Top burger recipes for the barbecue from The Buckingham Butcher

Whatever the weather may do this weekend, make time for some alfresco cooking as it’s National Barbecue Week.

We’ve got great ready-to-go options, including our gourmet, gluten free burgers, marinated chicken and pork and, of course, no less than 12 varieties of our famous sausages.

But if you’re like Mrs Buckingham Butcher, you may want to create your own burgers – and here are two cracking recipes to try this weekend.

TRADITIONAL BURGERS – Serves 4

You Will Need:-
500g Beef Mince
4 Shallots, finely chopped
2 Tsp English Mustard
1 Large Egg Yolk
25g Breadcrumbs

What To Do:-
Mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl. Divide into four equal portions and shape into burger patties. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before cooking on a griddle or on the BBQ.

THAI STYLE CHICKEN BURGERS – Serves 4

You Will Need:-
4 Chicken Thighs, skin and bone removed
2 Chicken Breasts, skin removed
3 Cloves Garlic, roughly chopped
4 Spring Onions, roughly chopped
Thumbsize Piece of Ginger, roughly chopped
½ Small Bunch Coriander, chopped
2-3 Tbsp Fish Sauce

What To Do:-
Put the garlic, spring onions and ginger in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the chicken, coriander and fish sauce and pulse again until well combined. Use wet hands to shape into four patties, cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Alternatively, you can shape into 12 patties and shallow fry, serving with noodles, stir fry veg and sweet chilli sauce.

And in case you missed them, check out our hot barbecue tips and spicy barbecue recipes too!

Enjoy!

Trevor, The Buckingham Butcher

Spice up your barbecue with The Buckingham Butcher!

Chicken and steak cooked on the barbecue taste great as they are, but if you’re looking to ring the changes, we’ve got some ideas to spice them up a little! These work well too...

Simple All Purpose Rub (for steak, chicken and pork)

You Will Need:-
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper 
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

What To Do:-
Using a pestle and mortar, first bash the fennel seeds well, then add all the ingredients. Bash this well together until you have a red paste. Rub on meats before grilling them.

Steak Rub

You Will Need:-
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon dill seeds
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and black pepper

What To Do:-
In a small bowl, combine the paprika, coriander, dill, garlic, mustard, cayenne, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Just before cooking, press the rub gently into the steak.

BBQ Chicken Rub and Sauce

What You’ll Need:-

Rub
2 heaped teaspoons fennel seeds
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
1 heaped teaspoon golden caster sugar
1 level teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper

For the BBQ sauce
200 g light soft brown sugar
200 g tomato ketchup
200 ml fresh unsweetened apple juice
100 ml bourbon whisky
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 heaped teaspoons English mustard
Juice of 2 oranges
A few splashes of chipotle Tabasco
1 pinch of sea salt

Bash up the rub ingredients and rub over the chicken. To make the BBQ sauce, simply mix the ingredients together and warm in a saucepan before drizzling over the cooked chicken.

Hope you enjoy!

Trevor, The Buckingham Butcher

A slow cooker's for life, not just for Christmas

Here at The Buckingham Butcher, you know that we’re a big fan of thriftiness – that’s why our prices are low, despite the quality of the produce we offer.

We’re also a big fan of good cooking, and will continue to share with you our favourite recipes for different cuts of meat to help you get the most out of what you buy from us.

And now we’d like to share with you the best tip we have for easy mid-week meals from the hard-working Mrs Buckingham Butcher – the slow cooker.

Many of us use a slow cooker for making hearty winter soups and stews. But you really don’t need to consign it to the cupboard when the sun comes out. If you’re a time-short working mum or dad and still want to feed your family well each evening – and save money – the slow cooker can work for you all year round.

Mrs Buckingham Butcher works full time as a nurse, has two children to ferry to activities each evening, helps out in the shop at weekends, and has a hungry Buckingham Butcher to feed. She’d not do without her slow cooker. And here are some of her top tips that go beyond the casserole…

Gammon Joints
Stick a gammon joint (three for £10) in the slow cooker before you go to work. Add an onion, quartered, a bay leaf and maybe some garlic. Splash in a centimetre or two of stock or water and leave on all day on Low.

When you’re back from work, you’ve got a cooked gammon – and enough ham for sandwiches, pasta dishes, etc for the week.

If you fancy ‘doing a Nigella’, swap the water for full fat coke or even cherry coke for a sweeter taste.

Chicken Thighs
Defrost our oyster cut chicken thighs (3kg for £5) overnight and then place in the slow cooker. Add sliced chorizo and onions, plus bite-sized chunks of potato. Add the zest of one orange and a glass of sherry. Cook all day on Low and serve sprinkled with coriander with hunks of crusty bread.

Beef Mince
There are conflicting discussions about whether to brown the mince before adding to the slow cooker. We’ve done both and the results are always good. But we always fry the onions before adding to the slow cooker anyway (otherwise they just ‘boil’ in the cooker) so we tend to brown the mince anyway.

Then turn into chilli or spag bol by adding a tin of tomatoes and spices. Cook all day on low and you’ll have the tastiest spag bol/chilli you’ve ever had.

Whole Chicken
You won’t get the crispy skin that you would if you put the chicken in a traditional oven. But you will get the juiciest roast chicken you’ve ever had – and the meat literally falls off the bones.
Simply place the chicken in your slow cooker, add a quartered onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, bay leaf and season. No water or stock is required. Then cook on LOW for ten hours or more.

And don’t forget to make stock once you’ve picked the meat from the bones. Put the carcass back in the slow cooker with an onion, garlic, carrot cut into four, bay leaf and peppercorns. Cover with water and cook on Low overnight.

Hope you enjoy these ideas!

Trevor, The Buckingham Butcher