How to make a Burger that tastes pretty good and might even be a little healthy for you. Good news, this isnt a recipe blog, so you’re not gonna get the back story or my inspiration… Im just gonna tell you how to make food that is actually pretty nice. Dont claim its healthy and you dont have to follow my recipe to the letter… but I will tell you this… its quick, its easy and it tastes pretty good.

The Aussie Millenial Burger

In honour of Australia Day, and it has Smashed Avo on it… if you dont know why thats funny… TLDR… a politician in Australia said that if Millenials want to afford homes, they need to stop spending $20 a day on Smashed Avo on toast.

Prep Time: Around 10 minutes
Cooking Time: Around 15 minutes all up

What do you need:

• Chicken Thighs
• Marinade (I used Smokey BBQ)
• Avocado (smashed of course…)
  Pro Tip: you want a soft avocado!!! When you pick it up, it should feel a little squishy
• Onion
• Spinach leaves
• Bacon (2 slices for two burgers) (You can use middle or short cut)
• Beetroot (tinned)
• Cheese (I used Jarlsberg, but Im fancy like that)
• Egg (Cage Free! Im serious!)
• Tomato (or not… I hate it)
• Brioche Buns (Burgers need Brioche… use a normal bun, but you’re missing out…)
• Cooking Oil. I use canola. Use whatever…

Instructions:

1. If you have time, put the chicken thighs in some sort of container with a lid and add the marinade. Shake it like a polaroid picture (Shake it, shake it) and put it in the fridge until you’re ready to cook.
2. I like to prep the rest of the ingredients before I start cooking… so I can pretend Im on a cooking show whilst Im doing it, also because Im shit at time management whilst cooking and its easier to prep it and have it, than not have it and need it.

   Peel the onion. I do this by cutting off the top, then peeling the skin off and then cutting off the bottom where all the skin peeled to. I know it sounds straight forward and DUH, but its a skill… for those tricky bits, I like to use the knife to help with the peeling process. Once peeled, slice thinly. Talking  Bunnings Sausage Sizzle thin… You should have onion slices that you can punch out into onion rings.

   Do the Avocado. Make a cut in the centre of the avocado along the long side until you hit the pit in the middle. Then just drag knife around the pit until you have cut the avocado in half. Twist the two halves to seperate. Grab a spoon and scoop out the avocado from the non-pit side into a ramekin or other container. Then remove the pit and repeat for the other half. Grab a fork and smoosh it up really good. If you have a soft avocado, this will be really easy and will make a kind of lumpy paste. I usually cover this with Glad Wrap (cling film) and put it in the fridge until later.

   The rest. Just make sure you have your spinach leaves, beetroot tin opened and put into that crazy tupperware thing that literally only holds beetroot. If you feel the need like my wife to have tomato… cut the top off, then a couple of slices.

3. Get a large frying pan and pre-heat over a medium heat.
4. Get a smaller frying pan and pre-heat some oil for the eggs.
5. If you have a grill, turn it on and pre-heat it. If not… bacon is going in another frying pan. I like crispy bacon, so I find this is the best way to do it. I usually cook it on a flat try with some baking paper, mainly cos I dont like cleaning out dripping from the oven. I would recommend getting to know your grill pretty well. Most oven/grill combos I know take a little bit to warm up, however if you have some sort of dedicated griller… like a George Forman or something, the cooking time will be a lot less.
6. Put the marinated chicken thighs into the frying pan. Keep an eye on them. Turn them occasionally and move them around to make sure the marinade doesnt start to burn.
7. Once the oil is heated, crack an egg (1x for each burger). About 30 seconds after you put the second one in, use a spatula to seperate the eggs if they overlap. Will make your life easier later!
8. Put the bacon on a flat tray with some baking paper or some alfoil. If you use alfoil, spray with cooking oil because you dont want it to stick to it. Put it under the grill. Keep an eye on it.
9. Basically watch the chicken and eventually you will need to turn it over. I usually check the underside and middle and if it looks cooked, flip it over.
10. If the eggs have finished cooking, you can turn them off and just leave them in the pan.
11. Check on the bacon. If you want, you can pull it out, flip it over and cook the other side. However if you leave it under the grill long enough, it will just go crispy.
12. Once the bacon is done, put it in the pan with the eggs, get your buns and warm them under the grill. I usually just replace the baking paper from the tray I use for the bacon. Keep an eye on them because I’ve seen something go from soft and fluffy to charcoal in 20 seconds if left unattended. You want them to have a light toasting.
13. Once thats done, your chicken, eggs and bacon should be sorted. On your toasted buns spread some avocado.
14. Place your onion ringlets on the avocado.
15. You know what, just stack everything on top of everything else… there’s your burger. Want sides… you wont need sides. This burger is MASSIVE!!! Id recommend smashing two of them cos they’re so good.

Health and Finance stuff

• Im not a nutritionist so I couldnt tell you how many calories are in it, but brioche isnt the best bread if you’re on a diet. You could use Kaiser Rolls or wholemeal rolls etc… For me its about taste and brioche tastes the best… however I do have Kaiser rolls for tomorrow night. I made my own patties, and yes, I will post about it if the burgers work!
• The marinade was store bought so Im pretty sure it was also just sugar and sauce. But it tastes good and its not in a massive quantity. Most of it is cooked off.
• When I made this,
  • I used 4 Chicken thighs (two for me, two for the wife). Cost me about $6 and was just over half a kilo.
  • Spinach leaves were pre-packaged and about $2.
  • Eggs were about $5 for half a dozen.
  • Bacon was about $12 a kilo for middle rashers, I got half a kilo which is about six slices. I used one slice for two burgers. If I was using short cut, Id need to use 1 per burger.
  • Onions are onions, they’re not expensive.
  • Beetroot was also cheap, I just got the Coles brand tinned one.
  • I bought tomato and they’re about $3 a kilo. The one solitary tomato… about 40c.

Once I get the photo of the burgers. I will add it to this post. But yeah, TLDR… smashed out 4 burgers with a little bit of prep and about 15 minutes cooking time.