Bob’s Burgers: Every Breath You Tikka Masala Burger

Every Breath You Tikka Masala Burger

Given the current COVID-19 pandemic and the raiding of grocery stores it’s caused, I had to substitute several ingredients in this burger recipe.  I don’t think overall it made too big of a difference in taste, but it was tough to find some ingredients in the empty grocery stores.  These are the things I had to change:

• Ground beef.  I used ground bison instead (got the last package!).  This is actually my dad’s favorite red meat, so he was very excited for me lol.
• Basmati rice.  I found “Jasmati” rice, but not basmati.  Close enough – the taste is almost identical.
• Thai basil.  I used regular basil with a little bit of mint mixed in.  And unfortunately the only basil left was started to fade, so I wasn’t able to use as much as the recipe recommends.
• Hot Chile Pepper.  I have chile pepper flakes, but couldn’t find an actual fresh chile pepper.  I ended up using a serrano pepper instead.  This is probably the ingredient that most differed from the original recipe.

I will say up front that almost none of the pieces of this recipe actually finished at the same time so some parts of this recipe were a little cold when we ate it, but it was still delicious!

First, the rice.  It’s rinsed thoroughly and then soaked for about 30 minutes prior to cooking.  I opted to follow the package directions on how to cook the rice instead of the recipe itself, since I wasn’t sure if Jasmati rice was cooked a little differently than regular Basmati rice.

Next was the potatoes, which are boiled until tender.  Once they’re ready, the chopped peppers are sauteed in butter before adding the potatoes and paprika.  Then into the oven this goes!

For the masala, the onion and garlic are cooked over the stove until fragrant, and then the canned tomatoes and their juices are added in along with several spices.  This is boiled down for about 10 minutes and left to cool before the yogurt is added in.

Most of the masala is added to the rice, until it’s well saturated but not soupy, and the rest is poured over the potatoes.

While the masala cooked, so did the burgers!

To build the burger, the order is: toasted bottom bun, burger patty, masala-rice mixture, basil leaves, and toasted top bun.  The potatoes are served on the side.

Taste: 9/10

This was very good!  I really don’t think the substitutes I had to use made a huge difference overall.  I do wish I had timed it a bit better so some of the sections (mainly the burger patties and potatoes) weren’t cold, though.

Difficulty: Average

There are a lot of steps to this recipe and it does take quite a bit of time compared to most other recipes in the Bob’s Burgers Burger Book, but the steps aren’t overly complicated.

Cost: Average / Pricey

Most of the ingredients aren’t too expensive, but if you need to purchase the spices it adds up quickly.  Ingredients include: basmati rice, potatoes, sweet peppers, hot chile pepper, butter, paprika, onion, garlic, canned whole plum tomatoes, cumin, curry powder, ground ginger, garam masala, yogurt, ground beef, buns, and Thai basil leaves.

We actually cut this recipe in half so we only needed 1/2 the ingredients, saving some cost.  Otherwise it makes 8 burgers!