Grilled chicken burger with bacon and raclette
- Preparation 20 min
- Refrigeration 1 h
- Cooking 45 min
- Servings 4
- Freezing I do not suggest
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🍔 The grilled chicken burger that beats a beef patty
I’ve wanted a chicken burger of my own on this site for years. Not a ground patty pressed into a mold. A whole chicken breast, marinated hard, grilled, and stacked high. It came out of summer BBQ nights when I wanted something that actually fills you up without the heavy grease of a beef burger. What you end up with is a grilled chicken sandwich that’s juicy, loaded with protein, and doesn’t leave you flat on the couch an hour later.
🔥 Where the flavour actually comes from
Three things do the work. A balsamic, honey and smoked paprika marinade that caramelizes on the grates into a sweet-savoury crust. Bacon baked in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 25 minutes, which is cleaner than the stovetop and comes out evenly crisp instead of half burnt, half floppy. And smoked raclette laid over the breast on indirect heat so it melts slow. Raclette is a Swiss-style melting cheese we eat a lot of in Québec; if your grocery store doesn’t carry it, smoked Gouda or a young smoked cheddar will stretch the same way.
🍻 Tuesday night, or Saturday cookout
Same recipe, two completely different nights. Marinate an hour minimum, the night before if you can swing it, and everything else lands in about thirty minutes. Serve it with fries, potato salad, broccoli salad. Honestly it doesn’t matter which one. That’s the whole point of a chicken burger: it’s a base, and you pile on whatever you like.
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🛡️ Split the marinade before it touches the chicken
This one isn’t a preference, it’s food safety. Divide the marinade into two bowls before any of it goes near raw chicken. One bowl marinates the breasts in the fridge. The other stays clean, in its own bowl, and that’s the only one that touches the grill brush. Marinade that has sat with raw chicken carries whatever the chicken carried, and brushing it onto meat that’s almost cooked puts it all right back. Two bowls, thirty seconds of work, problem gone. Throw out the bowl the chicken sat in.
🥓 Bacon goes in the oven, not the pan
I cook bacon in the oven every single time. No grease jumping all over the stove, no standing there flipping. Sheet pan, parchment, 400°F (200°C), 15 to 25 minutes depending on thickness. It all cooks at the same rate, which a crowded pan never does. Pull it while it still bends a little — bacon that shatters falls out of the burger on the first bite.
🌡️ Pull it at 165°F and not a degree past
Chicken breast has almost no fat to protect it, so the window between juicy and sawdust is about ninety seconds wide. Get a cooking thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and pull at 165°F (74°C). Guessing by colour is how people end up chewing.
🧀 Melt the cheese on indirect heat
Slide the breasts off the flames before the cheese goes on, then close the lid. The trapped heat melts it evenly and it stretches instead of dripping through the grates and flaring up.
🌶️ The mayo is the sauce, so make it first
Sriracha, chili powder, garlic powder, mayo. It takes a minute and it’s better after twenty in the fridge, so it’s the first thing I do. Don’t be shy spreading it — it’s the only wet component holding the burger together.
🍞 Toast the buns, then build in the right order
A brioche bun soaks up chicken juice fast. Thirty seconds cut-side down on the grill puts a dry, golden layer between the bun and everything else. Then build it: mayo on both halves, lettuce on the bottom as a shield, chicken, bacon, tomato, top bun. Lettuce first is not decoration, it’s the thing keeping the bottom bun from turning to paste.
🍽️ What to serve with a grilled chicken burger
This burger is rich but not heavy, so it takes a side with some acid. Creamy coleslaw with apples and celery is my default — the apple cuts straight through the bacon. Potato salad with bacon doubles down instead, which is the right call at a cookout. And if the grill is already going, air fryer French fries keep the stove free.
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Ingredients for the marinade
- 4 small chicken breasts (about 5 oz / 150 g each)
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) honey
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) garlic powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients for the spicy mayo
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) Sriracha
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Mexican chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) garlic powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients for the grilled chicken burgers
- 8 slices smoked raclette cheese, such as Le Boucan (4.5 oz / 130 g)
- 1/2 lb (250 g) sliced bacon
- Lettuce leaves
- Tomato slices
- 4 brioche hamburger buns
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Preparation
- Put the chicken breasts in an airtight container and set aside.
- Whisk the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Pour half of it over the chicken, close the container and turn the breasts to coat. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Keep the other half of the marinade in the fridge in a separate bowl, untouched by the raw chicken, for basting on the grill.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out the bacon slices. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the bacon is crisp but still bends. Transfer to a few layers of paper towel and press to blot the fat. Set aside.
- Stir the spicy mayo ingredients together in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and refrigerate.
- Preheat the barbecue on high, then bring it down to medium. Oil the grates. Lay the breasts over direct heat and sear 3 to 4 minutes per side, brushing constantly with the reserved marinade. Lay the cheese over the breasts, move them to indirect heat and finish cooking with the lid down until the chicken reads 165°F (74°C) at the thickest point and the cheese has melted.
- Build the burgers. Spread a generous layer of spicy mayo on both cut sides of the buns, then lay a few lettuce leaves on the bottom. Add a chicken breast, a few slices of bacon and a slice of tomato. Cap it, and run a sandwich pick through the whole thing to hold it together.
Sear them 3 to 4 minutes per side over direct heat on a medium grill, basting with the reserved marinade, then move them to indirect heat with the lid down to finish. Total time usually runs 12 to 18 minutes, but thickness decides it, not the clock. A 5 oz (150 g) breast that’s been pounded to an even thickness cooks a lot faster than a thick one straight from the package. The only number that matters is 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part.
Not the marinade the raw chicken sat in, no. That’s why the recipe splits it in two from the start: one half marinates, the other half stays sealed in the fridge and is the only one that touches the grill brush. If you forgot and only made one batch, you can still use it — bring it to a full boil for at least a minute first, then baste. Boiling it is the only thing that makes it safe.
One hour is the floor. Under that, the balsamic, honey and smoked paprika never get past the surface and the chicken tastes plain in the middle. Two to four hours is the sweet spot, and overnight is better still. There is an upper limit though: past about 12 hours, the acid in the balsamic starts breaking down the surface of the meat and the texture turns slightly mushy. Overnight yes, all weekend no.
Something creamy with heat behind it, because grilled chicken is lean and the sauce is doing the moisture work. Here it’s a sriracha mayo with a little Mexican chili powder and garlic powder — enough kick to register, not enough to bury the honey-balsamic crust. Honey mustard, chipotle mayo or a garlic aioli all work the same way. What doesn’t work is a thin vinaigrette-style sauce: it runs straight out the back of the bun.
Generally yes, and that’s most of the reason I built this one. A whole grilled chicken breast brings roughly 30 g of protein with a fraction of the saturated fat of a ground beef patty, and grilling lets the fat drip away instead of pooling. That said, this particular burger has bacon, raclette and mayo on it — it’s lighter than a double cheeseburger, not a diet plate. Drop the bacon and go easy on the mayo if that’s what you’re after.
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