Chipotle Burgers

A juicy, spicy, and smoky beef burger topped with chipotle mayo and avocado spread and on a sweet potato round. It tastes like a cheat day meal but is actually Whole30 compliant, paleo, and gluten free.

There is nothing I love more than a burger. It’s my favorite indulgent meal. The big, juicy patty, covered in oozy sauce, and piled high with endless toppings. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

My husband is an avid burger lover as well. He constantly sends me instragram photos of all the amazing burger options throughout Chicago. We have a list of restaurants we want to visit just to try the burger. 🍔 The Loyalist, Owen and Engine, and Au Cheval, are on the list, just to name a few.

But of course, we like to make burgers at home too.  The great thing about making them on your own is you can put your own creative twist on this classic. I also like to give it my healthy danilicious spin.

My latest burger creation is a chipotle garlic beef burger with spicy mayo and an avocado spread on a sweet potato round.

Let’s get to cooking.

First, we need to make sweet potato rounds. If I know I am using a sweet potato as my “bun”, I try to pick out long, thinner, evenly round sweet potatoes as they will cut into even size slices, perfect for this recipe. I cut the sweet potatoes into half inch rounds. Drizzle the rounds with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake them at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, slipping halfway through so both sides develop a golden brown crust, but are still slightly soft in the middle.

Next, we will move on to the burger patties. The burgers are just lean beef, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. I kept the burgers simple since I’m using a duo of flavor-packed sauces. I always use 90% lean ground beef – I still think it leads to a juicy, flavorful burger. If you like a meat with a higher fat content, then that totally works as well. Form the beef mixture into about 6 even sized patties.  I tried to make my patties the same size as the sweet potato rounds.

Since it’s 50 degrees out in Chicago in the middle of winter, I took advantage of this nice weather and grilled my burgers. I prefer grilled burgers because the burgers develop  a nice char and provides a smoky flavor from the grill. But these also cook well in a cast iron skillet on the stove. I prefer my burgers medium rare, so I cooked the patties for about 5 minutes on each side. You can cook your burgers to your preferred doneness.

Now let’s make the sauces. The first sauce is a chipotle mayo. It’s simple to make – mix mayo (I made mine from scratch using a basic mayo recipe), hot sauce, chipotle powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. The sauce is creamy and rich, plus gives the burgers a spicy, smoky kick.

To help cool things down, I also made a avocado spread by mashing avocado, lime juice, salt and pepper. You can’t have a Mexican style burger without delicious, fresh avocado. I’m also obsessed with avocado and will put it on just about everything!

Time to assemble these beauties. Start with a sweet potato round, add a burger patty, top with both sauces, and garnish with sliced red onions, jalapeño, and cilantro.

These burgers are super delicious. The beef patties are garlicky and juicy, the chipotle sauce spicy and tangy, and the avocado spread creamy and fresh. The sweet potato round brings it all together, adding a little crispy sweetness to break up all the umami and spicy flavors.

It taste totally indulgent, but is whole30 compliant, paleo, and gluten-free. It will feel like you just cheated on your diet but in reality, it’s a healthy well-balanced meal! Win win!