Chicken Cordon Bleu Burger

When someone asks me "Where to find the best burgers of Pakistan?" my answer is always Islamabad.

You will find top quality burgers in that city and the you also can find some of them in the DHA and Gulberg sectors of Lahore.

I'm just joking and if anyone's offended well good for them. The best burgers of Pakistan are made by me in my kitchen and I'm joking again.

Moving on with today's recipe which is Chicken Cordon Bleu. Wanted to make this from a while. Was a bit scared as it is a tad bit complicated but I think I did justice to it.

Ingredients:

500 grams minced chicken breast (will make 2 patties)

half cup all purpose flour

1 cup buttermilk

Chicken/turkey deli slices (1 per patty)

Cheese slices (2 per burger)

Salt (1 teaspoon for the patty and 1/2 teaspoon for the flour)

Black pepper (1 teaspoon for the patty and 1/2 teaspoon for the flour)

Paprika 1/2 teaspoon for the patty

Burger buns

Lettuce

Mustard

Canola oil for deep frying

Season the minced chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.

Making the patty for the Cordon Bleu is a bit complicated but I will show you. Just follow the pictures below and I will explain as well.

1. Form a patty hollow from the center.
2. Place a folded half cheese slice in the center of the patty.
3. Place the chicken/turkey deli slice on the cheese slice.
4. Cover the deli slice with the remaining half cheese slice.
5. Fold the sides of the patty to cover the hollow space and cover the filling.

I have 1 kg minced chicken so I made four patties.

Place the patties in the fridge for 15 minutes. My hand looks creepy.

After 15 minutes, cover your frying pan for half inch in canola oil. Start warming it up on medium low heat.

Season the flour with salt and pepper.

Place the buttermilk, the patties and the flour together.

Here is how the breading will be done for this patty.

1. Dip the patty in the buttermilk.
2. Take out the patty and put it on the flour plate.
3. Cover it properly with flour. Shake off the excess flour.
4. Add the patty to the frying pan.

Cook the patties til golden brown on both of the sides.

Take them out on a paper toweled plate.

Cover the patties with cheese slices while they are hold so the cheese melts perfectly on them.

Set up your burger by applying mustard on the bottom, placing some lettuce over it, place the patty covered with a cheese slice and that's it.

This burger is like a dream within a dream because it is filled with cheese, deli and more cheese.

GIVE IT UP FOR CHICKEN CORDON BLEU BURGER.

Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich

I have been creating so much hype about Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich that I was almost afraid about the fact that "What if it does not turn out right?" This is a very common fear I have whenever I am making something new. Most of the things I make in this blog are my first timers.

Mac & Cheese is very dear to me and probably that is the reason why I have made many variations of it.

Let me tell you a little story about why it's so dear to me. My mom made it for me for the first time and she learned this from a culinary school she was attending for a short course. This was very new for her as she was a simple village girl who has done most of her schooling in Urdu medium. So, she never knew all these fancy things to make till she attended that short course.

I remember when she came home from that class she said "Umar(my real name) I have brought something for you to eat and it is called something which I have forgotten so I would just call it 'noodles with cheese'."

Obviously at the time I even didn't know what this thing was till later on and I used to recall this with her and she used to tell me that she has lost her recipe book which she prepared from that short course.

My mother was really the most simple, beautiful, graceful and the amazing woman of her time.

If I talked about her anymore I would probably start crying so let's just get on with the recipe.

Ingredients:

400 grams boiled elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons of butter (2 for the mac and cheese and 1 for grilling the sandwich)

1/2 cup of milk

250 grams of cheese of your liking

sandwich bread

4-6 sausages sliced (optional)

a can of mushrooms sliced (optional)

salt per taste

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

Cheese slices for sandwich assembly

Boil the the macaroni according to the instruction given on the packet.

Slice up the mushrooms and sausages if you want to add them. If you want to skip them its fine I just don't like my Mac & Cheese without shrooms and sausages.

Crisp fry mushrooms and sausages separately in one tablespoon of olive oil on low heat for 5 minutes.

Now melt the 2 tablespoon of butter in a non stick pan on medium low heat.

Add ginger and garlic paste to it and stir.

Add milk right after that and cook it for a minute.

Add grated cheese right after that. I used cheddar and pepper jack cheese but you can definitely use any cheese of your liking.

Mix it well til the cheese dissolves.

Add salt and pepper alongside the mushrooms and sausages.

Mix them properly and layer the boiled macaroni on the cheese sauce.

Mix the macaroni properly in the cheese sauce and your Mac & Cheese is ready.

Set it aside the stove for 30 minutes to cool off. Because if you top it on the bread at this temperature it will just make the bread soggy. So, it needs to cool down before we start making the sandwich.

You can also take out a separate quantity and place it in the fridge to cool down quickly.

After 30 minutes Mac & Cheese should be cold enough to start the sandwich assembly.

To assemble the sandwich you need to follow the following order:

1. Place a bread slice.

2. Place a cheese slice on that slice.

3.Fill up bread with Mac & Cheese.

4. Place another cheese slice on the Mac & Cheese.

5. Finally, cover it up with a bread slice.

This is how it should look like before covering up with the second bread slice.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan over low heat.

Cook the sandwich on both sides for 90 seconds to 2 minutes and your Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich is ready to serve.

It is very hard to present sandwiches because I DON'T KNOW WHY but it is freaking hard to present them.

I almost have to be lucky enough to get a nice/presentable picture.

But here it is ladies and the gents. The one and only king of carbs Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich.

Listen to that crunch as I shamefully eat this in front of you all. HAHAHAHAHAHA (I should stop writing)

Dynamite Chicken Burger

I've been recently told that a 9 year old sweetheart named Nur waits every week to check my snapchat for different recipes and that's the sweetest thing I have heard in a long time.

This week's recipe is dedicated to Nur as she's also my favorite as she's one hell of an amazing talented child and also very adorable.

This recipe is called Dynamite Chicken Burger and is super simple to make. This also uses the PF Chang Dynamite Shrimp sauce, I've given the link to that recipe below.

http://chefshamsher.blogspot.com/2016/02/dynamite-shrimps.html

Ingredients:

2 thin cut chicken fillets

2 burger buns

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

juice of two lemons

1 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste

6 tablespoons of PF Chang's Dynamite Sauce

Just in case you're lazy enough to open that link I will write the ingredients and procedure for the dynamite sauce AGAIN

Ingredients for Dynamite Sauce:

7 tablespoons mayonnaise

5 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

4 tablespoons sriracha sauce (if not available then any other hot sauce)

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper

Preparing dynamite sauce is easier than cake.

In a bowl add mayonnaise, salt, black pepper, red pepper, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce and sriracha sauce. Whisk it till everything in the bowl is properly mixed.

This is your dynamite sauce.

Keep the sauce aside.

Time to marinade the chicken.

Add salt, pepper, paprika, ginger garlic paste and lemon juice to the flattened chicken fillets and let it marinade for 15-30 minutes. 

In the meantime when the chicken marinates you can prepare the sites.

I made two cabbage coleslaw by shredding some cabbage with a pinch of salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of light mayo in it. Mix it well and coleslaw is ready.

Then I prepared baked chips by slicing thin chips. Putting them in an aluminum foil wrapped dish. Baking them in the oven on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Then sprinkling salt, pepper and some dried parsley on it.

Time to grill the chicken for the burgers.

Brush some oil on the grill pan and heat it on low.

Add both the chicken fillets and grill it for 3-5 minutes each side or even more if you like it crisp.

I was in the mood of grilling some onions slices for the burger topping so I grilled sliced onions for 2 minutes on each side as well.

Meanwhile the chicken is grilled you can cut veggies for the burgers. I shredded some iceberg lettuce, tomato slices and grilled onion of course as you saw above.

Dip the chicken in the Dynamite Sauce to complete the flavoring of your chicken.

So now everything is ready we just need to heat our burger buns on on low heat for a couple of minutes and then start assembling the burgers but before that its better to place everything next to each other so you don't make a mess out of burger assembling.

Now in numerical steps I will tell you how to prepare a burger.

1. Spread some mayo on the buns. You can also replace the mayo with mustard.
2. Add the tomato slices.
3. Add the dynamite chicken.
4. Add iceberg lettuce.
5. Add grilled onion.

That's it. Dynamite Chicken Burger is finally made.

I hope sweet little Nur loves this recipe because this is specially for her. Ladies and gentlemen, this burger needs no more words, I present Dynamite Chicken Burger.