Jalapeño Honey Garlic Burgers

Julia S
Jun 10, 2024
3 min read

Savoury, sweet, and with a gentle touch of heat, these flavourful burgers hardly need condiments! While they do require keeping an eye on them while cooking, with a little care they cook up to a beautifully browned, juicy burger. They're easily done on a stovetop, and don't require the hassle and trek outdoors for a grill or BBQ.

an open burger on a white plate, topped with cheese, turkey bacon, spinach, and cucumber and with a side of green coleslaw

As many of my recipes seem to be, these burgers were yet another happy accident by product of trying to use up bits of random ingredients leftover from other dishes made earlier in the week.

You maybe wouldn't guess it from the title of this post, but the headliner guest of this week's Saturday Night Leftovers that I was most desperately trying to get out of the bottom of the fridge and that inspired this whole recipe actually happened to be green apple. I know, I know, the obvious and low hanging fruit would've been something like apple pie or another apple-y dessert or pastry, but as my official taste tester (my partner who gets subjected to all my cooking) isn't wild about the classic apple cinnamon combo, I was left racking my brain all week for something else.

As I was thinking and thinking and thinking, I was reminded that bulgogi recipes are a fairly common instance of apples and meat being used together, and so inspired by that kind of sweet garlic soy flavour, this burger was born. It's a little more than a classic plain burger, but I wouldn't say it's too out there as a fusion dish either. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Recipe Notes, Modifications, and Customization

Ingredients

Meat

I used lean ground pork, as that's what I had on hand, but I think flavour wise pretty much any of the common types of meat (beef, chicken, turkey) would go well with the seasoning flavours. What is important to keep in mind if you're making subs is the fat content.

Leaner grounds of beef and pork and meats like chicken or turkey are a little more prone to drying out while cooking (which shouldn't be too much of an issue since there's a lot of other ingredients that add a significant amount of moisture). Fattier options I imagine could lead to a bit greasier of a final burger after cooking.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with plant-based burgers (but am now interested to experiment, so let me know if that's something people would be interested in a future post on) but my suggestions to anyone thinking to try it would be to stay mindful of the moisture content. The burgers as I made them were pretty moist and loose, so if you're using a base that's also prone to being pretty watery (mushrooms and tofu, I'm looking at you) be careful to make sure it's dried sufficiently so that you don't end up with a sad, un-shapeable, disintegrated burger soup.

On the other hand, if you're using a drier base like beans or grains and not using the egg, you're losing some moisture and holding together power. If you do find things are too dry, the first possible solutions that come to my mind would be to either reduce the amount of bread crumbs, or soak the crumbs in a tablespoon or two of water or milk to help everything hold together a bit better.

Toppings

I topped these bad boys with a melted Babybel and a slice of turkey bacon and nestled all that into a cheese bun with some mayo, sweet jalapeño jelly, fresh spinach, and crunchy cucumber slices, and would highly recommend.

I think they'd also be good with more classic burger toppings (lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar, regular bacon, etc.). I'd probably suggest letting the ketchup and mustard sit this one out, but you do you.

Method

Grilling

As the recipe is written with regards to ingredients and ratios, I would actually not recommend grilling/BBQing these. Before cooking they are quite moist, soft, and loose, so to be honest they would be prone to just falling right through the grill grates and leaving you with a very sad and unpleasant mess.

If you are adamant about popping them on the grill, you could try increasing the amount of bread crumbs or the ratio of meat to all other ingredients to absorb a bit more of the moisture, but I haven't tested this. Also keep in mind this will probably mute the flavour of the seasoning ingredients a little.

Burger size and count

These burgers were pretty Big Boys. Burgers will often shrink pretty considerably during cooking, but I found that these did not shrink nearly as much as I had expected. The cooked patties were probably around 2 cm thick and around 10cm diameter.

You could definitely get three or four smaller patties out of the recipe, just bear in mind that thinner patties will cook through faster. If you're making just the two, I would recommend keeping the pan covered with a pot lid to help make sure the middles cook all the way through before the outsides get too dark, but if you're making thinner patties you could probably get away with cooking them uncovered.

Make it a Meal

"But Julia," you might be thinking, "this recipe only uses half an apple. If you had a whole apple in the fridge to use up, doesn't this not solve the problem? What am I going to do with my remaining half an apple?"

Solution 1: Snack on the other half while you're cooking to tide yourself over until your burgers are done. A little treat for the chef.

Solution 2: Coleslaw. I can't deny burgers are great with a side of fries, but if you're in the mood for something a little lighter, a slightly tangy, crunchy coleslaw was super refreshing next to the softness and richer flavours of the burger. The salad in the pictures with the burger is cabbage, white and green onion, cucumber, and the remaining green apple tossed in a light rice vinegar and sesame oil based dressing with a bit of mayonnaise.