It’s been a while since I’ve done a proper meal prep and I was wanting to spice things up. I’ve recently discovered buffalo sauce which is mighty tasty and also zero calories – win win. One my hacks to cooking awesome meal prep recipes is to include flavor, and these buffalo turkey burgers are just that. Spicy, full of flavor, while keeping my meal lean and high in protein.
During November and December, I pretty much lived off of slow cooker chicken and rice because of how packed my schedule was. Now that I’m in a dieting phase, I want to switch up my recipes and have a variety to choose from during the week. I paired half of my meal prep with zesty cilantro lime cauliflower rice and oven roasted green beans. With the other half I added my go-to fajita butternut squash and mixed vegetables.
When you’re making homemade burgers, you’ll want to include binding agents in the mix to help hold everything together. Usually, I would use bread crumbs, but I didn’t want to buy those just for this recipe. Instead I grabbed my supply of quick oats from the pantry and it did the trick! If you’re using ground chicken, instead of turkey (I’ve used both for this recipe), I recommend using a whole egg to help bind the oats to the chicken. Since I used 7% fat turkey, I opted for egg whites and had no problem with the mix.
The other part to this recipe is successfully creating the recipe and accurately tracking (if you track your food). I use MyFitnessPal to track all of my meals including homemade recipes. There’s two ways to create and weigh recipes and I go into that in this recipe.
Buffalo Turkey Burger Meal Prep
What You’ll Need
- 93/7 lean ground turkey
- 15g quick oats
- 25g egg whites
- 2 T. Frank’s Red Hot buffalo sauce
- garlic powder
- salt & pepper
- non-stick cooking spray
Preheat both the oven to 375 degrees and a stove top pan (or griddle) to medium. Pre-weigh the above ingredients and set aside. Place a large glass, bowl onto a food scale and add the ground turkey, quick oats, egg whites, and buffalo sauce without zeroing the scale. Sprinkle on garlic powder, salt and pepper eye-balling what you think will be to taste, again without zeroing the scale. Combine with hands.
Divide the total weight of the mixture by six – this is how much each burger pattie should weigh for the recipe to be accurate. Wash your hands (safety first!), zero the scale and grab the calculated amount for one burger, roll into a ball, and then gently flatten the ball to form a burger. This method should let you have evenly distributed and round burgers for consistent cooking.
Spray the stove top pan with non-stick cooking spray and place three of the turkey burgers on the surface – cover with a lid. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes and flip – cover again with a lid. Cook for another 5 to 7 minutes and flip again. Remove the patties from the pan and add into a baking dish. Cook in the oven for another 10 -15 minutes until the patties reach an internal temperature is 165 degrees.
Calories and macros for my turkey burger recipe: 142 calories,19 protein, 2 carbs, 7 fat. Remember that recipes may differ depending on the individual ingredients, so check your labels and weigh accordingly.
To complete the meal prep, pair with your favorite sides. If you’re dieting like me at the moment, go for something low carb, high volume. If you’re in a maintenance of bulking phase, try cilantro lime rice instead of cauliflower or roasted red potatoes.
I hope you enjoy this meal prep – be sure to check out my other recipes and meal preps for your fitness journey!
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