Easy, Delicious Ground Turkey Burgers

I miss summer. There, I said it. Yes, I know that it is only the end of January, and I still have several months to go before summer is actually here, but a girl can wish, can't she?? One of my favorite things about summer is that you can pretty much make all of your meals without ever having to turn on the oven. Also, a lot of my favorite foods are "summer" foods: potato salad, corn on the cob, and of course BBQ'd burgers. Yum!

Even in the middle of winter, I still love to enjoy these foods. One of my favorite kitchen "tools" is a grill pan that  I inherited from my uncle when he cleaned out his kitchen; it's awesome and I get to at least pretend that the burger I'm eating is straight off the 'Q. So, on this particularly sunny day when it's easy to ignore the fact that it's winter, I decided to whip up a batch of one of my summertime favs: turkey burgers! These are moist, a little spicy, and absolutely delicious. Keep reading on for the recipe!

Ingredients:

- 1 pound freshly ground turkey

- 1/4 cup onion, finely minced

- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 tbsp freeze-dried chives

- 2 tsp paprika
- Cayenne pepper, to taste

- 1 egg (if needed) for binding

- Oil or cooking spray

Directions
1. Start by preparing the onion and garlic. I find about a quarter of a medium sized onion is equal to 1/4 cup; you can add more or less of the onion and garlic to your taste if you wish. Finely mince both the onion and garlic - sometimes I do this by hand, other times I find it easier to throw both in the food processor and let the machine do the work!

2. In a large bowl, add ground turkey, minced onion and garlic, chives, paprika, cayenne pepper, and egg. I usually only add the egg when the turkey is a bit dry and you need a little extra help holding the burger patty together. Mix all of the ingredients together. 

3. Now it's time to form your patties - I generally get 5 to 6 patties, depending on the size; if you're the kind of person who likes to have even sized burgers, feel free to use a patty maker. This is where you will really see how important it is to finely mince the onion; if your onion pieces are too large, you will have a tough time getting your patties to stick together.

4. Grill time! Once your patties are ready, get the grill pan really hot and ready to go. Once the pan is smokin' hot, brush on a little oil or spritz with cooking spray so that your burgers don't stick. I cook the burgers two at a time, because that's what I can fit on my pan without crowding, but I also find it more manageable that way. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until the juices run clear.

5. Once all your burgers are cooked, it's time to enjoy!

I like to dress my burgers up with some sauteed mushrooms, spinach, Laughing Cow cheese, and some homemade Chipotle sauce. What's your favorite way to dress up your burger?