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Chicken and Feta Burgers

"These Mediterranean-inspired chicken patties are a light contrast to your beef burgers and compliment any backyard get-together. If you use all-breast meat, add some olive oil to the meat mixture so they don't dry out. You could also use 2 tablespoons chopped Kalamata olives instead of the tapenade. Use tzatziki sauce on top to stay with the Mediterranean flavors or use a sesame dressing with shredded lettuce for an Asian taste."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,839 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

The recipe

4 burgers
Prep10 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground chicken, chopped oregano, Kalamata-olive tapenade, crumbled feta, crushed garlic, kosher salt and coarse-ground black pepper. Mix gently with your hands until evenly combined, without overworking the meat.

  2. Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions and shape each into a patty about 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick, pressing a shallow dip into the center of each.

  3. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. No added oil is needed if the pan is nonstick.

  4. Cook the patties for 4 to 5 minutes per side, until well browned on the outside.

  5. Check the thickest part of a patty with an instant-read thermometer. It must reach 165°F (74°C). Rest the burgers for 2 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chicken + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  2. Olive + feta cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Oregano + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Oregano + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the oregano

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, feta cheese, garlic, pepper):

  1. Oreganothe original
  2. Basilabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Rosemaryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, feta cheese, garlic, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).