This Chili's Santa Fe Burger is a perfect copycat, stacked with avocado, monterey jack, red onion, jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy sauce.
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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)
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:
- Divide ground beef into 4 equal portions then form into patties.
- Fry or grill for 2-3 minutes each side.
- When burger patties are finished, keep skillet on the heat and add jalapeno peppers, sauteing until tender and charred.
- Meanwhile, mix together ingredients for santa fe sauce.
- Toast burger buns.
- 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!
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!
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!
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
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:
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
More Chili's copycat recipes
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
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!
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