Bobby Flay's Sante Fe Burger with a Twist

This juicy Santa Fe Burger features a fried green tomato, roasted poblano peppers, and queso sauce. It's amazing!

I don't know if y'all have ever seen Bobby Flay on television, but bless his heart, he's kind of pitiful in the kitchen, isn't he?

Ok, of course I'm just kidding. I love, love, love Bobby Flay and so does Brian. We decided to try our hand at one of his super burgers, and settled on the Santa Fé burger with a bit of a Southern twist.

Hamburgers are usually something I make when I just don't feel like making anything else for dinner. Burgers are simple: just add salt and pepper to ground chuck and form into patties, then throw on the grill or in a skillet. They're easy and everybody likes them.

This burger, however, was far from easy. This burger was a production. An event. A much-anticipated culinary experience. This burger was, as we say in the South, a to-do.

We wanted to add a bit more heat and some kind of vegetable. We considered onion rings (yes, onion rings count as a vegetable) but decided onion rings are everywhere and too common. Then we thought, tomato. And almost immediately, that thought transformed to...fried green tomato.

And I wanted to include something healthy, so we added arugula too.

Because, you know, a few pieces of arugula can boost the health content of a hamburger topped with queso sauce, a fried green tomato and crumbled tortilla chips.

The end result of our experiment was a fantastic burger with so much flavor that we all fell in love with it. The queso sauce blended perfectly with the fried green tomato, which lent just enough crispy texture to give the burger a notch up. It was amazing!

How to Make the Santa Fe Burger

Start by roasting a couple of poblano chiles. Just place them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast about 15 minutes or until the skin is blackened.

Then place the chiles in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 15-20 minutes. The steam will loosen the skin and you'll be able to peel it right off. Once peeled, seed the chile and chop.

How to Make Queso Sauce

Now for the good stuff: the jalapeño queso sauce. This sauce is also great with chips and salsa.

Chop one red onion and 1 or 2 jalapeño peppers finely. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and once melted, whisk in flour. Cook for one minute, then add milk and increase heat to medium-high. Whisk constantly until sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.

Turn heat to low and whisk in the cheese, onion and jalapeño. You could also sauté the onion and jalapeño in butter in a separate pan before adding, but since this is already a lot of trouble I didn't want to add another step.

We were fine with the onion and jalapeño being slightly crunchy in the sauce; in fact, I don't think anyone even noticed.

Continue to cook the sauce on low heat for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then remove from heat and keep warm.

Recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes.

At this point, you really need two people working. The burgers and fried green tomatoes need to cook at the same time so they're both warm and ready to serve immediately. If you're attempting this on your own, then I'd suggest cooking the burgers first and keeping them wrapped loosely in foil to keep warm.

You definitely have to serve the fried green tomatoes on the burger as soon as they are cooked or you'll lose the crispness of the crust on the tomato. Soggy fried green tomato = fail.

You can cook the burgers Bobby's way on the grill or in a skillet. We cooked ours on the grill and then started the assembly process.

Place the burger on the bottom half of the bun and then top with some of the chopped poblanos.

Then add the fried green tomato, a couple of tablespoons of the queso sauce, crumbled tortilla chips and top it off with a little arugula. 

Place the other half of the bun on top and serve immediately—with lots of napkins!

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Jalapeno Turkey Burger - spicy turkey burger with sundried tomatoes!

The Santa Fé burger with a Twist is great for a family cooking night. Have the kids pitch in and work together and make it an event. Enjoy!

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