Bison Burgers with Special Sauce

Burgers are one of my favorite things in the world....but one day, I made the mistake of looking up the calorie and fat content in Ground Beef and was immediately disgusted at my past burger eating.  It was a sad sad time in my life... however, I am all about cooking comfort foods but finding ways to make them healthier in any way possible...and burgers were no different.  I discovered that at my local Whole Foods, they sell Bison Meat! Bison meat has less calories and less fat than Ground Beef, and I think the taste is even better as well. In addition to this mouth watering burger, my husband started making this awesome Special Sauce (modeled after the sauce used on Shake Shack burgers). This sauce is so awesome that we usually make it in large quantities and put it in a jar for later usage (or give it out to friends when we go to their houses!)  You can construct your burger however you want, but I love a nice crisp piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato, and the Special Sauce sandwiched in between a crispy bun!

Bison Sliders with Special Sauce

(yields 4, 4oz. burgers)

For the Sliders:

1 lb. Ground Bison Meat

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup onion, minced

½ tsp. Thyme

2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1.     In a bowl, mix all ingredients together and form 4, equal sized patties.  Cook on a griddle until medium rare on the inside. Let sit for about 5 minutes after cooking so all the juices can be absorbed back into the burger.

For the Special Sauce:

½ cup Low Fat Mayonnaise

1 tbsp. Ketchup

1 tbsp. Mustard (not Dijon)

1 large Pickle, diced

¼ tsp. Garlic powder

¼ tsp. Paprika

1.     Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a bowl – and cool in a refrigerator until using.

For Assembly:

1.     Toast your hamburger buns, lay your bison burger on top, add your special sauce, some lettuce, a slice of tomato and then cover with the topside of the bun.  You can also make these cheeseburgers by adding a slice of your favorite cheese on the burger while cooking it (*cheddar cheese goes best!)

**Tip: For extra flavor, butter the buns before you toast them!

** Also I use Cabot's 50% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese when making these into cheese burgers....the cheese is fantastic and has half the fat and calories of regular cheese!

YUM!