Chili Chicken Burger

I know it’s trendy right now to sing the praises of an unfussy, straight-ahead burger. Noth­ing but salt and pep­per in the meat and a square of processed cheese melted on top. In our city of Toronto, you can pay a lot at trendy, faux-dives for the sim­plest of burg­ers. To which I say, meh. You know I can’t even with processed cheese and if my two jazz-hand wav­ing, tutu-wearing, show-tune belt­ing kids have taught me any­thing, it’s that more is some­times most def­i­nitely more. These burg­ers are so much more. Or should I say, these burg­ers are so much more! (They’re kind of show-offs, really.)

Really not much more effort than a basic burger, these have a nice amount of spice and sea­son­ing worked into the pat­ties and are topped with a creamy gua­camole and a cool Mex­i­can crema. Crema is a Mex­i­can sour cream and depend­ing on where you live it’s not always easy to find. So I’ve given you a recipe for mak­ing one. These would be great to serve at a bar­be­cue along with salsa and corn chips. But they’re really sim­ple enough to whip together on an oth­er­wise bor­ing, old Wednes­day night. It’s not sum­mer until you’ve had a burger, so let this one wel­come back the long, hot days.