Green Goddess Turkey Burger

These burgers taste like straight sunshine. We’re going to make a super juicy turkey burger loaded with fresh herbs, top it with a creamy and herbaceous herb dressing, then plop it all on a toasted bun with some baby lettuce and thinly sliced tomatoes.

Does that sound like the perfect sandwich, or what?!?

Let’s start by talking about green goddess dressing. We’ve made a couple of green goddess recipes here before, and with good reason. It’s freaking delicious! Green goddess dressing, traditionally, is a blend of mayonnaise and/or sour cream; fresh herbs like chives, chervil, and tarragon; anchovy; and lemon juice. It’s light, refreshing, herbaceous, and a beautiful green color that just makes you feel joy the second you taste it. It really is one of my favorite dressings to make.

In my green goddess recipes, I like to swap out the chervil and tarragon with more common herbs like parsley and basil; and I like to use worcestershire sauce in place of the anchovy in my dressing. On top of being a little more accessible, they’re more “friendly” ingredients. I think a lot of people go from zero to “no” when they think of anchovies as an ingredient, and using worcestershire sauce is less scary. But, this umami laden sauce has anchovies in it, so we’re basically getting the same taste benefits without having to deal with tiny little canned fish.

So, we’re going to take all those delicious green goddess herbs and flavoring components, and throw them in a blender with some mayo. That’s going to be the saucy glue on our burgers. But, we’re also going to take the same herbs and flavoring components, and we’re going to mix them right into our ground turkey for our burgers, as well.

Turkey burgers often get a bad rap for being dry or flavorless, and these turkey burgers totally debunk that myth. They key is being intentional about what we’re mixing into our burger mix, so that we can add not only flavoring elements, but elements that help keep our burgers moistened from the inside. That’s where those fresh herbs come in. We’ll mix a little parsley, a little scallion, and a little basil right into our burgers; and the natural water content in the herbs will help keep our burgers juicy. We’re also going to add a splash of worcestershire sauce and olive oil to our turkey meat, and those unctuous liquids will also help to keep our meat from going dry. Then, we’ll season the meat with a little salt, pepper, and garlic powder. And, we’ll mix it all together ever so gently until everything is just combined. We don’t want to mix the meat any more that we have to, because that can lead to tough burgers, as well.

The burger mix is going to be pretty moist and sticky. So after we form it into burger patties, we’re going to let it rest for a couple minutes while our grill pan heats up. Then, we’ll brush the grill grates with a little oil to prevent the burgers from sticking, and to the grill they go for about 15ish minutes until they’re cooked all the way through.

From there, all that’s left to do is assemble. We can toast our burger buns on the same grill pan we used to cook our burgers. No need to dirty another vessel! Then, we’ll layer on some baby lettuce and thinly sliced tomato, pile on the turkey burger, then give a healthy dollop of that creamy green goddess sauce right on top.

And, no. I didn’t forget the cheese. There is soooooo much flavor bursting out of these burgers, you won’t even miss it!

These truly may be the juiciest turkey burgers I’ve ever made. Even after reheating leftovers in the microwave, they never dried out. And, we have those fresh herbs to thank for that! You might worry that using the same ingredients in both the burger and the sauce would leave these feeling a little one note, but that’s not the case at all. There’s a nice oniony flavor coming from the scallions in both the burger and the sauce. But, the burger has a natural meatiness while the sauce has a light freshness. Then, the lettuce and tomato supporting actors just help bridge the gap between the two and tie everything together.

Ok, everyone! We’re getting so so close to summer gardening season. And, these burgers are the perfect way to hold you over until then.

I hope you enjoy. And, let’s eat!