Most weeks I have no problem coming up with ideas for The Hungry Pinner, but not this week. I was really struggling after combing through my pins, so I asked my husband for suggestions. He surprised me by suggesting teriyaki. Teriyaki? Hmmm. I know I’ve had it, but it’s been a very long time. And I think I liked it, so why not blog it? So I went back to my boards and found Teriyaki Burgers with Grilled Pineapple. Grilled burgers with a healthy twist, topped with a slice of pineapple. This I had to try.
Hawaiian Teriyaki Burgers. Moist, juicy chicken or turkey burgers topped with a sweet and tangy teriyaki burger sauce, grilled pineapple, and onion.
The Ingredients
Now that I had decided on a recipe, the next logical step was grocery shopping. I ordered my groceries from Whole Foods delivery this week because I was having a fibromyalgia flare-up. It makes getting around difficult and painful, so a big shopping trip was out of the question.
Whole Foods delivery service is usually excellent, but this week there were a few issues. First, the ground turkey listed on their website was listed as 94% lean. The recipe calls for 93% lean, so I wasn’t sweating the slight difference. However, the ground turkey they delivered said it was 99% lean on the packaging. Eeek! That sounded like the makings of a very dry burger.
Another issue I had was with the fresh ginger. I thought the pieces they delivered were very small, but that wasn’t a big deal. Then I started peeling a piece as I was preparing my burgers. That’s when I realized it wasn’t ginger at all but turmeric root. Ugh! They are not interchangeable. Fortunately, a quick Google told me I could substitute ground ginger. It wasn’t ideal, but it saved me since I had already started cooking.
Otherwise, the rest of the ingredients I ordered were just as expected. The only thing I couldn’t find was the whole wheat panko bread crumbs. I just used regular panko instead.
The Process
Making these teriyaki burgers was very straightforward and divided into two major parts: making the sauce and making the burgers. Here is how the times broke down:
- 15 minutes to prepare the sauce and form the burgers
- 30 minutes to refrigerate the burgers
- 16 minutes to grill
- 3 minutes to assemble 4 burgers
- 62 minutes total
The instructions were clear and easy to follow as written. The sauce was the easiest part of this recipe, and all I needed was a small saucepan to make it. It did thicken up pretty fast though, so be sure to keep an eye on it.
Grilling the pineapple, onions, buns, and burgers was a bit more work, but mostly because I had to gather the food and tools to grill outside. A long spatula and basting brush were essential tools here. I’m sure I don’t have to mention that it’s not fun to get too close to a hot grill.
As you can see, I didn’t really plan when I laid out the food on the grill. It ended up being a fit everything where there’s space situation, but it all worked out.
The burgers had rested for five minutes by the time I brought everything inside, and it was time to assemble them. No extra condiments were needed, so this step was just a matter of layering the grilled items and extra teriyaki sauce on the buns. Super simple!
