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Home » Recipes » Chili’s Santa Fe Burger

Chili’s Santa Fe Burger

8/19/20

Beef
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This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission

This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce.

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

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Ingredients in this burger

The ingredient list may look a little bit long but it's worth it to get all the flavour of these burgers!

Here's what you need:

  • extra-lean ground beef
  • jalapeno pepper
  • brioche burger buns
  • pickles
  • tomato
  • red onion
  • avocado
  • monterey jack cheese
  • cilantro
  • Santa Fe sauce (mayo, lime juice, chili powder, paprika & onion powder)

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

How to make Santa Fe burgers

Once you have all your toppings and the sauce made, it's as simple as grilling or sauteing the burger patties and putting it all together!

Here's how to make them:

  1. Divide ground beef into 4 equal portions then form into patties.
  2. Fry or grill for 2-3 minutes each side.
  3. When burger patties are finished, keep skillet on the heat and add jalapeno peppers, sauteing until tender and charred.
  4. Meanwhile, mix together ingredients for santa fe sauce.
  5. Toast burger buns.
  6. Spoon santa fe sauce over bottom bun, then add pickles, slice of tomato, red onion and 2 avocado slices followed by burger patty, cheese slice, more santa fe sauce, some jalapenos and cilantro. Top with remaining burger bun then serve and enjoy!

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

What is a Santa Fe burger?

If you’re not already familiar with Chili’s restaurant, their menu items are mostly Tex-Mex appetizers, entrees, and cocktails.

This delicious, slightly spicy burger is named after Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the cities where Tex-Mex and southwest flavours are the most popular!

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

Ingredient substitutions

  • Meat – There are plenty of great substitutes for ground beef. You can substitute ground chicken, turkey, or pork. For a vegetarian or vegan option, black bean burgers would be a great choice.
  • Jalapenos – To increase the spice level of the burgers, feel free to use hotter chile peppers. Serrano or poblano peppers would be delicious.
  • Cheese – Monterey Jack cheese melts beautifully and adds great flavour to the burger. Any good meltable cheese could be substituted. For a little extra heat, try Pepper Jack!
  • Buns – I like to use hearty hamburger buns so they don’t fall apart when all of the burger toppings are on them. If you’re looking to lower the calories or make keto-friendly burgers, large leaves of lettuce make a fantastic lettuce wrap!

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

What is Santa Fe sauce made of?

The sauce for the burger is similar to a spicy aioli. The base ingredient in Santa Fe sauce is mayonnaise.

To that, lime juice and seasonings of chili powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika are added for a punch of zesty flavour.

More topping ideas

There are plenty of ways to customize your burgers to give them your own special touch while keeping the Tex-Mex flavour. A few ideas include:

  • Guacamole
  • Roasted garlic
  • sauteed onions and peppers
  • Battered fried onions

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

Storing and reheating

If you’ve ever tried to reheat a burger with all of the toppings and a bun on it, you know that it’s pretty difficult to do.
If your appetite isn’t turned off by the soggy bun, the warm lettuce might make you regret the decision. 😉

For this reason, I recommend that you wait until everyone is at the table to add any toppings to the burgers.

This way, if you have any extra burgers, you can refrigerate them separately from the ingredients. This will ensure a much better leftover burger experience. The burger patties and toppings will all keep well in the fridge for a few days.

Here are a few ways to reheat burger patties without drying them out:

  1. Oven – Arrange the burger patties in a single layer inside a shallow baking dish. Add a couple of tablespoons of water or beef broth, just to help prevent the meat from drying out. Cover the dish tightly with a layer of foil and reheat for 15 to 25 minutes in a 350 F. oven.
  2. Stove top – This is my favourite way to reheat cooked burgers and steak! Place the meat inside of a large Ziploc bag and be sure to seal it completely. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. After that, immediately remove the pan from the heat. Allow the bag with the burgers to sit in the hot water for 5-10 minutes and they will be completely warmed through and perfectly juicy!
  3. Grill – Place the cooked burgers onto a preheated barbecue and spritz them with a little bit of water to keep them moist as they reheat.

Freezing the beef patties

To freeze the patties, stack them with a small piece of wax paper or parchment paper between them. This makes it easier to separate the frozen patties.

Place the stack inside of a freezable container and they will keep well frozen for 3 to 4 months.

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

More Chili's copycat recipes

  • Chili's Margarita Grilled Chicken
  • Chili's Santa Fe Chicken Salad
  • Chili's Cajun Chicken Pasta

Meal prep tools for this recipe

  • Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on storing leftover patties
  • I get all my grass-fed ground beef from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen

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Chili's Santa Fe Burger

Chili's Santa Fe Burger

This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce.
4.67 from 3 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chili's copycat, santa fe burger
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 519kcal
Author: Taylor Stinson

Ingredients

  • 1 lb extra-lean ground beef
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and chopped
  • 4 brioche burger buns
  • Pickles, to serve
  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced
  • 1 avocado, sliced
  • 4 slices monterey jack cheese
  • Cilantro, to serve

Santa Fe sauce

  • 1/3 cup light mayo
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp paprika smoked paprika is preferred
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • Divide ground beef into 4 equal portions then form into patties. Season with salt & pepper, then fry in a large skillet over med-high heat for 2-3 minutes each side. Remove from heat and set aside.
  • Meanwhile, mix together ingredients for santa fe sauce.
  • When burger patties are finished, keep skillet on the heat and add jalapeno peppers, sauteing for 2 minutes until tender and charred. Remove from heat.
  • Toast burger buns lightly in a toaster or under a broiler for 1 minute or so.
  • Spoon santa fe sauce over bottom bun, then add pickles, slice of tomato, red onion and 2 avocado slices followed by burger patty, cheese slice, more santa fe sauce, some jalapenos and cilantro. Top with remaining burger bun then serve and enjoy!

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 519kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 98mg | Sodium: 591mg | Potassium: 806mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 800IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 306mg | Iron: 5mg

This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce. #chilis #santafeburger This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce. #chilis #santafeburger This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce. #chilis #santafeburger This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce. #chilis #santafeburger

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About Taylor Stinson

Hey there, my name's Taylor! I’m the founder of The Girl on Bloor, a food blog where I share healthy meal prep recipes for busy people. I'm a busy city girl living in downtown Toronto on (you guessed it!) Bloor Street. I've got 10 years experience meal prepping, along with a Master's degree in journalism, and you can find my work across the internet featured on publications such as Buzzfeed, HuffPost, Women's Health, Reader's Digest and more. I also run the awesome 5-Day Meal Prep Challenge, which is a free email course and Facebook group where I share my meal planning strategies and easy meal prep tips and recipes. Be sure to check out my free beginner’s guide to meal prep and follow me on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to get my latest recipes and meal prep tips!

Comments

  1. cherie del rose says

    December 1, 2020 at 14:52

    5 stars
    I used to go into Chili’s for appetizers and fajitas one day I decided to get a burger (I am very picky about mu burgers). I ordered the Santa Fe burger! I have been back 10 times and have to order the burger again and again. I order it without the bun and the chefs do their best to make it very attractive. They succeed every time. I especially love the sauce which I dip my fries in. Kudos to you Chilis for having such a delicious entre.

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