Opa! It’s grilling season and there’s no better way to enjoy this time of year than with a big, juicy burger. While you can’t go wrong with a classic hamburger (or cheeseburger – everything’s better with cheese), the Test Kitchen wanted to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to your grilling game this year.
These greek turkey burgers are anything but your basic burger. Mix ground turkey (a lean meat, perfect for swimsuit season), feta cheese, chopped onion, oregano, salt and pepper together, then form into four patties. Grill for about five minutes on each side until the meat is no longer pink and the juices run clear.
Serve these Mediterranean burgers in a warm pita pocket with lettuce and tomato. We topped ours with a simple, homemade cucumber sauce but you could use your favorite store-bought taziki or substitute the usual suspects like ketchup and mustard.
The feta cheese is a salty, cheesy surprise when you bite into the burger while a dollop of cool cucumber sauce is a refreshing (and welcomed) touch in the spring and summer heat. Serve these burger with hummus and veggies, a light tabbouleh, or cucumber salad for a lighter version of your favourite summer sandwich.
For Cucumber Sauce: Stir yogurt, cucumber, dill, 1 Tablespoon chopped onion and mint in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Turkey Burger
Preheat grill to MEDIUM-HIGH heat or GRILL ZONE (ORANGE).
Place turkey, feta cheese, 1/2 cup chopped onion, oregano, pepper and salt; form mixture into 4 burgers.
Grill burgers covered 5 minutes on each side, until juices run clear and meat is no longer pink.
Serve burgers in a pita pocket with Cucumber Sauce, lettuce and sliced tomato.
As the temperature steadily rises, we’re starting to crave summer favourites like ice cream cones, juicy peaches, and anything with grill marks.
We’re throwing everything on the grill – seasonal veggies, pizza, london broil – you name it. We can’t seem to get enough of that charred, fresh-off-the-grill flavor.
While a simple rub of salt and pepper might suffice for some, the Test Kitchen developed three simple marinades that pack a punch to use all summer long.
We whipped up these easy marinades in our Hamilton Beach® single-serve blender and each was developed with a particular protein in mind.
Grilled chicken is a summer staple. Instead of covering it with your favorite BBQ sauce before tossing it on the grill, let it take a quick dip in this citrusy marinade. Fresh thyme and zesty lemon juice perfectly complement the chicken, ensuring this goes with just about any summer side dish.
In the mood for pork? This apple dijon marinade is both sweet and tangy, thanks to a little bit of apple juice and dijon mustard. The addition of brown sugar leaves you with a beautifully caramelized pork chop when you pull it off the grill.
Grilled steak is hard to resist on its own, but when it’s covered in this ginger lime marinade it’s nearly impossible. This Asian influenced marinade adds a nice bite to juicy steaks – thanks to fresh, spicy ginger and red pepper flakes. It’s got a little bit of sugar, a little bit of salt, and a lot of flavour.
Whether sweltering temps are keeping you inside with your Hamilton Beach® Searing Grill or you’re spending a beautiful 75-degree evening next to your outdoor grill, you’re sure to be in the running for the neighbourhood grill master title this summer thanks to these three marinades.
The official start of summer is right around the corner, but we are already in full BBQ mode. BBQ is as synonymous with summer as burgers and hotdogs, and you can never have too many recipes.
Hamilton Beach® slow cooker is great for cooking homemade barbecue. Not only are you leaving the oven off (and ultimately keeping the house cool), you can make bbq in bulk to serve at summer picnics or make as your meal prep for the week. Pack it with grilled corn and a beautiful summer salad for lunches during the week (no sad desk lunch here).
Slow cooker shredded beef BBQ is a sweet, tomato-based BBQ that is perfect served with a generous helping of cornbread and cool, crunchy homemade coleslaw on a hot summer day.
In the slow cooker crock, mix tomato puree, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic, onion, paprika, mustard, crushed red pepper, salt, and black pepper. This homemade barbecue sauce is going to add tons of flavor to the meat as it cooks low and slow.
Then add boneless beef chuck roast to the crock. You’ll want to use tongs to turn the meat and make sure it’s completely coated with the sweet & tangy barbecue sauce before cooking.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 5 to 6 hours or LOW for 10 to 12 hours.
Remove the beef and transfer to a cutting board to shred. Simply use two forks to shred the meat and either transfer back to the crock to mix in with the remaining BBQ sauce or transfer to a serving bowl and add sauce.
This rich, melt-in-your mouth barbecue is a summer slow cooker recipe you’ll make over and over again. Grab a plate, a big glass of iced tea and welcome your summer menu.
This 4-ingredient slow cooker bbq shredded pork tenderloin recipe is exactly what you want on your gameday menu. It only has 4-ingredients, so there isn’t a long grocery list to worry about. And it cooks from start to finish in the slow cooker. So you can set it and forget it while you decorate the house in the winning (fingers crossed) team’s colors and put out a few last-minute appetizers.
In the slow cooker crock, stir together barbecue sauce, a can of root beer, and halved jalapeños (if you want a spicer pork, don’t remove the seeds from the jalapeños).
Add the pork tenderloins (you can easily fit two in the slow cooker) and turn until they’re well-coated with the flavourful sauce.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 3 ½ hours or LOW for 6 to 7 hours. When the pork is done, shred with two forks. The tenderloin shreds easily and is ready to serve right from the slow cooker (you can even switch it to WARM so the meat stays that way throughout all four quarters).
We wanted this deliciously simply pork to speak for itself, so we served it on hamburger buns with a sprinkle on cilantro – no frills. But it would be delicious served with baked beans or as a taco filler if you set up a taco bar to feed the fans.
Winter, spring, summer, fall – you’ll find any excuse to make this pork all year long. Whether it’s front and center at your gameday buffet, your backyard bbq go-to this summer, or a simple weeknight dinner, you can’t go wrong with this 4-ingredient meal.
The big game will be here before you know it. I’ve been busy buying football decorations for the house and scouring Pinterest and my favorite cookbooks for mouth-watering appetizer recipes. You can never have too many dippable, dunkable snacks on the coffee table when you’re watching the game. That’s why these deep fried BBQ Chicken Taquitos will be included in this year’s lineup.
Okay, we can all agree that everything is better deep fried, right? These taquitos are no exception. The cheese, chicken, and barbecue sauce filling gets perfectly melty and oozy while the tortilla fries to a crunchy, golden brown.
These taquitos are handheld and flavourful – two of the must-have requirements to make our gameday roster.
Drizzle a little BBQ sauce over the top of the taquitos and make any extra readily available for dipping purposes – but providing multiple sauces might be fun for your football-frenzied guests. These taquitos would gladly take a dive in chipotle ranch, steaming hot queso, or fresh salsa. Break out the deep fryer, turn on the game, and open wide. Calories don’t count on gameday, right?
In a medium bowl, combine chicken, cheese and barbecue sauce.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of chicken mixture toward one edge of a tortilla. Sprinkle with cilantro and green onions. Roll tortilla to enclose filling. Secure with wooden skewer. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Fry taquitos 3 to 4 at a time, turning once, until golden brown about 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Serve with additional barbecue sauce.
