Dinner Divas: Cobb Burgers

I recently joined a cooking group called dinner divas, with some girls from the what's cooking message boards on thenest.com. I love it because you have your choice of four meals and have an entire month to try and cook one or all of them. I wanted to try the chicken cobb burgers, but couldn't find ground chicken anywhere, so I just made regular bleu cheese burgers. Adam & I had tried these out on July fourth, and they were so juicy and the melted cheese inside was a nice explosion of flavor in the burger. These burgers were delicious. The avacoado and mustard vinaigrette dressed lettuce gave it an upscale feel and a great combination of flavors that were new to our palate. I served these with sweet potato fries and my great grandmother's squash casserole (which I will post about later).

Here is the link to the original recipe with the ground chicken and it also calls for bacon, which I left out because we were trying to be somewhat healthy. We also topped it with colby jack cheees slices, which were good, but don't necessarily add anything extra special. I have listed my variation below.

Here's an inside look. Look closely and you can see the bleu cheese in the center of the burgers. Melt in your mouth delciousness!

Cobb Burgers
Source: Bobby Flay on Food Network

Ingredients:
For the burgers:
1 lb. Extra Lean Ground Beef
Kosher Salt (about 1/4-1/2 tsp.)
Freshly ground black pepper (about 1/4-1/2 tsp._
1-2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (I use the treasure cove brand)
4 whole wheat burger buns, split
1 large ripe beefsteak tomato, cut into 4 slices
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and cut into 8 slices

For the vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely shredded romaine lettuce

Directions:
For the burgers:

Heat the grill to medium. (Our grill was out of gas, so we did this on the griddle on our stovetop). Place the meat in a bowl, add salt, pepper, and worcestershire sauce. Mix together (I do this with my hands). Form the meat into 4 (8-ounce) burgers. Make a well in the middle of each burger and fill each equally with the bleu cheese crumbles. Cover back over the bleu cheese with the meat.

Grill the burgers until golden brown on both sides and cooked completely through, about 5 minutes per side. Place the burgers on the bottom half of each bun and top with a slice of tomato, 2 slices of avocado, and some of the dressed romaine. Cover each burger with the bun tops and serve.

For the vinaigrette:

Whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper and oil in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using to allow the flavors to meld. Just before assembling the burgers, place the romaine in a medium bowl and toss with the vinaigrette.