Mediterranean chicken burgers

As the summer winds down I start to get tired of the usual grilled fare. These Mediterranean chicken burgers from elly says opa! were a nice change of pace.

I had the hardest time finding the ingredients at my grocery store though. I didn't think Kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes were specialty items. I had to ask 4 people where they were and no one seemed to know. How does that happen? You'd think that the kalamata olives would be with the rest of the olives. No, they were in the Greek section. OK, I can see that, but why did none of the employees know that? I found the olives after my "helpers" had abandoned me.

The "helpers" did assist me in finding a $8 jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil. Um, no. There was no way I was going to pay that much for a teeny tiny container. Oh, but they were ORGANIC so that totally justifies the insane price. Yeah, right. I opted for the $2 jar of sun dried tomato pesto instead. The tomatoes were going to be ground up in the food processor so I guessed it would be a sufficient substitute.

I thought the olive-tomato tapenade was a bit on the salty side. That was most likely due to the olives rather than the pesto I used. Mrblocko thought it was good though. He wished we had made more. He also suggested the burgers might be more moist if we mixed in the tapenade into the burger before grilling. He is right, but the burgers would be too salty for me. Keeping the topping separate allows me to control how much goes on my burger and therefore the saltiness.

I'll have to think some more on a solution to make the burgers more moist. Maybe an egg? I'm open to suggestions.

Mediterranean Chicken Burgers from Elly Says Opa! Makes 4 burgers
1 lb. ground chicken (alright, alright…or turkey)
3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1.5 tsp. dried oregano
12 kalamata olives, pitted
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil (or oil from the tomatoes)
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper

Mix chicken, feta, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Shape into 4 patties. Lightly spray a grill/grill pan with oil and cook burgers til done, about 5-6 min per side. Meanwhile, make tapenade by putting olives, sundried tomatoes, garlic and a little ground pepper in a food processor, pulsing til combined. While pulsing, drizzle in oil. Top burgers with tapenade.