Saucy Balsamic Burgers

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat.

Combine ground turkey and country sausage in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper and mix well.

Form meat into 36 firm, one-ounce size meatballs. A cookie scoop works great for measuring. Brown meatballs in the frying pan. Never under-cook pork or chicken. In this case, there will be more cooking time so to prevent the meat from becoming too dry, just brown all of the sides for now. Remove them from the pan and place them on a tray. Set aside.

Discard excess oil from the pan that you made the meatballs in, leave just a tablespoon or two. Reduce the heat to medium and add the finely diced onion. Cook until caramelized then add the minced garlic and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

Whisk the balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and a dash of salt and pepper into onions.

Whisk cornstarch and chicken broth together in a small dish until cornstarch is dissolved. Then whisk this mixture into the sauce. Continue to heat and stir until thickened.

After sauce has simmered for several minutes, give it a taste test to make sure it tastes great because once you add the meat into the sauce again it will no longer be safe to test until it reduces down later on.

Add meatballs and the freshly chopped herbs to the sauce and stir so that meatballs are coated with sauce.

Preheat oven to 400 F. This is very, very important. If you do not preheat your oven, things will not cook properly—especially puff pastry. It will come out soggy and limp instead of puffed and flaky.

Using a little flour and a rolling pin, roll out 4 puff pastry sheets and then cut them into 9 squares each.

Mix all of the cheese filling ingredients together in a bowl.

Place 1 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture in the middle of each puff pastry square.

Brush a little water around the edges of the puff pastry square.
Place one burger on each puff pastry square on top of the cream cheese (allowing excess sauce to drain off into frying pan first).

Fold four corners of puff pastry up around the burgers until they meet in the middle. Press together. Close up additional openings so that the puff pastry “hugs” each burger.

Turn the burger packets over and place them seam side down on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. You can fit 18 on each baking sheet (3 rows of 6).

After all burgers are wrapped, use beaten egg to brush the top of each puff pastry so that they will become golden brown and shiny while baking.

Bake burgers for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is puffed, flaky and light golden brown.

Serve with warmed sauce and garnish with parsley if you like. These make a perfect tray of 36 appetizers.

Perfect served with a salad or fresh fruit. Saucy balsamic burgers can also be made larger for a main course.