Saturdays with Rachael Ray – Club Burger Sliders with Avocado-Ranch Dressing |

Saturdays with Rachael Ray – Club Burger Sliders with Avocado-Ranch Dressing

Filed under Main Dishes - Turkey

Jun 12
Having a 16-month old is so much fun. I swear she gets smarter every day. Right now, her vocabulary is growing so much. But for the last month or so, our favorite word – by far – that Abbi says is “hamburger”. The funny thing is that she hasn’t really had a whole lot of hamburgers before, but it’s one of those words she started saying and now she says it all the time because she knows that it will make us laugh. There is just something about it that makes me giggle every time she says it.

You can’t tell me that isn’t the cutest thing you’ve ever heard!!

So in honor of Abbi and her love of hamburgers, I decided to make mini hamburgers. Because everything is better when it’s mini, right? This hamburger is like a club sandwich turned burger. If you love club sandwiches, and you love burgers, I’ll guarantee you’ll love this!

Recipe Notes:
- the recipe calls for “good-quality” bread. I would definitely follow that. That was my biggest mistake on this recipe – using cheap bread. I don’t normally buy the cheapest store brand bread, but for some reason, for this recipe I did. It totally fell apart when we ate these little burgers. I’m sure it would have been a lot less messy if I would have spent the extra 50 cents to upgrade the bread!
- this recipe makes way more of the dressing than you will need. But it is great as a veggie dip or chip dip. It wasn’t bad to have extra, in my opinion!!
- Both my husband and I thought that the flavor of the bacon was a bit lost inside of the burger. Next time, I’d just fry it up and serve it on top instead of in the burger.
Club Burger Sliders with Avocado-Ranch Dressing
from Everyday with Rachael Ray Jun/Jul 2010

makes 8 sliders, or 4 servings

total time: about 30 minutes

extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
6 slices bacon, chopped
2 pounds ground turkey
1 small onion
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
salt and pepper
1 avocado
1 cup sour cream
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, grated or finely chopped
a small handful of fresh chives, finely chopped
a small handful of fresh dill, finely chopped
a small handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
16 slices good-quality white or whole wheat bread
lettuce leaves, for serving
2 plum or vine-ripened tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preheat an outdoor grill or griddle pan to medium high. Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Add a drizzle of EVOO and the bacon to the pan and cook until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels to cool, then chop.

While the bacon cooks, place the turkey in a large bowl. Grate the onion on top of the turkey to get 3 to 4 tablespoons onion juice. Add the hot sauce, poultry seasoning, salt and lots of pepper. Add the cooked bacon, mix and form 8 slider patties, about 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide. Drizzle with EVOO to coat lightly. Cook on the grill or griddle, turning once, until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes.

While the sliders cook, preheat the broiler. Place the avocado in a food processor. Add the sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, chives, dill and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Process into a smooth, thick sauce.

Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out rounds of bread (or trim 1 inch of crust all the way around the bread slices to form small squares); discard the crusts.* Arrange the bread on a baking sheet and toast under the broiler. Serve the bacon-turkey sliders with the lettuce, tomatoes and avocado-ranch sauce between the toasts.

*TIP – stick the extra bread in a zip top bag and throw it in the freezer. Next time you need breadcrumbs, pull the bag out, process the bread in a food processor, and you have fresh breadcrumbs!

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Saturdays with Rachael Ray rules:
- You can link any blog post, present or past, as long as it is a Rachael Ray recipe.
- Your blog post must link back to this post, mentioning Saturdays with Rachael Ray.
That’s it!! Simple, simple. Just make sure the recipe is a Rachael Ray recipe – it doesn’t matter if it comes from her talk show, 30-Minute Meals, her magazine, or one of her cookbooks. But it must be from Rachael Ray. Any posts that don’t follow these two rules will be deleted from the Mr. Linky.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve made!
19 Comments

19 Responses to “Saturdays with Rachael Ray – Club Burger Sliders with Avocado-Ranch Dressing”

Brenda De Sousa said on June 12th, 2010 at 2:48 pm

Deborah, Abbi is TOO cute!!! I just love how she says hamburger, lol. Too sweet. ) It's funny, Rachael said to use "good-quality" bread for my fishwiches too. I had run out of bread and had to go buy more for these sandwiches and it's a good thing as I ended up buying something better than I probably would have. They definitely needed a thicker, better-quality bread. Your sliders look so much fun to eat! Something else I've never made before but definitely need to. Have a great weekend!

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The Meal Planner said on June 12th, 2010 at 3:30 pm

Deborah your sliders look INCREDIBLE. Definitely going to have to try that recipes this summer.

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Pam said on June 12th, 2010 at 5:00 pm

Abbi is a doll and your sliders look delicious! Good job!

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Joanne said on June 12th, 2010 at 5:45 pm

I have to say, I was in a slightly bad mood. But then I watched Abbi and she put an instant smile on my face! Thanks for posting the video.

These burgers look delicious. i've been in a burger mood lately which is weird for me. That dressing..mmm…avocado.

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Debbi Does Dinner Healthy said on June 12th, 2010 at 5:51 pm

I have these sliders bookmarked to make sometime. Thanks for the tips! They look great!

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Simply Life said on June 12th, 2010 at 9:55 pm

oh wow, those look great!

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Judi said on June 12th, 2010 at 10:55 pm

Abbi is too precious! And, the sliders look delicious. I'm especially interested in the dressing.
My post is up now.

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RecipeGirl said on June 13th, 2010 at 3:31 am

Your daughter is darling

I love the idea of turning bread into slider buns. I must try this out!

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Heather said on June 13th, 2010 at 11:07 pm

Your daughter is too cute!

I was totally going to make this recipe the other night for dinner to be able to share today as part of Saturday's with Rachael Ray. But then something came up and it ended up being a sandwich night!

So when I saw you posted the same recipe I was originally going to make I decided to make a different RR burger recipe and a RR potato salad recipe to share next week. I am so excited that I now have some new RR recipes to share!

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Chef Aimee said on June 14th, 2010 at 12:41 am

Abbi is super adorable!

These sliders look so good, and the avocado ranch dressing looks drinkable on its own!

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Jessica {The Novice Chef} said on June 14th, 2010 at 5:21 am

These look adorable! I bookmarked them so I can bring them to an upcoming BBQ! Simple adorable!

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grace said on June 14th, 2010 at 9:14 am

that. is. precious. and it makes me crave a hamboogoo.

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steph said on June 15th, 2010 at 12:57 am

Those are so cute!

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Memória said on June 15th, 2010 at 5:53 am

SHE IS ADORABLE!!!!!!!! I love how she says "hamburger"! The little burgers look fantastic. I love how the bread looks as well. I bet these would go well with homemade bread too.

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Cleare said on June 15th, 2010 at 3:56 pm

I love hamburger and I love the avocado dressing! Here in Rome it's very hot-umid climate today..and this recipe it's good for me!

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eatme_delicious said on June 22nd, 2010 at 12:34 am

Abbi is so cute!! And I love the sound of avocado ranch dressing mmm.

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Sophia said on June 22nd, 2010 at 10:07 pm

Wow, great job here. Awesome picture too! You should really consider submitting this to Recipe4Living's Juiciest Burger Contest! It looks delicious!

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Crystal Oerman said on September 19th, 2010 at 10:56 pm

I made this for dinner tonight, but since I'm not too familiar with the flavor of ground turkey yet, it seemed to have kind of a strong sausage flavor….is that right? I wasn't sure if that's just the flavor of the turkey or if it was something in the recipe I added to it.

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Deborah said on September 21st, 2010 at 1:37 am

Crystal – to me, ground turkey is usually a little bland. But maybe it was the bacon that gave it a sausage flavor? I'm not sure what else it could have been!?!

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