(upbeat music) - Hi. Can we talk about turkey burgers? They're kind of dry.
And often, there are so many ingredients that are plopped into a turkey burger, that you can barely taste the turkey at all, and I really love turkey. Well, if there's anyone that can convert me to Team Turkey Burger, it's Becky! (Becky laughs) - All right, I love a good challenge, but I'm up to the task.
Now, we have to start with step one, okay? Step one, we have to make peace with the fact that turkey is not beef. - I can totally accept that.
I actually love turkey. - All right, good. The thing about turkey is, it has a lot more moisture than beef.
It has about 71% versus 66% for beef, and that can make turkey actually kind of difficult to work with. But turkey, at the same time, can also dry out quite a bit, like you said, because we have to cook it to 160 degrees. - That's right.
- So, a little bit of a conundrum there. But we're gonna give it some special help and land on a great tasting turkey burger. - I know you can do it.
- Let's start with the turkey. This is a pound of ground turkey. And just like ground beef, you can buy ground turkey with different fat percentages.
This is 93%. So, I'm just gonna gently break the turkey up. This is going to make it easier to incorporate all of our mix-ins.
And we don't wanna overwork it, that's what makes a dense burger. So I have a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of water. I'm just gonna dissolve that to make a little potion in here.
And this is going to alter the pH of the meat. And it's gonna change the protein structure a little bit, so it's better able to hold onto moisture. And then that baking soda also helps with browning a little bit too, so we get a lot of bang for our buck.
And now I'm adding a tablespoon and a half of soy sauce. That's gonna season it with its salt and also going to add some nice umami. A tablespoon of melted butter.
And then when I add this to the cold turkey, it's gonna firm back up again. And then when we cook the burgers, that little bit of butter is gonna remelt and get in all the nooks and crannies and give us a little bit of extra buttery goodness in there. - So we did need the cow.
- Yep, yeah, that's true. The cow is contributing here. You had to bring that up!
- Thank you, cow. (Becky laughs) - All right, three tablespoons of panko. Now the panko is gonna sort of physically disrupt the proteins of the meat, keep them loose and tender, so we don't get that dense texture.
Now, three tablespoons of Parmesan, loaded with umami. It's gonna compliment the umami that we added from the soy sauce. So, we have a half a teaspoon of gelatin.
We're gonna sprinkle that in. The gelatin's going to help the meat hold onto moisture, so we get that really nice juicy sensation. And then finally, a 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt.
We just need a tiny bit, 'cause we added all that soy sauce. - All right. - So I'm gonna use my hands.
I wanna be gentle here. Again, just to mix everything up. Don't wanna overwork it, but we do wanna get all of those secret ingredients nicely incorporated.
All right, I think that's pretty good. Let's make some burgers here. - [Bridget] All right.
I'm gonna divvy this up into four portions, about four ounces each. You wanna give me a hand here? - Sure do.
- All right, these need to be about four inches in diameter and 1/2 thick. - Okay. - [Becky] So not paper thin, but not too thick.
Do you have a burger technique? - [Becky] No, I just kind of pad it 'til it's right. How about you?
- I have this little something that I like to do on all the way around. - Oh, that's good. - Yeah.
- That's good. - [Bridget] So definitely not compacting too much, right? - That's right, you still wanna use a gentle hand here?
Otherwise we're gonna work that myosin, that sticky protein, and we'll end up with a dense burger. Now I have two teaspoons of oil in a non-stick skillet here and the skillet is cold. And I know it seems a little weird.
Yeah, (Becky laughs) but we're gonna put the burgers right into the cold skillet. - [Bridget] All right. - So we'll make two more burgers, and then it's time to cook.
- Sounds good. - All right, so our burgers are in the unheated skillet and I'm going to turn the heat to medium now. If I were to add the burgers to a hot skillet the outside of the meat would cook really fast and it would get a little bit leathery even, while the interior would stay cool.
This way, the burgers are gonna cook nice and gently all the way through. So we have medium heat here, and now we're starting to hear the burgers start to sizzle a little bit, so I'm gonna put a lid on the pan. We're gonna cook them for two and a half minutes until they start to get some nice browning on the bottom.
And a lid is kind of unusual too when you're cooking burgers, but that's gonna capture all the moisture and the steam that's coming out of the meat, and it's gonna help them cook nice and evenly. All right, it's been two and a half minutes. Let's take a peek at the undersides here.
And I have a pair of fish spatulas that makes it really easy to turn these guys. Oh, that's beautiful. - Ooh!
- So if we didn't see that browning I would put the lid back on and we'd go another 30 seconds. - Okay. - But this looks pretty good to me.
- [Bridget] It's looking great. - Let's put the lid on for another minute and a half, and then I assume you want cheese. I want cheese on mine.
I mean, do I even have to ask? Yeah, okay. We're adding cheese.
(Bridget laughs) In a minute and a half. - It smells delicious. - I know it smells good already.
Ooh. - Oh yeah. - [Becky] Okay, it's been a minute and a half, so let's add our cheese, nice American cheese there.
All right, let's give them another minute and a half, and then we'll take their temperature. They look amazing. - [Bridget] Mm-hmm.
- All right, we'll just take a quick temperature check. - [Bridget] Smell amazing. - [Becky] 161, that's perfect.
- Yeah, you definitely want a well done turkey burger. - Yeah. - No medium rare.
No rare. - No, gotta hit that 160 mark. - [Bridget] Okay.
[Becky] But you don't wanna go much above it. It will eventually turn dry. - [Bridget] Yes.
- [Becky] So let's put these on a plate. We're gonna let these rest for five minutes. - [Bridget] Okay.
- It's burger time. - You've been busy in the last five minutes. - Yeah, I've gotten everything ready for it.
A nice little burger spread here. You've got the buns that I toasted up for us. - I've got the buns, yes.
(Becky giggles) - [Becky] I have some pickled avocado here to go on top. And I made that in advance. These pickled avocados were so easy to make.
- [Bridget] And we've got all the instructions for that on our website. - [Becky] So a nice slice of tomato for each of us. - [Bridget] Beautiful tomato.
- [Becky] Yeah, very nice. And then a nice piece of lettuce? - [Bridget] Sure.
- [Becky] Okay. I mean, let's do the works, right? - [Bridget] Let's do the works.
- [Becky] Yeah. - Look at that. In the world of burgers, that's like a centerfold That is so tender.
- [Becky] Mm-hmm. - That is not dry at all. It is not dry at all.
- Your eyes are kind of saying everything. You didn't even need to speak. I could just tell how much you liked it.
- The meat is actually silky. It's juicy and silky, and it's really meaty. - And it's full of flavor.
- Mm-hmm. - Right? - These turkey burgers are, I'm just gonna call 'em a burger.
- Yeah. - You don't even need to mention turkey, but you know what? Be proud of it.
Why not? Be proud that I'm on team turkey. Thanks Becky.
- You're welcome. - [Bridget] Well, if you wanna make turkey burgers that are actually incredibly flavorful and juicy, use a little baking soda to keep the turkey tender, load in umami rich ingredients like soy sauce and Parmesan. Add richness with butter and gelatin.
And start them in a room temperature skillet for gentle cooking. So from America's Test Kitchen, a turkey burger that might just put the beef burger out to pasture. Becky's skillet turkey burgers.
- That was good. - Thanks for watching America's Test Kitchen. What'd you think?
- Well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make, or you can just say hello. - You can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description. - And don't forget to subscribe to our channel.
- See you later. - I'll see you later.
