice and juicy. The note about the bread here is that you want to just use white or wheat bread. You want to avoid anything that is overly seedy or it has lots of nuts or grains in it. You don’t want that in your grilled chicken burger, so just white or wheat. Now, if you choose something like a French or ciabatta or Italian loaf, you can absolutely use that. If it has a really thick crust, you’ll want to remove that first and just use the soft insides. 

A couple more ingredients that help keep these ground chicken burgers nice and juicy. We’re adding a little bit of mayo into the mixture, so that’s like adding a little bit of fat into your burger to keep it super juicy. We’re also adding a little bit of tomato paste, which again is going to add some juiciness, but it’s also going to add flavor throughout your entire burger. 

Let’s talk a little bit about the ground chicken. When you go to the store to buy ground chicken, there may be a few different options. You may see something that says extra lean ground chicken, or all-breast meat ground chicken, or it may even say 98% lean ground chicken. You actually want to avoid those options. Those are going to be too lean, and you’re going to end up with something that eats like the bottom of your shoe. It’ll be so dry. It’s the same thing with ground Turkey, when you’re looking for ground Turkey for Turkey burgers, you want to avoid that 99% lean ground Turkey because it’s just too dry.

When you’re making burgers, you need a little bit of fat. Number one to stay juicy, and number two for flavor. So you just want to buy something that is a ground chicken. Generally, ground chicken that has some dark meat in it, some fat in it, is going to be more like a 92 or 93% lean ground chicken. Then you’re going to add a bunch of yummy spices and flavorings to that ground chicken. So you’re going to make it super delicious. 

So let’s talk about the dill pickle slaw. There are a few ingredients here that I just want to mention really quickly. Number one is the actual coleslaw mix. So when you go to the store, you’re going to see all the different coleslaw mixes, you know, that’s just like the shredded carrots and cabbage in a bag. Look for the angel hair coleslaw. It’s going to be a lot thinner and is the perfect thickness and crunch and texture for your chicken burger. The other thing is you’re going to have some red onion in that dough pickle slaw. If you find that you’re really sensitive to onion flavor or that sometimes you feel like onion flavor takes over an entire dish when you use it raw, what you can do is slice off a chunk of the red onion. Rinse it under a little bit of cold water for like a minute, and then thinly slice it. That will rinse away the enzyme that makes red onion stick with you for a really long time or makes red onion take over your entire dish. 

Now it’s a dill pickle slaw. So obviously we’re using dill pickles. What I recommend here is that you use a refrigerated dill pickle. So one that you buy at the grocery store, out of the refrigerator. There are tons of pickles that are shelf stable, they’re great. But for this recipe, you want maximum flavor and maximum crunch, and you’re going to get that out of a refrigerated pickle. Of course, we love Claussen dill pickles but I’ve also purchased the Aldi refrigerated dill pickles, and they’re great too. You’ll also need pickle juice for this recipe, so don’t drain out the pickle juice before you need it. You’re also going to put jalapeno in this dill pickle slaw. The heat of the jalapeno is actually held in the seeds and then the white ribs on the inside of the jalapeno. So if you don’t want any spice, just use the outside green edges of the jalapeno. If you like it spicy, use the entire jalapeno. If you’re like, I don’t even want to think about spice, maybe try using a poblano pepper instead of a jalapeno pepper. 

The last tip that I want to talk about when you’re making these grilled chicken burgers is when you make that ground chicken mixture, that patty mixture, it’s going to be incredibly sticky. So when we go through the recipe, I’m going to talk about a few different tips and ways that you can keep the chicken burger number one, from sticking to your fingers in your hands. Number two, from sticking to the grill. 

Chicken Burgers Recipe: So let’s go ahead and get into making the full recipe for your grilled chicken burgers with dill, pickle slaw, and garlic aioli. You’re going to start by prepping your grill with either gas or charcoal. Whatever you use will work here, but you want something that you can cook at a high heat with direct heat. Then you’re going to prep a rimmed baking sheet. This is going to be for carrying your burgers out to the grill. So prep it by putting large squares of waxed paper on the baking sheet, probably four or five, depending on how many burgers you’re going to make, and you’re going to generously coat those with a non-stick cooking spray. This is number one, going to help the chicken burgers, the raw chicken burgers from sticking to your pan. Number two, it makes a great little carrier to transfer the grilled chicken burgers to the grill without having them stick to your fingers or to a spatula.

All right, so now we’re going to make the grilled chicken burger patties. So in a medium size bowl, you’re going to combine one tablespoon of flat leaf parsley that is minced, one tablespoon of tomato paste, two minced garlic cloves, two tablespoons of milk, two tablespoons of mayonnaise, a three-quarters teaspoon of kosher salt, one teaspoon of black pepper. One teaspoon of onion powder. You’re just going to stir that all together, so it makes a nice little mixture. This is going to be the base for your panade. Next, you’re going to add in bread cubes. So like I said, you need one slice of white or wheat bread and just tear it or chop it into little cubes. Then you’re going to stir that into the mixture of mayonnaise and milk and tomato paste. Sometimes if the bread doesn’t absorb all of that liquid right away, I like to let it sit for just a few minutes so that the bread will start to soften. Once that’s nice and soft and all mixed together, you want to add half a cup of grated asiago cheese and one pound of ground chicken. Now, if Asiago cheese is not your jam, you can absolutely sub in another hard cheese. So maybe a Grana Padano, Romano, Parmesan, Gruyere, or something like that will work in place of the Asiago cheese. 

Now, once you’ve got everything mixed together, you’re going to form your four to five equal-sized patties. Again, this is a really sticky mixture. So what I like to do is wet my hands just a little bit and then form the chicken burgers. Pop them on top of those little squares of wax paper that you prepped ahead of time and then give them a really nice, generous spray on the top with some of that non-stick spray. That’s going to help prevent them from sticking to the grill. 

Now it’s time to take them out to the grill. Okay, so you’re going to grill your burgers over direct heat for probably about four to five minutes per side. Here’s the thing with ground chicken; you have to cook it to well done, to be safe to eat because it is chicken. It’s poultry. Well done means 165 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature. So you can take that temperature with an instant-read thermometer is what we like best. So if you made really thick burgers, they may take longer than four to five minutes. If you made really thin burgers, it may only take three minutes per side. Just be conscious of cooking to a temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, not necessarily time. 

Now take those burgers back inside. I like to let them just rest for a little bit. We’re going to make that dill pickle slaw and the garlic aioli. So for the garlic aioli, you can actually make that ahead of time if you’d like. It’s so simple. In a small bowl, you just stir together half a cup of mayonnaise, two minced garlic cloves, and one and a half teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice. That’s it, then it’s ready to go. As I said, you can make it ahead of time and pop it in the fridge for probably up to five days, maybe even a week. So make that ahead of time if you’d like. 

For the dill pickle slaw in a large bowl, you’re just going to stir this together. Are you ready? Two cups of angel hair coleslaw. A third a cup of thinly sliced red onions. A half a cup of chopped dill pickles, and I like to chop them into maybe a quarter-inch size, so they’re a little bit bigger. One tablespoon of chopped jalapeno, two tablespoons of pickle juice, one tablespoon of olive oil, and a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt. You just mix that all together and that’s it. You pile it high on top of your burgers and it’s so delicious. 

What I will say about the slaw is you really can’t make that super duper in advance because as it sits with all those salty ingredients, the coleslaw and the onions and the jalapeno will start to release juices and all that salt will also start to break down the coleslaw. I would say make that at most an hour before you serve the burgers. 

So when we serve these, I like to do a brioche bun. You can toast it on the grill or not toast it, totally up to you. Take the bun, slather on a ton of that garlic aioli, pop on your chicken burger, and then top it with a pile of the dill pickle slaw. You are absolutely going to love these. You’re going to go crazy for these. They’re so good. 

So just like anytime you’re grilling, when we’re serving these, we like to do a starch and a veggie, so keeping it in the grilling family. For starches, you could think of potato salad, a cheesy potato casserole, twice-baked potato casserole, or pasta salad, or you can keep it really simple with potato chips, fries, or tater tots are always a good idea as well.

Then as far as vegetables, maybe we’ll do corn on the cob, roasted asparagus, roasted broccoli, or carrots, whatever. You know, depending on what time of year it is, we’ll decide what veggie we’re going to eat. So of course I will link all of those recipes for you right in the show notes so you can find everything you need to make this recipe when it’s time for dinner.

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our new episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right, now it’s time for your double dip. You guys, thank you so much for sticking around, and looking forward to our episode for next week. So next week we’re going to follow in this same grilling vein and we are going to make a Grilled Chicken Caesar salad for dinner. We love having Grilled Chicken Caesar salads for dinner in the summer. It just is a nice light dinner that is still super delicious and everybody loves. The thing with this Grilled Chicken Caesar salad is that we’re making our own Caesar salad dressing and we are not adding anchovies to it. So if you’re opposed to anchovies, if you don’t love that kind of fishy flavor that Caesar salads sometimes have, or if you find that anchovies are kind of hard to find, this is going to be a great recipe for you.

To make this next week. Here are the ingredients that you’re going to need. Obviously, you’re going to need some chicken breasts and I always love to do an air-chilled chicken. I find it has better flavor and better texture. You need a little bit of kosher salt, black pepper, and some buttermilk because we’re going to marinate the chicken before we grill it. Then obviously romaine lettuce for the salad, Parmesan cheese, and some croutons. Then for the dressing, you’ll need garlic, kosher salt, Parmesan cheese, one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, two tablespoons of mayonnaise, and one teaspoon of Dijon mustard. One teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, half a teaspoon of hot sauce like Tabasco or Frank’s red hot, black pepper, and a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil. That’s it. So if you want to look at this recipe, there will be a link in the show notes for you so that you can take a look at it before you make it for dinner.

As always, if you ever have any questions about any of the recipes or anything we’re doing here on Let’s Make Dinner or on the Mom’s Dinner website, you can always email me. My email address is Susie, that’s s u s i e@momsdinner.net. 

All right, until next week, I hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead. See ya.