Southwestern Turkey Burgers
Posted in: Dinner Ideas, Food Photos, Grill Ideas, Lunch Ideas, Sandwich Ideas |
Update: See me make these burgers on video!
About a year ago I was distraught to find that Trader Joe’s discontinued one of may favorite summer treats, their Southwestern Turkey Burger. I think they replaced it with some chicken burger but it’s just not the same.
This is my recreation. I cooked mine on the George Forman but I can’t WAIT to get them on the BBQ this summer!
- 8oz extra Lean Ground Turkey
- 1/3 of a red bell pepper diced small
- 1/3 of a green bell pepper diced small
- 1/3 of a yellow bell pepper diced small
- ½ of a small onion diced small
- 1 medium button mushroom diced small
- 1 egg white
- ¼ cup quick oats
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)
- ½ tsp cumin
- 1 tsp dried cilantro
- Salt & pepper
Put all ingredients in a bowl and combine with hands.


Form the mixture into 4 equal sized patties approximately 4 ounces each.


Grill about 4-5 minutes a side or about 6 minutes on the George Forman Grill.
I served it on a Whole Wheat Potato Roll (a whole wheat English muffin would work too) with a bed of baby spinach and some ketchup. I also cooked up the other 3 and froze them for lunches.
What about the husband? well, he had a regular old burger. BORING! ;~P
Are your burgers sticking? Click here for me tips?
Update: See me make these burgers on video!
| Servings | Amount per Serving | Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 turkey patty | 100 | 2g | 2g | 2 |
Other ideas you may enjoy... |
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Looks good i’ll have to try it soon.
you’ve done it again, roni! this looks like my ideal burger, perhaps with a little pepper jack cheese on top. no, there’s no way i can wait until summer to grill one of these babies up–nice job!
I love the Trader Joe chicken patties with the lime and I’m sorry I missed the Southwest Turkey burgers!!! The seasonings in these sound so good! Once again, I gotta try these! Thanks!
Roni-
These do look good. What % of turkey do you use? Is it turkey breast or the 93%? I always stand in front of the meat case debating what one to buy. I like the 96% ground beef but my super market is out a lot of the time. Plus it is about $5 a pound.
These look really good, Roni! I’ll be giving these a try soon :-)
wow these look AMAZING - i love turkey stuff like this. I will definitely try!
I love turkey burgers…these sound like a great version!!
Happy Valentine’s Day!!
Thank you so much for doing this! I was furious when Trader Joes took them off their shelves. Not a fan of the new Chicken Chile Lime burgers. Can’t wait to try these! Thanks Roni!!!
[...] Southwestern Turkey Burgers [...]
I had never tried the turkey burgers, but the chicken chile lime burgers rock my world! I could eat one everyday!! These burgers you created look really good as well, I will have to try them sometime.
I tried these yesterday and what a great burger!!!
I am seriously addicted to your page!
This looks like a great recipe…I’ll be making them this week!
Also thanks for adding the ww pts column …saves me some time!
Once again this was really good. I made some little adjustments for what I had on hand, used a light english muffin with mustard, lettuce, cucumbers, grilled mushrooms and onions, and pickles on top. I will definitely make this again, especially when I have a burger craving.
Just tried the burgers last night. YUMM!! I was so suprised. It had been about 7 years since I cooked turkey burger. I didn’t like how it smelled while it was cooking. This time no problems. It was great. Thanks again.
These burgers are great! Even hubby loved them - he ate two! I LOVE your website and will be trying many more recipes in the days to come. Thanks!!!!!!!
[...] This combination can be used on anything, ground beef, chicken, I even used it in a double batch of Southwestern Turkey Burgers that I made today. For my tacos, I used 8 oz lean ground beef and the following [...]
Made these last night with sweet potato fries…and they were so good!!! I had been craving a burger and this totally satisfied my craving!!! Thanks again for all the great ideas!
As I was cleaning out the freezer, I came across a good idea when you want to make this but have not gone to the store for peppers… use a frozen stir fry! It has red, yellow and sometimes green peppers as well as onions. This is what we are having for dinner tonight… what a great idea!
That IS a great idea! Thank Laura!
These were very tasty! DH liked them too. My mixture came out a little less firm than yours look in the photo and they came apart a bit on the grill when I tried to flip. Any suggestions on how to firm up the mixture for future use?
Thanks guys!
Shawna - Glad you liked them!
As for falling apart, you could do a few things…
increase the egg white (although it may get dryer)
decrease the number of veggies
But will help the most, Only flip once and leave them alone for a good 4-5 minutes. It will really help them set.
Hope that helps!
-Roni
[...] Southwestern Turkey Burger on a whole grain bun with baby spinach, tomato, sweet pickles and a side of carrots & cucumber slices (a little dressing for dipping) [...]
[...] Southwestern Turkey Burgers on a whole wheat roll with baby spinach leaves, tomoto, sweet pickles and ketchup [...]
[...] Southwestern turkey burger on a whole grain english muffin with baby spinach baked beans and 2 (of the most amazing) corn on the cobs (and a nibble of the toddlers burger) [...]
[...] there, I tried your turkey burgers. I love the flavor. I cooked mine is a le creuset grille pan but they totally stuck to the pan and [...]
Hey Roni,
I make something very similar to these, but with more of an Indian flair rather than Southwest. I use many of the same veggies, but instead of the spices and herbs you listed above I add orange curry powder and some garlic and onion powder/salt and then of course salt and pepper. They are really good and give a welcome change to burgers. Just thought I’d share since you share so much with us! =)
Casey - Love that idea! Thanks!!
Did you really use 8 oz. of turkey or was it 16? Because then you said there were 4 patties and each one weighed about 4 oz. Maybe it was the veggies that made them weigh 4 oz though…
It was really 8. This is how I “bulk” my dishes and get them to be “liter”. All those veggies add a lot of volume for little calories and high nutrients! You can’t beat it!
These turkey burgers were SO tasty. I used a little cooking spray on the George Foreman and had no problem with sticking. What I did have a huge problem with was them not forming in to patties at all and staying all crumbly as they cooked. I just opened the bun and ate it open faces like a sloppy joe and it worked just as well.
I guess my question is this:
a third of a pepper, half an onion is kind of subjective to the size of the produce…I might have added to much veggies. How much vegetables in total should I be adding in cups?
Also I diced my veggies up really fine with a chopper and it created a lot of extra juices - would that have made it not stick together?
Sorry so long!
I loved them and the kids ate them too..very yummie. I’m making a batch now for the freezer.
Thank you Roni.
This was such a great recipe! thank you for sharing!! I esp. loved the left overs- i put one in a whole wheat pita with some baby spinach leaves-it was so good!
I think I’m going to have to try these soon. Sounds so good!!
I’m so angry that TJ discontinued the southwest turkey Burgers. I was just searching online for a recipe and found this one. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. If it takes anything likt he original, I’ll be in heaven!
These burgers taste even better than TJs!!! I can’t thank you enough for proving this recipe as well as the nutritional info. I just started WW and will be sharing this recipe at my meeting.
I made the burgers last night, made 2 1/2 times the amounts you gave and got 12 3-ounce burgers. I went heavy on the spices and added a lot of extra cilantro. TJ’s burgers also included corn kernels, which I might add next time.
I served it on half an oat bran pita with mustard. Heaven all over again.
[...] any recipes that are share worthy later in the week! Sunday: Breakfast Burritos, Birthday party, Southwest Turkey Burgers and sweet potato fries Monday: Apple Whole Wheat Waffles (new recipe too!), 1 point Turkey Chili, [...]
[...] 2 Southwest Turkey Burgers with about 2 oz of cheddar cheese - I was legitimately very hungry after my workout so I had two [...]
[...] Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce, Mashers, Garlic Broccoli (inspired by Roni’s) Wednesday: Southwestern Turkey Burgers, Oven Onion and Zucchini Rings, Veggies and FF Dip Thursday: Spaghetti, Meatballs, Asparagus (a [...]
[...] diet friendly. I have always made them with ground turkey, but this time I took what I learned from Roni’s Southwestern Turkey Burgers and included more veggies and used oatmeal and a little parmesan for flavor. The turkey was also [...]
[...] Southwestern Turkey Burgers, sweet potato fries (didn’t get to this last week) Tuesday: Skillet Lasagna (I will post [...]
Hi…I’m brand new to this site but have tried a few of the recipes already…I’m soooo impressed with these southwestern burgers!! I think I’m addicted to them now..lol
Seriously though, every recipe that I have tried from here has been a huge hit at my house!!
Thank you Roni!!!
[...] It’s lunch time, I have a 20oz package of ground turkey defrosted to make a double batch of Southwestern Turkey Burgers (I like keeping them in the freezer) which will leave me 4 oz leftover. (Why they only package [...]
These were fantastic! I have never liked turkey burgers in the past but these are so good they are going into our weekly dinner rotation. Thanks for a great recipe.
Also, a tip I heard on Oprah is to chill the turkey burger for two hours before cooking. According to the chef, they hold together better that way.
I made these last week ….. LOVED EM! They were moist and so full of flavor! I did have to make some minor adjustments to allow for items I had on hand but they were awesome. I made 8 patties (I used 16 oz of ground turkey) cooked 2 on the GF grill and froze the remaining ones. I pulled one out today for lunch … it defrosted in just a few hrs … ate it with a side of mashed cauliflower with butter buds! Very filling! Thank you so much for the recipes ….
Yay Roni!! I have been eyeballing this recipe for awhile now and finally tried it out…survey says…Fantabulous!!! I (of course) did not have all the ingredients on hand so I had to add some oatmeal to hold it together….still tasted great!! And to the comment earlier about the frozen stirfry…Trader Joes (my personal fav.) has a great trio of peppers (no onion tho) that I use every morning for my omelets!!! Keep the great recipes coming!! I love your sites!!
I’m glad you linked back to this! I will try both of these. I am close to goal (didn’t have incredibly far to go- but it felt insurmountable), and I had been following your page awhile before I started WW. I’m glad you’re share such great recipes. I’m loving the snowpeas the way you just sauteed them the other day. YUM!
Other blog: http://www.jacobandgeorgia.blogspot.com
[...] then I made Roni’s Southwest Turkey burgers. Thanks Roni! They were Delish. Jacob especially loved them and after he ate his normal burger, [...]
I tried these tonight with some sweet potato fries. We were missing half of the ingredients but they were still scrumptious! My husband loved them too… He insisted on eating his without the bun because they were “just that good”. HA!
Thanks!
THESE BURGERS WERE OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!
These were great! Even my picky and skeptical fiance agreed! I modified it slightly - they were slightly larger/more turkeyful, no mushrooms, and I added a tsp of oil because the 99% fat free turkey was too dry. All in all, it was still 4 points per patty, with healthy oil and veggies to boot! With a 2 point bun, that’s a completely manageable and delicious dinner!
These are delicious! Thank you for the great recipe!