Smarty Cooking School: Turkey Burgers w/ Feta and Tzatziki and My Secret to the Best Chicken Salad

Everyone loves a burger right?  They are delicious.  I adore them in every form imaginable.  The traditional cheeseburger to the kind smothered in shitake mushrooms, gruyere and truffle oil.  I like to mess around with other types of meat in my burger.  Ground Turkey (don’t get the ground turkey breast, the burgers will be too dry) is relatively lean and a great blank slate to build great flavors.

Why not Go Greek?  It’s so easy.

1lb Ground Turkey
Juice and zest of one lemon
½ teaspoon dried oregano
2-tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
½ cup crumbled Feta cheese
Salt and pepper

Form patties and grill on either an outside grill or indoor grill pan for about 12 min total or until they reach an internal temp of 165 degrees

Garnish with fresh spinach and Tzatziki sauce (Greek cucumber yogurt sauce, you can find it already made in the deli section or make your own by combining equal parts Greek yogurt, sour cream , diced cucumbers, lemon juice salt and pepper.

Look how pretty these are? They are wonderful.

Now on to my secret to the Most Amazing Chicken Salad ever.  It is an old old secret.  There is this German deli in Sarasota FL that makes the most deliciously plain chicken salad ever.  My friend Shannon and were down there this summer and became obsessed with it.  I could not for the life of me figure out what the spice was in it.  All I could see was Chicken, celery, onion and mayo.  That was it.  I actually begged the owner of the deli (they would ban me for life if they knew I was sharing their secret so I won’t use names) to tell me.  She said NO!!! and almost kicked us out of the store.  After basically asking the 75 year old meat counter man on a date he agreed to share it.  He quietly took my hand and led me to the spice section and what I found was this.

Maggi Seasoning Sauce.  I had never heard of it before.  It has been around since 1884 or something.  Just a few dashes and you will send your chicken salad into the next stratosphere.  But be careful, it is not great for you.  It is super salty.  Just a few dashes (it says that on the bottle).  I bought like 5 bottles fearing I would never find it back in Charlotte but low and behold I saw it in our very trusty Harris Teeter in the Gravy and powdered packet (Knorr) section.

4 cups cooked chicken (pulsed in food processor or shredded)
3-4 stalks fresh celery (pulsed in processor or diced finely)
½ sweet onion diced or in food processor
2/3-cup good quality Mayo (I like Dukes but use whatever you want)
8-10 dashes of the magic Maggi seasoning sauce

Taste then season with salt and pepper.  I made it for my German Mother in law in lives in Sarasota and who is also obsessed with the German deli’s chicken salad and she said it tasted just like it.

Ok Smarties share your favorite Burger or chicken salad recipe.  Lets hear them.