For the chicken burgers

  • 1-1.5 lbs  Grassland Ground Chicken
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil, for cooking the burgers (unless you grill them)

For the BBQ sauce

  • 1 (6oz) can tomato paste
  • 1 small yellow onion, minced
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup water or broth
  • 2 tablespoons apple butter (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon ground mustard (the kind in the jar, not powder)
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • a pinch or two of ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • splash of hot sauce, to taste

For the fries

  • 1-2 sweet potatoes, thinly sliced to french fry thickness–let’s go with McD’s thickness, not Wendy’s (don’t act like you’ve never tried their fries you paleo purist freak)
  • 2-3 tablespoons avocado oil*
  • salt, to taste

Preparation

Start with the fries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First, slice up your sweet potato (keeping the skin ON). Slice them to desired thickness but remember that the thinner they are, the more likely the are to be crisp!

Put sweet potato fries into a large bowl and add your avocado oil and salt. Stir them up a bit until they are completely covered and glistening happy as can be.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (always have better results AND better clean up with parchment paper) and add fries on the sheet. Space out the fries so they are not overlapping–you may have to use 2 cookie sheets depending on the size of your sweet potato!

Add to the oven to cook for 25-30 minutes of until desired crispiness occurs!

While the fries cook, whip up your BBQ sauce! In a pot, add some olive oil (or other fat) and brown the onion–about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir together to cook a bit more.

Add all other ingredients and mix together, then let simmer for 10-15 minutes (or longer if you have time-I usually want to eat as quick as possible).

Once the BBQ sauce is simmering, finish the meal off with preparing your burgers!

Grab the same bowl you used to coat your fries, and add your chicken, 1/4 cup BBQ sauce (right off of the stove!), spices, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.

Heat up a large skillet over medium-high heat and add your olive oil.

Form your burgers into 4-5 patties and add to hot skillet. Cook for about 8 minutes/side.

While the burgers begin to brown up, grab a small skillet out and add a bit more olive oil to it and add your sliced onions and some salt to saute up and caramelize a bit. This will take about 10 minutes, just be sure to push the onions around a bit and cover them if you want them to cook a bit faster.