A chicken burger with - Gasp! - good texture

Most chicken burgers suffer from a dry, mealy texture, qualities that don't quite scream summer grilling fun.

Blame the bird. Ground chicken generally has little or no fat. So by the time you're done manhandling ground chicken into a patty and tossing it on the grill, you end up with a pretty forgettable burger. You could keep it moist by adding cheese. Of course, if you're just adding saturated fat, why not just do a beef burger?

But I recently learned a trick from Christopher Kimball, founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated magazine, that fixes the flaw.

When Kimball makes beef burgers, he skips ground beef and instead chops (note that I didn't say grinds) his own sirloin and beef ribs in a food processor. The result is a magnificently chunky, moist burger. I decided to try the same technique with chicken breasts.

The result was great. The burgers were delicious and moist. And that's because, like Kimball's beef burgers, mine were made from chunks of chicken, not ground meat.

The catch is that, also like Kimball's burgers, prior to cooking my chicken burgers were very moist and delicate. When you form the patties, they will seem gloopy. Rest assured, once they hit the grill, they firm up fine and flip with no trouble.

I flavored this burger with curry powder and topped it with sliced avocado, but both could easily be left out for a more traditional taste.