MashUp Monday - The Benedict Burger

This week's Monday MashUp was inspired by my love of burgers and breakfast.  Throw em together, you've got my heart.

Traditionally eggs benedict is a poached soft egg on an english muffin with either some ham or bacon topped with a hollandaise sauce. 

Now we aren't your traditional fam, we like our Canadian Christmas without snow, it's ok to eat porridge for breakfast, lunch AND dinner (not necessarily on the same day but that's ok too), and combining eggs on top of burgers with an awesome sauce is genius if I do say so myself but we did have to make this as traditional as possible.

Now I make no claim that this meal isn't chalk full of calories however I used ground chicken and oatmeal for the burgers and instead of throwing on ham, we used chicken bacon.
SO you could almost say this meal was all chicken and slightly good for you.

I had never made the sauce before but I knew what it consisted of; egg yolks, water, lemon juice, cayenne, pepper and butter.  Now the question was whether I was willing to try the blender method or the double boiler method.

I have this fear of raw eggs, I even think twice about taste testing cookie doughs and cake batters (my stomach wins that fight every time though, but my brain puts up a good few rounds)
I opted to cook the sauce.
Sure, people use the blender method all the time, I just have this fear that I am gonna eat it and keel over or get some crazy bacteria that will live inside my body for years to come, yup, caraazzzyy ;)

This mashup worked, it was a winner and I would do it again.  It is best if you have an extra set of hands to bbq your burger while you are preparing sauce and poaching eggs but you could do it yourself if you had to.

I'm listening to: Hey We Will Rock You YA - Queen vs. Outkast

The Benedict Burger
makes 6 patties & enough sauce for all

Hollandaise Sauce:
3/4 c. unsalted butter

3 egg yolks
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch pepper & salt
1/2 tsp cayenne





Save 2 tbsp butter and keep cold in refrigerator.
In small saucepan, melt remaining butter; keep warm.
In a stainless steel bowl, whisk egg yolks until thickened and pale. Whisk in water and lemon juice. Add 1 tbsp of the cold butter. 

This will make your arm burn, and if it doesn't you are in wayyyy better shape than me - congratulations

Set the bowl over a pot with about 2 inches of barely simmering water; whisk until bottom of pan can be seen between whisks and wires of whisk become lightly coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Oh yay, arm burn again!

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in remaining cold butter to stop the cooking of the yolks.
Slowly drizzle in the butter while whisking to thicken to consistency of whipping cream. Increasing amount of butter slightly, and seasoning.

Keep warm

Chicken Burger:
1 lb. ground chicken
1 -2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 shallot chopped
1/2 c. oatmeal
salt & pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl just until combined.  Shape into 6 balls, flatten with the bottom of a plate.
Throw into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes while you are heating the grill.
Bbq about 6 minutes on each side

Poached Egg
In a pot place about 3-4 inches of water.  Bring to a boil and add 2 tbsp. vinegar.
Slowly drop an egg into the water.  Keep in the water for about 2 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon.

You get no photos of the egg or the burger prep, it was a busy kitchen what can I say, dog running in chasing cat, kid running in chasing dog who was chasing cat....you know, the norm.

Start with bun, bacon or ham if you will, add your patty, 1 -2 eggs depending on how they turned out after poaching, drizzle on some sauce - voila!
Enjoy :)