Greek-style burgers (Biftekia)

These burgers are one of the first dishes I learned how to prepare, and it’s one of our favorites!

In Greece we use minced meat in several different ways, and I’m planning to post several of them (because they are delicious 🙂 ). We call this particular preparation biftekia (μπιφτέκια), and most often you can find them grilled.

They can be prepared using either minced beef or mixed pork and beef. I used only beef here because I prefer it, but I have tried the combination before and it works nicely as well.

It’s quite easy to prepare them, because you just need to put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them. And then you are ready to grill!

Preheat the oven at 240ºC (460ºF). Start by peeling the onions and the garlic, washing the parsley, and putting the minced meat in a bowl.

Mince the onion and the garlic in the food processor and finely chop the parsley. Put them in the bowl with the meat. Add the breadcrumbs, one egg, salt and pepper, oregano, vinegar and olive oil.

Using your hand (with or without a glove), mix well until everything is incorporated homogeneously.

(At this point you can even store the mix in the fridge for some hours).

If you’re planning to grill the burgers outside, on your BBQ, shape them and start grilling! But here I was making them for dinner, after work, so the BBQ wasn’t an option. I could have put them in an oven tray with some olive oil on top and cook them in the oven (they turn out awesome!).

But I went for a somehow lighter option, which is to grill them on a wire rack placed on top of a tray. In that way, the fat drips on the tray and we avoid eating it.

Cook them at 240ºC (460ºF) until nicely brown on top (took me around 25min). Flip them carefully with a fork and cook until the other side is ready. Take care because the bottom side is already quite cooked, so you’ll only need some minutes more (took me 7min more).

Serve them with rice, potatoes, salad, vegetables or anything you like! You can also try ketchup (I like it, what can I do?) or mustard.

And enjoy!

Have a nice day!

INGREDIENTS

Makes 7 burgers (I serve portions of 2 per person)

Tablespoon: standard, soup-eating, big kitchen spoon

Teaspoon: normal kitchen small spoon

400g minced beef (or combination pork-beef)

1 large onion

1 clove of garlic

4 tablespoons thinly chopped parsley

6 tbsp breadcrumbs (around 2 fistfuls)

1 egg

½ tablespoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

QUICK INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven at 240ºC (460ºF). Mince the onion and the garlic in the food processor and finely chop the parsley. Put them in the bowl with the meat. Add the breadcrumbs, the egg, salt and pepper, oregano, vinegar and olive oil. Mix with your hand until homogeneous. Grill in the oven until nicely brown, from both sides. Serve with the side dish of your choice.