Homage to the 'Big Mac' - Healthy Copycat Recipe

Hundreds of burgers later, the Big Mac stands up to the test of space and time - including recently being sent into space and returning unscathed. I hadn't had one in a while, and finally with a little research and tinkering I'm proud to share this step-by-step as-healthy-as-a-burger-can-be Big Mac copycat recipe! Of note, the majority of the sauce credit goes to Fox Valley Foodie which imo had the best base (+props for reverse engineering from an McD's exec chef video)- and no, it's NOT thousand island sauce... there's not a trace of tomatoes!

Prep time: 15m, Total start-to-eat time: 45m

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Ingredients

For 'Big Mac' Sauce:

• 1 cup Mayo (prefer any light mayo)

• ¼ cup Sweet Pickle Relish

• 1 ½ tablespoons Yellow Mustard (like French's)

• 1 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar

• ½ teaspoon Paprika (prefer smoked)

• ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder

• ¼ teaspoon Onion Powder (optional)

For 3 Full Burgers:

• 16oz Lean Ground Turkey

• 3-6 slices American Cheese (preferably from deli, 1 or 2 slices per burger)

• 1/2 cup Medium white onion, finely chopped (half a medium onion)

• 1/2 cup Shredded lettuce (romaine, iceberg, anything will do, into thin lengthwise strips)

• 3 Large uncut Sesame Seed buns (or uncut brioche buns, or can use normal cut buns and use one full bun + one base off another bun pair for the middle bun)

• 1/2 cup of bread and butter (or similar) pickles

• salt & pepper to taste (to season patties, preferably kosher salt and freshly ground peppercorns)

Optional:

• Burger Press

• Cast Iron Skillet

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Directions

Prep:

1. Sauce up: Mix all sauce ingredients together, refrigerate at least 30m (preferably overnight). Store as long as the mayo's still good in a glass jar in the fridge for future use.

2. Chop: Chop onions and lettuce. Slice buns into thirds.

3. Make Patties: Mix ground turkey with generous seasoning (1/2 tspn each) of salt and pepper and form into patties that will fit the buns you have (remember, patties will shrink once cooked). Each patty should be ~1/3 cup of meat each, make sure they're thin - you can use a burger press if you have one. Optionally store these in the freezer.

Cook:

1. Pre-heat: Heat cast iron skillet (or a normal frying pan - the hotter the pan, the better the burgers will taste) over high heat until smoking. Optionally add a 1/4 tspn of high heat tolerant oil to pan

2. Make Patties: Put 2-3 patties (whatever fits) on the hot skillet and press down into the pan with spatula to make sure they're thin and will cook evenly. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until just starting to darken/burn and still juicy

3. Cheese, Please: Remove from heat, stack a full or half slice of cheese on top of each patty to let melt

4. Toast buns: Make sure each side of the bun that's not the top layer gets toasted - you can do this in the toaster or turn the heat off on the cast iron skillet and keep the buns in there for 30s.

5. Build Burger: Bottom bun, sauce, chopped onion/lettuce, patty with cheese, pickles. Middle bun, sauce, chopped onion/lettuce, patty with cheese. Sauce up the top bun and put it all together!

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Adapted from Fox Valley Foodie and Allrecipes.