Double Butter Buffalo Chicken Burgers

Double Butter Buffalo Chicken Burgers

These Buffalo Chicken Burgers are layered with classic Buffalo chicken wing flavors inside and out. Celery and carrots – often served with Buffalo wings – along with sweet red onions are all finely chopped and mixed into the chicken burger patties. Shredded and julienned celery, carrots and onions also crown the burgers with fresh crunch.

Buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing (either prepared, or the homemade recipes here), and blue cheese crumbles are then sandwiched between buttered, pan-toasted brioche buns to create a seriously flavorful experience.

We made double Buffalo Chicken Burgers here, but you can certainly make single burgers or sliders. For easier preparation, seasoned and grilled boneless/skinless chicken thighs are an excellent way to go. See all the tips and recipes – including Homemade Buffalo Sauce and Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing – below.

RECIPES FEATURED ON TWIN CITIES LIVE – AUGUST 22, 2022!

When I started working on this recipe, I wanted super flavorful, meaty, juicy burgers along the lines of steak house burgers and butter burgers.

After testing numerous versions, I was thrilled to be able to share the recipe for Buffalo Chicken Burgers in celebration of #BurgerMonth 2021 (more on that below)!

This is a fairly easy recipe, but there are LOTS OF TIPS in this post. I’m including all my “research” so you can choose whatever works best for you. If you’re not into all the info, just hit the JUMP TO RECIPE button above and start cooking!

What You’ll Need TO MAKE Buffalo Chicken Burgers

• Chicken – hand-chopped (YES!), ground (see TIPS below), or whole grilled thighs/breasts
• a large egg
• butter
• celery, carrots and red onion
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• S & P – to taste

What You’ll Need TO SERVE Buffalo Chicken Burgers

• Brioche Buns – or your your preferred type of bun
• Buffalo Sauce – your favorite brand, or homemade
• Blue Cheese Dressing – your favorite brand, or homemade
• Blue Cheese Crumbles – your favorite brand
• Celery, carrots and red onion – shredded (see TIPS below), or very thinly sliced
• Fresh Romaine lettuce leaves, or other greens – optional, but very good
• More or less of anything – to taste

TIPS: Dark or Light, Chopped or Ground, Chicken or Turkey

The type and style of meat you use is up to you! We tested this recipe with the following options:

• all hand-chopped boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• all hand-chopped boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• a mix of hand-chopped dark and light chicken meat
• ground chicken (ground turkey would work too)
• whole boneless, skinless chicken thighs – lightly seasoned and grilled

As expected, using all dark thigh meat definitely adds richer flavor to these Buffalo Chicken Burgers. We also really liked the flavor of the whole grilled chicken thighs. Frankly, we like them all and love having options! In any case, just make sure not to over-cook your chicken and you’ll be fine.

By the way… If you like turkey burgers, check out my recipe for TURKEY BURGER RACHEL SANDWICHES !

Hand-Chopped Buffalo Chicken Burgers

If you want a heartier, juicier, more flavorful chicken burger, chop it up yourself. By hand. With a super sharp chef’s knife. (YES!)

I really wanted something different for this recipe, and by adding the (yes, slightly laborious) extra step of hand-chopping the meat to the process, I found what I was looking for. And it was good. REALLY GOOD!

The result was a wonderfully meaty chicken burger. It’s juicy and “beefy” in all the right ways, and really stands apart from typical chicken burgers.

If you decide to try the hand-chopped chicken method (and I hope you do), keep these things in mind:

• A really sharp knife will make the process much easier.
• Chicken breast meat is a little easier to chop than thigh meat, but both are well worth the effort.
• Work in batches, and keep the meat covered and refrigerated as much as possible.
• Make sure the size of the pieces is consistent (1/4” inch or less) so everything cooks evenly.
• Got a hand grinder or something similar that allows you to control the consistency of the grind? Great!
• Because these burgers are initially very delicate (until the first side cooks enough to firm them up), cooking them in a pan or on a griddle is preferable to grilling over an open grate.

Bun-to-Burger Ratio

Unlike beef or pork burgers, these Buffalo Chicken Burgers don’t shrink very much. That’s a good thing, because the last thing you want is for your beautiful burgers to be over-powered by big ‘ol buns. Always make your burgers slightly larger than the circumference of the bun so it will reach the edges after cooking.

Use the kind of bun you like most. We almost always choose whole wheat breads and buns, except when we decide to splurge on big fluffy white or artisan varieties. Both worked well here, but brioche won our favor. The buns held up nicely, and the softer texture just sort of “melted” deliciously into each bite. Perfect!

Kitchen Tool (suggestions)

• a chef’s knife – make sure it’s very sharp
• paring knife
• cutting board
• a small, microwave-safe dish for melting 1 T. of butter for the chicken mixture
• covered prep dish(es) for the finely chopped celery, carrots, and red onion
• lidded prep dish(es) for the shredded celery, carrots, and red onion
• Re-usable take-out containers work great for prepping and refrigerating ingredients!
• Placing a damp paper towel on top chopped and shredded veggies helps keep them fresher when prepping them in advance. Make sure the container is covered tightly and kept refrigerated.
• 3 small prep bowls for Buffalo sauce, blue cheese sauce, and blue cheese crumbles
• ¼ and ½ cup-sized measuring cups
• a spatula to turn the burgers
• a butter knife or sandwich spreader for buttering and saucing the buns
• a fry pan or griddle for the burgers
• a fry pan or griddle for the buns

TIPS: Advance Prep

If you’re making these Buffalo Chicken Burgers for a crowd, or just want to have everything ready to go when it’s time to cook, here are a few suggestions!

–> If you’re hand-chopping the meat, do so up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerate it in a covered container.
Finely chop and shred the celery, carrots and onions (aka, mirepoix!) the day before. Refrigerate the chopped veggies in separate covered containers (i.e., re-usable Take-Out containers) to keep the flavors and textures at their best.

–> For the shredded/julienned celery & carrots: I used a julienne peeler – so quick and easy! You can also use a mandoline, spiralizer, or food processor.

–> Only the outside of the celery ribs with the brighter green skin will shred nicely. The inside is too soft to shred, but can be chopped up to add to the burgers or added to soups, stocks, and salads.

–> Mix the finely chopped veggies and meat an hour or two before cooking, or overnight. Again, keep everything covered and refrigerated as much as possible.

–> For Burgers: measure out four (4) slightly rounded ½ cup measuring cups full of the meat mixture and invert them onto a flat plate. For Sliders: use a 1/4 cup measuring cup  to make 9 – 10 patties. Cover and refrigerate. When it’s time to cook, just slide the mounded burgers/patties on to a hot pan or griddle with a spatula. Gently flatten (but do not smash) them and shape the edges of the burgers if needed.

–> You can actually toast the buns in advance, too! Butter the cut sides and place – buttered sides down – in a pan over medium heat. Toast to a light golden brown, then remove the buns from the heat and allow them to cool slightly. Then place toasted sides together, and wrap in cling wrap or a resealable bag or container. They’ll be fine for a couple hours or so, and will warm up when you place the hot burgers in them.

–> To hold cooked burgers, sliders or chicken thighs/breasts, place them on a glass plate or pan and cover with foil – shiny side down (toward the chicken). Doing this will keep the chicken warm and juicy for 20 minutes or so until you’re ready to assemble your sandwiches.

I hope you love these burgers as much as we do!

ENJOY!

*Recipe makes 2 double or 4 single burgers, or 9 – 10 sliders

More about the Sauce!

I’ve got simple, delicious recipes for HOMEMADE BUFFALO SAUCE and HOMEMADE BLUE CHEESE DRESSING here on the blog. Hope you’ll try them!

If you’re looking for a great prepared sauce, we love RJ’s Gourmet Buffalo Wing Sauce. RJ’s is a family-owned company in Rochester, NY (my husband’s home town). They kindly sent us some of their award-winning sauce to try a while back, and we loved it immediately. It has a wonderfully rich texture and plenty of attitude!

While RJ’s Sauce has a nice amount of heat, it’s not overly spicy. Don’t get me wrong… we LOVE spicy, but we also love FLAVOR. So many sauces count on heat to “carry” the sauce, but they fall short in depth and character. RJ’s delivers rich, well-balanced layers of flavors, and it really is “GREAT ON EVERYTHING” like the bottle says!

In fact, we tried the sauce in several different ways within just a few days and loved it more each time. In addition to several rounds of grilled Buffalo Wings, we also made Buffalo Shrimp and Buffalo Chicken Omelets.

You can find RJ’s on Facebook, and @rjssauces on Instagram. You can order the sauce online or call Dena at 800-285-3791 (Option 2). Please let them know you heard about RJ’s here!

 

BURGER MONTH

May is National Burger Month, and in celebration, the lovely Kita Roberts, aka Girl Carnivore , hosts an annual food blogger event where food bloggers share their burger creations all month long.

Hungry for more fun burger ideas? Check out my recipe for BLOODY MARY BURGERS with all the best toppings!

Visit burgermonth.com and follow #burgermonth throughout May for lots of National Burger Month inspiration.

ARE YOU MAKING THESE BUFFALO CHICKEN BURGERS ?

I’d love to know! Please leave a note here on the blog in the comments below, and share your creations on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter!

Use the hashtag #baconfatte and tag @baconfatte in your social media posts — I’d love to see them!

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