the crunchiest jerk chicken burger

· ·
The crunchiest jerk chicken burger

Guilty pleasure confession time. I love a crunchy chicken burger with iceberg lettuce and mayo just like a MacDonald’s Mac Chicken sandwich. I might even love it more than I love a beef burger. It hits the spot for me. Straight up and simple with no bells and whistles. A warm crispy chicken breast with a golden coating sandwiched between a soft burger bun with lots of mayo slathered on. But since commodity chicken is to be avoided as far as possible, I now make this for myself at home, and it’s so much better.

Hellmann’s make the best store-bought mayonnaise and they asked me to come up with a Rocking Burger for their Rocking Burger campaign and as an homage to my guilty pleasure, I knew it would be chicken. I also knew I needed to make the recipe a whole lot more interesting. I’m all kinds of crazy about jerk chicken spice right now. The chicken wallows in the marinade overnight to ensure all the flavours seep in. And there is a lot of flavour. It then gets coated in a thick layer of panko breadcrumbs and fried to crunchy awesomeness.

A fresh soft sesame seed roll – preferably pre-toasted, a generous amount of Hellmann’s Original Mayonnaise, iceberg lettuce, and optional tomato and red onion finishes this off.

Everyone is going to be happy if you make this.

Mayonnaise for the crunchiest jerk chicken burger

I’ve taken 4 free-range chicken breasts and cut them in half and flattened them out. This helps facilitate a more even and quicker cooking time than if you used a whole breast. You can then add one or two fried breasts to your burger depending on how big you like them. You can even double coat them in the crumbs to go to a high level of crunch, but I find one generous layer enough.

The crunchiest jerk chicken burger

The recipe makes 4 – 8 burgers (either single or double)

Jerk marinade mix:

  • 1 tsp all spice
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 4-5cm of fresh ginger minced
  • 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp soy
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 Tbsp demarara or dark brown sugar
  • 2Tbsp olive oil1/2 shallot, finely chopped, or a ¼ of an onion
  • ½ – 1 jalapeno finely chopped
  • ½ tsp salt

Breading:

  • Seasoned flour to dust the breasts in (about 1 cup)
  • 2 eggs lightly beaten
  • 1 ½ – 2 cups panko breadcrumbs

You also need:

  • Sunflower oil for frying
  • As many rolls as you need
  • Lettuce, sliced tomato and sliced red onion
  • Hellmann’s Original Mayonnaise

Make the night before (or allow at least 6 hours to marinade). Place all the jerk chicken marinade ingredients into a bowl and mix. Cut the chicken breasts in half horizontally and flatten with the palm of your hand or gently pummel with a meat mallet. Pace these in a large Ziploc bag. Pour over the marinade and massage to ensure they are well coated. Store in a container in the fridge (if you remember to give them a mix now and again that is also good)

Remove from the fridge about half an hour before you make the burgers. This just takes off some of the chill but isn’t totally necessary.

Have all your burger bund sliced, toasted, and ready. Have the lettuce and tomato cut and on standby. Have the jar of Hellman’s mayo open and ready to spread.

Make up the 3 dishes for your breading production line and have a tray lined with a few sheets of paper towel on standby.

Pull each chicken piece out the bag and shake to remove any marinade particulates (it’s ok if some of the saucy parts clings to the flesh). Dust this through the seasoned flour and once again shake any excess off. Then dunk this in the beaten egg until thoroughly coated (no dry bits allowed), and then drop this into the dish with the panko crumbs and thoroughly coat.

Fill a large frying pan with a deep rim to about 5 cm of oil and when its sizzling hot, fry the crumbed chicken breasts, 4 at a time in two batches.

Remove and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.

Make up your burger right away and serve while the breasts are still crunchy and warm.

Mayonnaise for the crunchiest jerk chicken burger

*Proudly sponsored by Hellmann’s, the world’s number one mayonnaise.

 

 

 

Find me on Instagram

 

 

SaveSave

9 Comments

  1. My favourite rocking burger: I make my own patties with lean mince, jungle oats, lemon zest and some grated Parmesan. A healthy dollop of Hellman’s mayo (no other mayo will do) on the bottom AND top half of the burger roll; lettuce tomato and a slice of red onion. Doesn’t get any better!

  2. FML. This looks amazing Sam!!! I can just hear the crunch with every bite! I must agree that my favourite Rocking Burger is The Crunchy Chicken Burger! (I bought a tub of Hellmann’s yesterday and chopped in some gherkins & capers and had it with fish cakes. Ahhhmazing 🙂 )

  3. Dear Sam, I LOVE your work! So beautiful. I would like to buy your cook books, I live in Minnesota, USA. Amazon doesn’t carry them. Any suggestions? Edie

  4. Yum on that quick and easy tartar sauce.

  5. my fave ROCKING BURGER: toasted buttery BUN, grassfed BEEF patty, caramelised ONION, big handful of peppery GREENS, delicately TOPPED with a drizzle (‘ndipped for the potato wedges) of “Marisa’s magic ROSE sauce” a mix of HELLMAN’S original MAYO & lemon juice & ketchup & worcestershire sauce hmmm

  6. Sue Bellwood says:

    I am completely addicted to Hellmans Mayonnaise especially on these homemade burgers which we make over the weekend. We make the beef patties with lean mince, garlic, red onion, fresh breadcrumbs, an egg and a squeeze of lemon which we cook on the weber. We lightly toast fresh sesame seed rolls then top our rocking burgers with homemade tomato relish, crunchy lettuce, gerkins, a slice or two of mature cheddar, caramelised onions and a BIG dollop of Hellmans mayo. These are truly the best burgers ever.

  7. My favourite Rocking Burger: A whisky infused grass fed beef patty, cooked to perfection, topped with sweet onion marmalade and a dollop of Hellman’s Mayo. Served with a crinkle cut oven chips and another dollop of Hellman’s Mayo and a glass of whisky.

  8. The Winner of the Hamper is Leanne.

    Thanks for entering
    Sam

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *