Croque Madame Chicken Burgers

So I had this naive idea that life after Teddy, work-wise, would be totally easy. I confidently told myself and everyone else around me that things wouldn’t change when it came to the blog. I’d break out the camera, cook, and navigate social media shares while Teddy napped. What I couldn’t get done during nap time, I’d get done while my Mom watched him one day a week. Also, dinner would be on the table, the bed would be made, and I’d pick up the trail I’d left around the house all day, all before Kevin would get home.

I’m sure I don’t even have to say this out loud, but, man, mothering a child is no joke. I can’t just put him down and let him entertain himself, because I’d feel like I’m not engaging him enough. I can’t hold him and play with him all day, because then I’ll be spoiling him, overstimulating him, and thinking about all the work I need to get done.

While some of my expectations have been met, for the most part, I’m really struggling to keep up with the freelance work that’s built up in the last couple months, produce new content for this space, and manage to get dinner on the table a few nights a week.

The few days a week I do manage to get a recipe developed and photographed, it ends up being dinner for us later that night, which in this case, I was perfectly happy with…

Chicken burgers have become a somewhat regular item in our dinner rotation, and they’ve definitely had their fair share of moments here on Cooking for Keeps. I just love that they’re a healthier alternative to a burger, super easy to throw together and are sort of chameleon when it comes to flavor combinations. I think maybe that’s why I love burgers in general so much, I can literally throw whatever crazy ingredients (within reason) I want on top of a patty, between two buns, and I’m pretty much guaranteed something delicious.

In this case, I took my favorite French sandwich, a croque madame, and turned it into a chicken burger worthy of any brasserie. For those not familiar, a croque madame is a classic French open-face sammy. It’s piled high with ham, shredded gruyere cheese, and buttered bread, then topped off with a perfectly runny fried egg — sort of like heaven on this earth…

All of the classic components of the croque madame are here — ham (in the form of salty prosciutto), gruyere (in the form of a stringy, gooey gruyere fondue), and of course, a runny fried egg. All of it is nestled on top of a simply flavored chicken patty, and then sandwiched between a toasted pretzel bun.

I served them with some bakes sweet potato fries, but really, they’re hearty enough to stand on their own…

That’s all I’ve got folks…nap time is over…