Southwest Green Chile Sliders

My husband calls these burgers "Aimee's F'in Awesome Chile Cheeseburgers", and insists I make them over and over again. I threw this dish together one night thinking I could go for a good burger, but I had so many toppings I wanted,  so rather than build a mountain of them all, I decided to mix some of them in, and the result was great!

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes




Ingredients:
1lb- Hamburger (I use ground chuck, it's a little fattier, but it adds a ton of flavor)
1- small can chopped green chiles
1/8th cup- chopped green onion (fresh)
1- roma tomato finely diced
1- clove garlic (use your knife blade and mash it by placing the flat edge of blade on the clove and applying pressure with your palm, then very finely dice the garlic)
Seasoned salt
Chile Powder
Onion Powder

You will also need your own choice of buns, cheese, and toppings- for mine I used smoked gouda cheese and cheddar sourdough rolls, and topped it off with sauteed mushrooms and slices of fresh avocado. Delicious!

1) Place the hamburger meat (would also work with ground turkey or chicken) in a large mixing bowl. Add can of chiles, diced tomato, green onion, and garlic clove.
2) Add seasoned salt, chile powder, and onion powder to flavor. (Honestly I ballpark this, but I use very little salt.)
3) Mix the ingredients well to be sure every burger will get a little bit of the goodness. Form the meat into small patties, slightly larger around than your buns, they will shrink as they cook.
4) In a heated skillet, or on the grill depending on what is available and the weather, place each of the patties.*Here is where I must mention that safe cooking temperature of ground beef is 160 degrees F* That being said I cooked the patties to medium doneness.
5) While the burgers are still in the pan, place your slices of cheese on top and allow to melt partially.
6) Place each patty on to a bun, top and enjoy!

So, some extra steps if you care to know:
For the bread I used cheddar sourdough rolls, these were rather thick so I actually cut them into four slices and  toasted them before adding the patty.
The mushrooms I used were white mushrooms, and I sliced them thinly, tossed them in a very small amount of extra virgin olive oil, and sauteed them to a golden brown.
The avocado I cut into thin slices so I didn't have to worry about chunks falling off while I was eating, but you could also use guacamole as a sauce of sorts.

This burger was absolutely the most moist and succulent burger I have ever made, and I didn't need to add a single condiment if I didn't want to... but I tend to take things up a notch. So I whipped together a little mayo, chile powder, paprika, cayenne, and a hint of honey. It was amazing! Hope you guys like these as much as we did!





Photo is not of my burgers, like an idiot I forgot to take a photo because I wasn't sure if I would blog this one. Photo is from http://www.nibblemethis.com/2012/01/mushroom-swiss-burger.html (no copyright infringement intended)