Shrimp Chorizo Burgers

Burgers are quintessential to the summer!  They are a great weeknight meal and of course, super popular for serving guests at cook outs.  Recently I was at the dentist browsing an old issue of Food & Wine magazine and there was an article about paella.  I love paella and while contemplating what to make for dinner last weekend, I couldn't get some of the paella's ingredients out of my mind!  When my husband requested that we cook up some burgers I had an idea!  What if I combined a few paella ingredients and incorporated them into a delicious burger?! 

This recipes recipe pairs two surf-in-turf ingredients who have known each other forever in a very friendly, delicious and perfect-for-cookouts way.   I decided to approach this burger concept kind of like how I build a crab cake and decided to chop up the shrimp and chorizo so it could be formed into a patty.  It worked out really well.  I baked these, but if you used a grill pan you could throw them on the grill too.  Make these spicy and sultry burgers at your next cook out!

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 lb of shrimp
1/2 lb of fresh chorizo (not smoked)
1 egg white
3 tbsp of mayonnaise
2 tbsp of diced white onions
1 tbsp of lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of pepper
3/4 cup of whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tbsp on garlic
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 kaiser rolls

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  On the stove top, heat olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat.  Add garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Remove shrimp from their shells and add to saute pan.  Reduce heat to medium and cook shrimp for 3-4 minutes on each side until shrimp is no longer opaque.   Remove from heat.

In a food processor, add shrimp and process for a few seconds until shrimp is chopped into small pieces.  If you don't have a food processor, chop cooked shrimp on a cutting board into small pieces.  Repeat for the chorizo!

In a medium sized bowl mix together bread crumbs, mayo, egg white, onions, and lemon juice.  Next lightly fold in chopped shrimp and chorizo.

Cover bowl and place in the refrigerator for no less than 30 minutes. It is important to refrigerate the mixture so the flavors marinate and also so you can easily form patties.

In a glass baking dish, form 4 burger patties and bake uncovered for 20 minutes. While the burgers are baking, lightly toast the rolls. Assemble burgers and garnish with tomato, arugula and lemon!

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