Change up your burger game with these mouthwatering lamb burgers with tzatsiki sauce.
OK, my bias must come out: If cooked properly I like lamb better than beef. Now I know a lot of you are questioning my sanity, but that's probably because you've never had good lamb cooked properly. It seems lamb is like liver or anchovies. Some people just hate them and it's usually because of a traumatic childhood experience.
If you're willing to take a chance, please please try my Lamb Loin Chops in Sheep Dip. That will show you the heights to which it can rise. But if you don't want to spend that kind of money on an experiment (loin chops are expensive), here's a quick and dirty way to see how good lamb can be. Next time you have a jones for a burger, make it a lamburger. Most groceries carry ground lamb. Often in preformed patties. Preparing these burgers is a snap and you might not go back to beef burgers.
A key is the sauce. I know you want to put ketchup on your burgers, but lamb has been a staple of the Greek diet for centuries, and they love it with a white sauce from yogurt called tzatsiki sauce. Tzatsiki is also served on gyros, which is made from ground lamb and other meats. The sauce below, developed by my wife, is not a classic tzatsiki, but it's close. You'll be surprised at how well it works on lamburgers. We serve them with a big green salad and use the sauce as a salad dressing too. I've even been known to pack the salad into a pita and eat it that way.
Lamb Burger Recipe
The key to this lamb burger is the sauce.
Course. Lunch. Dinner. Entree.
Cuisine. American.
Makes. 4 burgers
Takes. 15 minutes prep. 10 minutes to cook.
Ingredients
1.5 pounds of ground lamb
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Morton’s coarse kosher salt (read more about the science of salt here)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 pita pockets
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
Optional. Chopped cucumbers are nice on this.
Method
1) Prep. Prepare the yogurt sauce according to the recipe found here. You can do this the night before and that will help pull flavor out of the herbs.
2) Fire up. Prepare your grill for hot direct heat. If your gas grill has a sear burner or infrared burner, this is what it is for. They can be cooked easily on a hibachi.
3) Prep again. For the meat into patties about 6 ounces each about 1/2" thick and shaped like a football so they will fit neatly into pita halves. Coat them with the oil, and then with the spices. That may seem like a lot of spices, but we want to form a nice crust.
4) Cook. Put the burgers on the grill, close the lid, and stand there. Sing Mary Had a Little Lamb four times or about four minutes, check the underside. You want it dark, but not black. Cook the burger until it hits 160°F, safe temp. Toss the pitas on the grill for 30 to 60 seconds on each side, enough to warm them.
5) Serve. Serve the burgers by cutting the pitas in half. Press the sides gently to pop open the posket. Spoon about a tablespoon of sauce in, put some chopped tomato in, squeeze the burger in on top, and slater more sauce on the burger. Make sure everyone has plenty of napkins.
"We all need to make time for a burger once in a while."Erica Durance
If you love barbecue and grilling you do our FREE 30-day membership in our Pitmaster Club. We can up your game.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the table of contents or the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can't help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators