Blue Cheese Chicken-Chive Burgers with a Creamy Horseradish Ranch Sauce

My chicken burger remains my number one post on this blog so far.  Here is another one.

Don't forget... for a really delicious look at what I'm cooking tonight, click on the pictures to enlarge.  You will be hungry after you do!

Blue Cheese Chicken-Chive Burgers
Makes 6 Burgers 

...with a Creamy Horseradish Ranch Sauce

For the Burgers:

2 lbs Ground Chicken

2 tablespoons Grill Seasoning for Steak

6 large Baby Bella Mushrooms, diced

1 large Shallot, diced

4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce

4 oz. crumbled Blue Cheese

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Chives (plus ½ tablespoon for the sauce)*

For the Sauce:

¼ cup Fat Free Sour Cream

2 tablespoons Ranch Dressing Mix (Suggest Hidden Valley)

1 Tablespoon prepared bottled Horseradish (more or less to taste)

½ tablespoon fresh chopped Chives*

Other (optional): 
Cooking Spray for Grill

Thin sandwich or burger buns (whole grain or whole wheat)

Green Leaf Lettuce

Tomato Slices

Sliced Red Onion

Spray grill with cooking spray.   Preheat grill to 400°.

Combine all ingredients for the burger and mix well.  Form into six even patties. 

Combine all ingredients for the sauce and chill until ready to use.

Place patties on grill and close cover.  Bring grill temperature to 425 degrees (this will take about 2-3 minutes, depending on your grill) and then cook for approximately five minutes. 

Flip burgers.  You will know that they are ready to flip as they will come up from the grill without much of a fuss.  If they are not ready, they will let you know as they will stick to the grill.  If this be the case, let the burgers go another minute or two and then flip.

Once burgers are flipped, close the grill lid and bring the temperature back up to 400.  Open the lid and test the burgers with a meat thermometer.  The burgers will most likely be somewhere around 140 degrees at this point. 

Close the lid again and repeat process.  On my grill, the burgers will now be up to about 160 after this go round.  Most chefs agree that you should not remove chicken from the grill, oven, etc. at less than 160 degrees.  There is carryover cooking time (once you remove the meat, it still continues to cook).  It's normally best to let any meat rest.  The temp of the chicken will normally rise about 5-10 degrees during the resting process.   If you tent your plate with foil after you remove the burgers, the temp will normally rise about 10 degrees.

Keep in mind, you are cooking for temp, not time.   If I am serving these straight from the grill to the bun, I have even cooked these as high as 175 degrees and they are still very juicy. 

The sauce is yummy!

 
Top bun with lettuce and tomato (optional), burger and sauce. 

Red onion slices are also optional.

Serve with Garlic Ranch Grill Fries & English Pea Salad

For the fries, I simply toss thinly sliced red potatoes in olive oil, garlic salt, and ranch dressing mix.  I "fry" these on the grill in a tin foil pan along side whatever I am grilling, flipping the fries only once during the cooking process.

The pea salad recipe will be featured in an upcoming post on summer salads.