Pumped Up Chicken Burger
I've watched enough pitmaster based telly over the years to know one thing that I needed in my kitchen armoury was a flavour injector. So being summer and cooking a lot of Piri Piri recently, I did a quick impulse buy with a view to cooking up a chicken burger but marinaded on the inside as well as the outside.
So this is a gadget-themed article and a tale of my first adventure with it.
Please note that this article has been one of the harder ones to write given that this device has been purchased to inject meat. Whilst writing some of my findings, as soon as they were committed to paper (so to speak), I realised that the entire article was turning into the kind of smut found in a trashy holiday novel found on the cover of cosmo. So I will leave to you to re-write and discover your own double entendres.
So onto the test. First I knocked up a half batch of my piri piri sauce.
With the two chicken breasts ready on the slab, it was time to get stuck into some flavour surgery.
I chose to use the smaller of the two needles provided as my sauce was very smooth. If yours is a little thicker, you'll need a bit more girth.
With the needle ready and submerged in the sauce, gently pull up the marinade into the chamber until it's full.
The needles are sharp enough to easily puncture the meat so you need to be a little gentle not to go straight through. Holding at an angle just off the horizontal and slightly down, go to work starting with the biggest part of the chicken breast.
A little press and you see the meat bubble up a bit. Stop at this point.
Next, move the needle a bit up and in a little further and repeat.
You'll know if you've gone too far as the marinade will come out the bottom.
Be careful when pulling out as the sauce can squirt back at you.
Repeat this process as much as you like until the sauce is everywhere.
At this point, the inside is well marinaded but the outside could do with some love. Put the chicken in a large jar with the remainder of the marinade and stick in the fridge for a few hours or overnight (if you are not in a rush).
At the end of this, you will have some epic Piri Piri chicken ready for a salad, or in this case, a burger.
Fry the breasts off in a mix of oil and butter, a couple of minutes each side.
Add the remaining marinade, heat up, then cover for another 15 minutes to cook the chicken through, basting occasionally and turning halfway through.
Use a meat thermometer to ensure that the chicken has hit 74C.
Rest the chicken and slice or serve in one piece.
So, to answer the killer question - "Is it worth it?". Well for the sheer commentary alone I would say yes. For flavour, again I would say it certainly didn't do it any harm. Whilst I haven't been scientific with my approach of injected vs not injected, you can be assured that I will be whipping it out at any opportune moment ready to....... I'll stop there :)
Burger Up
- Cover the bottom bun with some mayonnaise
- Add sliced tomato
- Top with thinly sliced banana shallots
- Clump a generous handful of peppery rocket
- Adorn with your pumped up piri piri chicken
- Spoon some of the sauce from the pan over the top, ensuring some drips down the sides
- Top with the other half of the bun
