Chickenburgers, 2014

Written by RJ on July 4, 2014. Posted in Healing

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that the 4th if July was indeed her favorite holiday and it was easy to figure out why. Entertaining. Coleen was a natural-born hostess and party planner and the 4th of July gave her the perfect opportunity to strut her stuff in those roles. I don’t remember when we started to host Independence Day parties but it was several years ago. At first it was just a few people but quickly grew to around 40 friends and family members plus whoever dropped in from other friends who were passing by on foot.

Our village holds a 4th of July parade every year at 2:00 PM and that was the catalyst for our parties. The parade is no big deal, mostly fire trucks, marching bands and local politicians throwing penny candy to the kids sitting on the curb, but residents gather every year to see it. Since our house is less than a 5 minute walk to the parade route, it became a gathering place for people to park and as long as everyone was already there, why not make it a party? Of course to Coleen, a party wasn’t just a place to see friends and family but more importantly, an opportunity to try out new recipes. Our first few menus consisted of burgers and hot dogs but one year Coleen discovered something different to serve. For her, the more unique, the better and she hit a home run when she unleashed Chickenburgers on the crowd. I wish I could remember the year of the first Chickenburger but I can not. Of course she would have recalled. I do remember one year when some of Lindsay’s friends from college stopped by and we gave them Chickenburgers. So that would have been at least 10 years ago although I feel I have made those burgers longer than that. Whenever it was, everyone loved them and they became a true 4th of July tradition to us. So much so that one year, in a fit of experimentation, Coleen bought different rolls to serve the burgers on to the chagrin and disappointment of our guests. We didn’t make that mistake again.

Beside the legend of our Chickenburgers and all the fun they were to serve and eat, there was a different experience attached to them that holds a place in my heart. It was in the planning and the making of them. The recipe calls for freshly ground chicken breast which is not always easy to find. Ground chicken can be bought in packages but it’s not the same so Coleen always shopped around to find not only the best price but also a store that would do it. Once she took care of that, the “fun” became her and I making the burgers. We usually started with approximately 10 lbs. of ground chicken which made about 50 burgers. Add a few diced Vidalia onions and a lot of chopped fresh thyme and the Chickenburger assembly process was rather involved. It was a true labor of love though.

Coleen and I usually made the burgers the night before and it would take a couple of hours start to finish. It was a little tedious but we worked together and the time went quickly. We played music, opened some wine and made an event of it, talking and laughing as we went. I always chopped the onions and mixed the ingredients and she would take care of the fresh thyme and decide how much of everything to use. Then we both shaped the patties all the while worrying that we were making them too big and we wouldn’t have as many burgers as we needed. Of course, we always had plenty. And at the end we would cover our masterpieces in the refrigerator, clean up our mess and walk down to the village beer tent and hear some live music. It was a ritual to us but we loved doing it together.

As fun as that all was, the real joy was cooking and serving those burgers and accepting all the compliments from our guests. There is a bit of a process to cooking the burgers on the grill, adding barbecue sauce and cheese at the end, and I became quite proficient at it. Those Chickenburgers were one of the few items that Coleen trusted me to grill without her supervision or critique which was good because she was busy running the kitchen and making sure all of our guests were properly fed.

Last year was Coleen’s final 4th of July. She died six weeks later. We didn’t make Chickenburgers last year. We still had a party but served a different menu. Nobody minded as it was pretty amazing that we even had the party. Coleen insisted on it though and except for substituting chicken sausage for Chickenburgers, it was pretty much the same party we had all the years previous to that. I wondered about having the party this year and went back and forth a few times before deciding that I would once again host friends and family on the 4th of July. And that I would make Chickenburgers.

It was much more challenging this year without Coleen, just like everything else is without her. I had to take care of everything, ordering the chicken, the rolls, remembering how many burgers were in a pound, how much pop to buy and all the other details Coleen always took care of. And of course I had to make the Chickenburgers alone without her company and playful criticism and advice. I couldn’t find the recipe for the burgers but I had made them enough to remember it all. And I still worried that I would finish with enough burgers as I shaped the patties. I did. I ended up with 60 of them which will leave me with enough for leftovers and to maybe share with some new friends. It’s an old recipe, tried and true. I wonder if it will taste a little differently this year.

Coleen’s 4th of July Chickenburgers

Fresh ground chicken breast (order from butcher or supermarket meat department in advance)
Vidalia Onion, diced
Fresh thyme, chopped
Barbecue sauce
American cheese

Combine chicken, onion and thyme and shape into patties. You should get about 5 patties per pound of chicken Place patties on hot grill. Sear one side and flip applying barbecue sauce to seared side. Sear second side, flip and apply more sauce. Cook burger thoroughly, flip again, apply more sauce and melt cheese on top. Serve on soft (bulkie) roll and garnish with mayo, lettuce, tomato.