Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers

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All the flavors you love of a classic appetizer now stuffed into a delicious, better for you burger.  These Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers are packed with 4 types of cheese, spicy jalapenos and bacon. They’re a spicy flavor packed bomb of cheesy goodness!

Summa, Summa, Summatime… it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Now, let’s get to grillin’  While it’s not technically summer yet, it begins on June 20th, I just say summer because my kids have been out of school for weeks now AND the weather is in the 90’s so to me, it’s technically summer.  We’ve been living our days out at the pool, soaking up the rays and burning all our energy and I couldn’t love it more.  Summer is my favorite season and with good reason.  Who doesn’t love the hot sun, lazy days at the pool and no agenda?  Also, suns out, grills out.

I love to grill.  Unless I’m burning the bottom of my foot on a hot coal that’s landed on the pavement {Side note, wear shoes when grilling, like duh!}  Most of the time, I have my husband grill probably out of mere laziness but bottom line, I love to cook anywhere and I love the warm weather so the heat from the grill doesn’t bother me.  you’ll never hear me complain, “ugh, it’s too hot outside to grill”  which is exactly what I hear from my kids on a daily basis, “it’s too hot to play outside”  To which I reply, let’s go to the pool, get out the sprinkler or head down the slip n slide.  Kids these days.  I swear when I was little at any given moment you’d find my barefoot ass outside playing until I was called in for dinner or bedtime.

Back to the grill and these Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers.  Here I am yapping about the grill when in fact, I did not grill this burgers {insert face screaming emoji}  I did start them on my indoor grill pan and then finish them off in the oven, like my Irish Car Bomb Burgers, BECAUSE, they’re super drippy, which sounds like a disgusting word to use on a food blog but hear me out. It’s cheesy, jalapeno, bacon drippy goodness so it’s ok. I just didn’t want all that ooey-gooey cheese falling all over the grill making a super big mess, so there.

What I really love about these burgers is the cheese!  I am a Cheese-a-holic, with a capital C.  The stinkier the better which works out great for me, because the stinker, the farther away my family runs so ?.  There are 4 types of cheese in this burger and while you might be thinking holy overload, it’s the perfect combination of cheeses. There’s cream cheese, cheddar cheese and pepperjack cheese stuffed inside the burger and then American cheese on top.  AND they’re all reduced fat-HOLLA!

I’ve made these burgers before but as I’ve said before, it’s summer and hello bathing suit season, I wanted them to be a better for you burger.  I’ve had Weight Watchers cream cheese before, which I love, but I didn’t know they had American Cheese slices until I was browsing the cheese aisle in Kroger and spotted them.  What I really love about the Weight Watchers reduced fat cheese is how it’s real, all natural cheese, and you and everyone else would never be able to tell it’s reduced fat.  It has the same great taste as leading full fat cheese but it’s a better option for you if you’re working on a healthy lifestyle or trying to maintain one (<— me)

I also decided to use lean ground turkey opposed to beef to make for an overall better for you burger.  There are quite a few steps to these burgers but A. they’re worth it, B. They aren’t hard C. The end results are super delicious and honestly, better with ground turkey than the beef ones I’ve made before.  I was actually shocked at how much my husband loved this burger, not that he doesn’t like ground turkey, but he’s a manly man and BEEF.

I started by charring up the jalapenos under the broiler.  While that was going on, I cooked up the bacon.  Then you’ll want to wait until the peppers cool and then peel off the outer layer of char.  Sliced off the top, split the peppers in half and scrap out the seeds.  Or if you like it really hot, you can certainly leave those in there.

After that I combined the cheddar cheese, pepperjack cheese, Weight Watchers whipped cream cheese, jalapenos and bacon into a bowl.  Set that aside and move onto forming the patties.

My mom gifted my this burger press one Christmas and it’s in the top 10 of my all time kitchen gadgets.  I usually cannot make a burger patty to save my life, but this thing is genius.

I placed 2.5 ounces of Jennie-O ground Turkey on the bottom of the press.  Then I added 1/4 cup of the jalapeno popper cream cheese mixture, then topped it off with 1.5 ounces more of ground turkey.  I use a kitchen scale to make sure my measurements are exact.  Another kitchen gadget I cannot live without.

Then I placed the burgers into a pan, 2 at a time, and cooked them on each side for 3 minutes.  Then I placed them on a cookie sheet, lined with foil (makes cleanup a breeze) and popped them into a 450 degree oven and repeated with the other 2 patties.  I let the burgers cook in the oven for 10 minutes, then placed a piece of Weight Watchers Slices cheese on top and placed them back into the oven for 1 minute or until the cheese was melted.  Placed that patty on a hamburger bun, that I had toasted, and called it a Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers.

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Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Prep 15 mins

Cook 20 mins

Total 35 mins

Author Strawberry Blondie Kitchen

Yield 4 servings

All the flavors you love of a classic appetizer now stuffed into a delicious, better for you burger. These Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers are packed with 4 types of cheese, spicy jalapenos and bacon. They're a triple threat and darn good ones at that!

Ingredients

• Jalapeno Popper Cream Cheese
• 2 jalapenos
• 1/2 cup Weight Watchers Cream cheese, I used whipped (room temperature)
• 1oz reduced fat cheddar cheese
• 1oz reduced fat pepperjack cheese
• 4 slices center cut bacon
• Burgers
• 16 ounces ground turkey
• 4 slices Weight Watchers singles
• 4 hamburger buns, I used 80 calorie ones

Instructions

1. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and set broiler to high. Char jalapenos on all sides. Remove from oven and allow to cool. When cooled, peel off outer layer of char, cut off top, slice the peppers down the middle and scrap out the ribs and seeds, if desired. If you like it spicier, leave them in. Placed into a bowl
2. Cook bacon. (I place mine in a pan, set over medium heat, until browned) Crumble.
3. In the same bowl as the jalapenos, add in cream cheese, cheddar cheese, pepperjack cheese and bacon. Stir to combine.
4. Measure out 2.5 ounces of ground turkey and place into a burger press. If you do not have one, form into a patty 1/8" thick.
5. Place 1/4 cup cream cheese mixture into the middle of the patty and top with remaining 1.5 ounces of ground turkey, making sure to cover the cream cheese mixture. Pinch the ends so it all stays contained inside.*
6. in a pan set over medium heat and spray with cooking spray, place 2 burger patties. Allow to cook on each side for 3 minutes or until browned. Repeat with last 2 burgers.
7. Place on a cooking sheet lined with foil and bake for 10 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and add 1 piece of Weight Watchers Slices and place back into the oven for 1 minute or until melted.
9. Place burgers onto hamburger buns and serve.

Courses Burger

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 serving

Amount Per Serving
Calories 415
% Daily Value
Total Fat 20 g		31%
	Saturated Fat 10 g	50%
Cholesterol 117 mg		39%
Sodium 798 mg		33%
Total Carbohydrates 26 g		9%
	Dietary Fiber 8 g	32%
	Sugars 6 g
Protein 37 g		74%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

This burger is so bomb.  It tastes just like a jalapeno popper.  The meat is juicy, the cheese is awesome and cools the spicy jalapenos to the perfect heat.  These Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Turkey Burgers would be perfect for your next cookout or even Fourth of July, which is coming up right around the corner.  You could even make cute little baby sliders.  Yep, doing it.  I served the burgers with 98% fat-free french fries-yes that is a thing and they’re good as well.  I also used 80 calorie hamburger buns.  So all in all this was a better for you dinner and scored big points from the husband.  I also thoroughly enjoyed them and am looking forward to the leftovers as I didn’t serve these to the littles, they don’t do spicy.

*I must side note.  When cooking, these burgers are messy.  I tried to freeze pucks of the cream cheese mixture before I stuffed them into the ground meat and then placed the burgers into the freezer to chill even further hoping this would prevent some of the drippiness, but it didn’t.

So then I also tried it with room temperature cream cheese and room temp burgers and the same results.  Neither way worked better so while they were cooking in the pan, I was just scraping some of the cheese back onto the top of the burger.  In all honesty, this didn’t affect the burger at all and there was still tons of cheese to be had.  So overall, I wouldn’t say there was a huge loss here.  If you’ve got any tips on how to keep the stuff, stuffed inside, lemme know.  And yes, I did pinch the burgers around the edges to seal.

I myself, have never been on the Weight Watchers program but I have tried many of their products, which you can find at your local grocery store.  I’m a big fan.  They also have Reduced Fat Pepper Jack Singles you could use which would intensify the heat and also be delicious.

What do you love to grill up in the summer?  What are some of your favorite Weight Watchers products?  Sound off in the comments.

Enjoy and if you make this recipe, please share a photo on social media and hashtag it #strawberryblondiekitchen I love to see what you cook up!