Smothered Turkey Burgers With Savory Mushroom Onion Gravy

Turkey burgers are often seen as a healthy but inferior alternative to beef burgers. Definitely not as popular, not considered as good, and even downplayed at times because of its tendency to be dry. 

But when you make them right, they can be so juicy, flavorful, and delicious, like these smothered turkey burgers in gravy are here.

No more will ground turkey take a backseat to ground beef! I’m not sure if my little voice can reach enough people to change their opinion, but this recipe is an excellent start to shifting people’s negative perception of ground turkey and turning them into fans, like I have.

Check the recipe out and give it a shot. It’s definitely good enough to serve to someone and help them start changing their minds and have a change of heart on how good turkey burgers and ground turkey in general can be. Haha!

What Makes This A Good Recipe?

• Quick & Easy: It doesn’t take long to make this recipe. All you gotta do is combine the ingredients to create a few burgers and make a slurry for gravy. Then let it simmer until the turkey burgers are cooked all the way through.
• Hearty: This is a very hearty dish… the perfect main dish for the cold weather months. The savory gravy will warm your soul.
• Healthier: It’s a pretty healthy dish. We’re using a little butter, but outside of that, turkey, onions, mushrooms… a good dish for even health-conscious eaters.
• Crowd pleasing: Everyone likes burgers, and turkey is a popular choice of meat, so you won’t get any death stares if you decide to make this for dinner for friends or guests. Haha!

Ingredients

• Meat: Use ground turkey that has an 80/20 lean-to-fat ratio.
• Binders: Breadcrumbs and eggs. Use plain breadcrumbs and large eggs.
• Vegetables: Yellow onions, mushrooms, and minced garlic. I like Bella mushrooms, and if you don’t have minced garlic, you can use garlic paste.
• Fat: Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Butter. I use olive oil to sear the turkey burgers and sauté the mushrooms and onions. The butter helps keep the turkey burgers tender by adding a little fat to them.
• Seasonings: The seasonings I like to use are Lipton onion soup mix, seasoning salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and black pepper.
• Liquid: Look for a low-sodium turkey Broth. Whole milk helps keep the turkey burgers tender, while browning & seasoning sauce helps darken the gravy.
• Thickener: Use All-purpose flour; this is our thickener for the gravy.

Watch Me Make It

My love for turkey burgers

I wasn’t really introduced to turkey burgers or ground turkey in general until my adult years, when my mom became a fan of it. She married a man who was very anti-pork, and that’s an understatement. Although he was Christian, he grew up in a predominantly muslim family.

So I guess he adopted the practice of avoiding eating and hating anything related to pork. My mom suddenly became an anti-porker herself and would later stop eating beef. So whenever she’d throw a cookout and offer me burgers, I knew what was coming—her little chunky turkey burgers. lmbo!

Anyway, I became fond of them once I accepted they weren’t beef and would never taste like beef burgers. The idea of a turkey burger was just strange to me for some reason, because I was so used to growing up eating pork and beef. I never even heard of ground turkey or chicken.

So, I eventually became a fan. Years later, when we would work out and come back to my crib to eat, I’d always make either salmon or something with ground turkey to satisfy Momma. One day, I had intended to make beef burgers, but she requested turkey.

So, I put the beef away, pulled out the ground turkey, and made turkey burgers. Then, I decided to add some gravy to it. Let’s say it was the bomb.com. So I decided to make it again and put numbers to it to form a recipe, and that’s what I’m sharing with you today. That’s how this recipe came about. 

One last thing I want to address, the gravy…

Homemade Mushroom Onion Gravy

It’s common for people to make a roux when creating the gravy for this recipe. A roux is made by adding fat and a thickener, such as flour, in equal parts to a hot skillet. You then stir the mixture until it reaches your desired shade, then add a liquid like water or broth, which will turn into a gravy in minutes.

If you’ve been following me, however, you’d know I’m more of a fan of mixing a thickener with water or broth and adding it to a skillet or baking pan and allowing it to thicken over time into a gravy as it simmers over or in the heat.

That’s what we do here. For the gravy, I combined flour with turkey broth, added some of the seasonings to enhance the flavor, and even added a pinch of browning and seasoning sauce to ensure the gravy turned out nice and medium brown. We don’t want any light gravy now! Haha.

For a lovely mushroom and onion touch, we add sliced bella mushrooms and yellow onions, which we first sauté and then simmer with the gravy and turkey burgers, infusing their flavor into the gravy. The onion soup mix also gives the gravy an onion-y flavor.

Smothered Turkey Burgers With Savory Mushroom Onion Gravy

1. Melt the butter in the microwave until soft.
2. Beat the eggs thoroughly with a fork or whisk.
3. Spread the ground turkey onto a wide surface like a baking sheet.
4. Pour the eggs, milk, butter, and minced garlic onto the ground beef.
5. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs and seasonings over the ground turkey, but preserve some of the seasoning for the gravy. 
6. Bring it all together, ensuring everything is well combined without overmixing.
7. After forming a large mass of ground turkey, separate it into sections of 6 or 8.
8. Gently ball each section of ground turkey up, forming a ball, and flatten it with your hands to create a hamburger patty, then set them aside.
9. Chop up your onions and mushrooms.
10. GRAVY: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the broth, flour, remaining seasonings, and browning seasoning sauce, then stir well until the flour is dissolved.
11. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat, then add in the oil and let it heat up for 1 minute.
12. Add the turkey burgers and sear for 3 minutes per side, then set them aside and remove the excess oil.
13. Add in the onions and mushrooms and let them saute for 5 minutes, tossing periodically.
14. Reduce the heat to medium.
15. Add the turkey burgers back to the skillet and pour in the broth.
16. Stir well, then cover with a top, leaving a small crack on the side.
17. Simmer for 30 minutes, basting and stirring periodically.

Cooking tips

• Use 2 spatulas to flip: Using two spatulas makes it easier to flip the burgers once they brown on one side.
• Stir periodically: Make sure you stir the gravy and move the burgers around as they cook, especially during the last few minutes, which is when they tend to stick.

Serving suggestions:

• Egg Noodles: Egg noodles have a neutral flavor, similar to rice and potatoes, making them a great side dish for smothered turkey burgers. This is because neutral flavors pair well with gravy.
• Rice: Rice pairs well with turkey burgers, whether it’s brown, white, or yellow rice.
• Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes and gravy go together like peanut butter and jelly and mac and cheese, so you already know they will make the perfect side dish.

Storage

• How to store turkey burgers and gravy? You can place them in a Tupperware dish, seal them tightly, or store them in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator.
• Can you freeze them? Absolutely! Turkey burgers freeze great!!! Just place them in a Ziploc bag to prevent freezer burn.

Reheating

• How to reheat turkey burgers in a skillet: Place the turkey burgers in a skillet, and warm them up over low medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of broth or water to loosen up the gravy if it thickened while in the fridge, which tends to happen. Cover with a lid to help keep them tender.
• How to reheat turkey burgers in a microwave: Place the turkey burgers and gravy in a microwave-proof dish and heat up for 2 minutes. Let them heat up for another minute if they’re still not hot enough. Add a little broth or water to the gravy, stir it up, and then heat it to loosen it if it has thickened in the fridge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you use ground beef instead to make this recipe?

Absolutely. Here are the things you’d do differently. You won’t use melted butter when combining all the ingredients to create your beef burgers. When making the gravy, you will use beef broth instead of turkey and omit the browning and seasoning sauce. And personally, I would omit the Italian seasoning. 

How do I double this recipe?

Double the amount of ingredients. When it comes to cooking them, I’d probably use a pot since I don’t think there’s a big enough pan for 4 lbs of burgers.

Why did my turkey burgers come out tough?

This typically happens when you overmix the ingredients when creating the burgers. This is why, in the recipe instructions, I instruct you to spread the ground beef out as you see in the video. Beat the eggs first, then add milk and butter to keep it moist. But most importantly, spreading it out allows you to incorporate the ingredients without overmixing them.

How long do turkey burgers last?

A good 4 days if tightly sealed and refrigerated. After that, they may lose their swag a little bit.

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Pbj~

Enjoy!

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