The best homemade turkey burgers (and second best beef burgers*)


Turkey meat is interesting. Without question, it is healthier than ground beef, so I try to use it instead of beef most of the time. For many things (chili, spaghetti meat sauce, lasagna,etc.) it works and my guys happily eat it up. Really, the only place that I find it doesn’t work as well as beef is in meatloaf. To date, I still have not tasted a turkey meatloaf that I like as much as a beef one. Anyway, my kids (like most kids) love burgers.  Fortunately, they love my homemade turkey burgers as much as beef burgers.  “You make the BEST burgers ev-ah!” Sean likes to exclaim.  I have my dear friend Jeni to thank for that.  When I was pregnant with Michael, Reggie and I were visiting her and her husband Norman’s upstate New York cabin with a group of friends.  We were preparing meat for the grill and I noticed that she put ketchup and mustard in with the meat before cooking it.  The burgers came out so moist and flavorful that I have been preparing my burgers (beef and turkey) like that since that day! (Thanks Jeni! Not only do you sing like an angel, you cook like one also!)

*These would also be the best homemade beef burgers, except for the fact that my friend Ray made the most amazing burger one time! He claims that he just added Adobo, but I have cooked burgers with adobo seasoning before and they never came out tasting that delicious. He was using an outdoor grill when he prepared those burgers though so perhaps that was the difference…