Magnificent News: Eat Voraciously: Buffalo

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Here's what's for dinner tonight.

By G. Daniela Galarza

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Buffalo

Once, when I was in London, a friend of a friend accosted me with a question I never expected to answer: "How is it that in America, buffalo have wings?" he asked, and I couldn't tell if he was teasing me or genuinely puzzled.

It turns out, he was genuinely puzzled — in the same way that I have long been about why the British call all desserts "puddings" or why there is a pudding called "spotted dick."

In any case, I explained to this friend of a friend that the recipe for Buffalo wings involved no large land mammals and was in fact a plate of fried chicken wings coated in a slightly spicy, very buttery hot sauce served with blue cheese and celery sticks or carrots. Its name came from the city in which it was invented, Buffalo, N.Y., not the animal.

If you live in the States, you know that it's a wildly popular dish on this side of the pond — so much so that the combination of lightly battered and fried food plus buttery hot sauce has been applied to all sorts of proteins, vegetables and starches, including other cuts of chicken, french fries, cauliflower and macaroni and cheese.

Here, the concept gets remixed into a burger made from ground chicken or turkey. It's a recipe from chef Carla Hall, and I like her idea of making a hot honey mayonnaise to spread on the whole wheat bun. If you'd rather go the traditional route, consider making a small bowl of blue cheese dressing or ranch. It will be messy, but oh so good.

Today's recipe

Photos by Scott Suchman for The Washington Post; food styling by Nicola Justine Davis for The Washington Post

Buffalo Wing Burger

If you avoid onions and other alliums >> use finely grated carrot instead of the onion here.
Not a poultry eater? >> Try this with lean ground pork or a plant-based substitute.
The hot honey mayonnaise is so good on this >> but you could use any kind of spread on your burgers instead.

Looking for a coleslaw recipe? We love this one.

Storage Notes: Leftover hot honey mayo can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

For easy printing and scaling, view this recipe in our Recipe Finder.

Servings: 4
Active time: 20 mins
Total time: 30 mins

Ingredients

For the burgers

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for cooking the burgers
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 medium cloves garlic, minced or finely grated
2 teaspoons hot sauce, preferably Frank's
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/4 pounds raw, coarsely ground turkey or chicken (white meat)
4 whole-wheat potato hamburger buns

For the mayo

1/2 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon hot sauce, preferably Frank's
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Coleslaw, for serving (optional)

Steps

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil and melt the butter. Add the onion and salt and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook, stirring, until the onion turns lightly golden. Stir in the hot sauce, black pepper, thyme and crushed red pepper flakes until combined. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl; let cool for 5 minutes.

2. Add the ground turkey or chicken, and with slightly dampened hands, gently combine the mixture. Form into 4 patties of equal size.

3. Wipe out the skillet and use a little oil to lightly grease it. Set over medium-high heat, add the patties and cook until browned on the bottom, 3 to 5 minutes. Gently flip the patties over and cook until cooked through and the juices run clear, 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Make the mayo: While the burgers are cooking, in a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, hot sauce, honey and cayenne pepper until combined. You should get a generous 1/2 cup; refrigerate until ready to use.

5. Spread about 1 tablespoon of the mayo on the inside tops and bottoms of the buns. Place the burgers on the bottom buns, top with coleslaw, if using, and place the top buns over. Serve warm.

Adapted from "Cooking With Love," by Carla Hall and Genevieve Ko (Free Press, 2012). Tested by Bonnie S. Benwick.

Nutrition information per serving (1 burger and bun with 1 tablespoon of mayo): Calories: 360; Total Fat: 12 g; Saturated Fat: 3 g; Cholesterol: 95 mg; Sodium: 730 mg; Carbohydrates: 24 g; Dietary Fiber: 5 g; Sugar: 7 g; Protein: 41 g.

Correction: Yesterday's newsletter featured a recipe for Antipasto Potato Salad. In the instructions, we omitted the step to add the cooked potatoes into the salad. See the Recipe Finder version for the correct recipe.