When I found the recipe, these were baked inside buns, a la char siu bao, and I thought that was an awesome idea and I was all set to do it. But I was doing this on a night we had a show to go to, so I was relying on the original recipe’s 10-minute rise time. This, in turn, relied on the presence of instant yeast, which I didn’t have. The amount called for was one packet; I went out to get the other ingredients I didn’t have on hand and to look for instant yeast in packets as well.

I did not find it.

They had big bricks of it, but I don’t want to buy a big chunk of something I don’t expect to use up, particularly when I’ve got a jar of regular yeast already. So I nixed that plan. I decided to do regular burgers on normal buns. I mean, the burgers weren’t regular, they were ginger-teriyaki burgers, and as such they were tangy and juicy. But they were burger-shaped and they sat upon buns, rather than being a hidden burger surprise inside a bun.

Ginger-Teriyaki Turkey Burgers

Ingredients
1/2 lb ground turkey
1/2 a small onion, finely diced (I would even go so far as to say… minced)
1 clove garlic, minced
a hearty sprinkling of ground ginger
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp + 3/4 tsp soy sauce (not separated, just… that’s how much you need)
1/2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1/8 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp rice wine vinegar

Method
Mix everything together well in a big bowl.
Form into 2 patties. It will be kind of wet because of all the sauces and whatnot in there. Don’t worry too much about it.
Cook until no longer pink inside – I used an indoor grill, but whatever you use to cook a burger, use that.
Slap ‘em on buns and eat them.

I threw a few sesame seeds on mine. There weren’t any on the buns, which, oh – when I was still originally thinking of doing the baked-in-bun recipe, I was going to cut down the sugar in them, because I don’t particularly care for sweet buns. And then I decided not to go that route at all and just bought buns, and wouldn’t you know it? They turned out to be sweet as well. The universe is having a laugh at my expense sometimes.