Italian Chicken Burger!

Hello hello!
It's time for another post - this time on what my boyfriend and I created for lunch today: Italian Chicken Burger! (If you hadn't noticed, I usually only cook nicer things with my boyfriend LOL)

Italian Chicken Burger

Even though it doesn't look that impressive in the photo, this burger tasted fantastic. XD I followed a SORTED recipe but substituted a few things to accommodate what I could find or had. The meal doesn't take long to make, (provided you don't mess up haha), because you only need to cook one thing: the chicken. The rest you just slap on or toast/bake. Easy!

Ingredients used (+ chicken thighs)
miracle whip - cabbage - tomato - pesto - hamburger buns - cheese - breadcrumbs - chicken thighs

This is the collection of ingredients that I used, excluding the chicken thighs because I forgot to include them in the photo! I substituted some ingredients from the recipe, them being:
→ Chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts
→ Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise
→ Classico Sun Dried Tomato Pesto instead of Red Pesto (slight difference)
→ Léger Havarti Light cheese instead of Mozzarella cheese
→ Hamburger Buns instead of Ciabatta

2. Use a blender to make breadcrumbs

1. Defrost chicken

The first thing I did was defrost my chicken thighs in my microwave that had been in my fridge! (I defrosted by weight) You can also use fresh chicken breasts to avoid defrosting. While I waited for that, I used a blender to grind down my stale bread into fine pieces which had been left out overnight. I also added a teensy bit of salt - though honestly, could go without because later on you'll be adding pesto anyway which makes it saltier.

3. Cover the chicken thighs in pesto

4. Cover the thighs with breadcrumbs

When the chicken was defrosted, I put them into a plate for easy smearing of the sundried tomato pesto. I added enough to make sure it was all covered. This can get dirty so make sure you wash your hands beforehand! After making sure the chicken is well covered, dip them in breadcrumbs and ensure both sides have an even spread of breadcrumbs.

5. Add oil to pan and fry the breaded chicken

6. Heat up the hamburger buns.

It's time for the cooking to start! I added oil and put the heat to around medium. I recommend putting the dial at 5-7) so the breadcrumbs won't burn before the chicken fully cooks. I made the mistake of putting it a bit too high (8) and the breadcrumbs burnt a bit. Nevertheless, the breadcrumbs were really really good. Back to cooking now... while the chicken cooked, I heated up the buns in my small oven. Remember to check on it!

7. Chop up the tomato and lettuce!

Cooked breaded chicken!

I also chopped up half a tomato and some lettuce big enough to cover the hamburger bun width while waiting for the chicken to cook. Remember to  flip the chicken so both sides cook. You can see some of the burnt breadcrumbs had fallen off :S but after I adjusted the heat to a lower dial, it didn't burn afterwards.

It's time for the easy part!

Yummy crunchy hamburger buns

8. Layer up on the Miracle Whip!

9. Add lettuce.

10. Add tomato slice(s).

Voila! Finished!

11. Add cheese

**Put the ingredients on quickly so the hot chicken can melt the cheese well.**

Feelings: Super fast to make and super tasty to eat! I really have to applaud the breadcrumbs (lol) on making the whole thing extra tasty. I really have to put a huge emphasis on how good it was. The sundried tomato pesto with breadcrumbs and then frying them was just perfect. Add that onto the chicken and ohmygosh it's so good. It created a stronger taste for the chicken that went well with the cheese. No ingredient overpowered the other. You could easily taste the cheese, lettuce, etc alongside the other and truly enjoy the burger.

The only downside I had while cooking this was the fact the breadcrumbs sometimes fell off, probably because I burnt some of it, or I accidentally took some off while flipping. Again, that is my fault so haha. Otherwise, this was very tasty! I would make it again because it is super quick and tasty to make.

I only had to buy a couple of things so I am unsure of total cost; I can tell you what I did buy though:
1 Green Cabbage: $2.43
Classico Pesto $3.69
1 Red Tomato: $0.73
Hamburger Buns (8): $3.00
Total: $9.85
Serves: 2

Ingredients:
- 1-2 chicken thighs (I used smaller, chopped pieces because that's what I had)
- Classico Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
- 1 Stale bread
- Lettuce, washed and separated
- 1 Tomato (used half)
- Slices of Léger Havarti Light cheese
- Hamburger buns
- Miracle Whip
- optional salt and pepper

Followed the recipe (for the most part) on:
http://sortedfood.com/#!/chickenburger/

Happy cooking!