Spicy Tropical Burger - What the Forks for Dinner?

Sometimes to get something right, you have to go through a few trials……….pardon my French but these burger were a bitch to make…….until I got it right. I know people think that us food bloggers always have these perfect beautiful meals, where nothing, burns or turns out tasting like yack!! Surprise……it happens…… a lot!! I wanted to make a burger with pineapple. Spicy Tropical Burger! First try, I used ground chicken……giant fail! I thought maybe it was the ground chicken. It is much leaner than ground beef and if you mess with it too much….well it’s kind of a mess. Round two……I used burger. Better texture from the beginning. On the road to success……..but ,there was a bump in the road. We bought a new grill…..a charcoal grill. Tim and I put it together in anticipation of these burgers. Tim got the charcoal ready and we put the burger on the grill……wha wha……again fail. They all but fell through the grates in the grill. In an effort to have something for supper I tried to salvage what was still on top of the grill grate and cook the meat in a pan indoor. NO GO!! Lets just say that I have only made one other dish in my whole life ( a sorry mess of canned salmon and a bagged pasta mix……lets not open that old wound!) that I threw out and I now have a second. It tasted like sawdust and dirt. I won’t bore you with the details of the dish, but I was mixing the ingredients together like a meatloaf and it wasn’t cooperating. So, third time is a charm, so they say. Instead of mixing everything together, I used the spices (smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, garlic pepper and salt) to flavor a plain burger patty. Grilled to perfection. My hubby the grillmaster:) I had my glaze perfect from the start……a little tropical jam, pineapple, teriyaki, and green onions….a nice cool element for the spice of the burger. Smuckers has a new line of Fruit Spreads that are hmmm, hmmm, hmmmm. Pineapple Pico……another first attempt. Fresh pineapple, red bell pepper, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime juice, ginger, cumin and salt and pepper. I figured this was a no brainer and I could hardly mess it up…..true! A little spicy, a lot tropically. Ciabatta onion rolls were my bun of choice……please, use what ever bun you like. I find ciabattas to be a nice combination of chewy and crusty…..perfect when you need a sturdy bun, which you will need for Spicy Tropical Burger……it’s a load of flavor. Third time really was a charm……..the flavor of all the separate ingredients melded together in scrumptious layers to make the best burger I have eaten in quite sometime. So, take a trip to the islands and whip up some Spicy Tropical Burger.

Pineapple Pico

Ingredients

Instructions