Turkey Sliders photo by: Janet Moore

Today a cool wind blows off the Atlantic and the autumn leaves are crunchy underfoot. The days may be getting shorter but the BBQ season isn’t quite over yet! We’re eating less red meat in our household these days so turkey sliders fit the bill when a burger craving hits. Grilled onions, fresh tomato slices and Roasted Garlic Aioli add pizzazz to our sliders and the home-made Pretzel Slider Buns make these turkey burgers irresistible.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• ½ medium cooking onion, finely diced
• 3 tsp seasoned salt (Montreal Steak Spice works nicely!)
• ½ tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 T dried parsley
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 2 T to 3T of panko breadcrumbs (the amount you use will depend on the moisture content of your ground turkey. If it’s too moist it will be sticky and difficult to form into patties.

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients together making sure the onions, garlic and spices are distributed evenly throughout the ground turkey.
2. Form meat mixture into patties that are just slightly larger in diameter than your slider buns. The patties will shrink on the grill, but not a lot as there is little fat in the ground turkey. Make the patties about a half inch thick.
3. Coat the BBQ grill rack with some oil before cooking the patties as they may have a tendency to stick. Grill on medium high heat, about 4 – 5 minutes per side.
4. You can also use a well-oiled grill pan on top of the stove, grilling on each side for the same amount of time.

Serve the turkey sliders on a pretzel bun with tomato slices, grilled onions and roasted garlic aioli.