Island Pork Burgers

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Farmer John California Natural Fresh Pork. All opinions are 100% mine.

ISLAND PORK BURGERS: Smoky, sweet grilled pork burgers with pineapple, ginger, garlic and basil will put you instantly in vacation vibe. You don’t need a plane ticket for this taste of the islands! 

Here in Southern California, we grill all year around, so we can get jaded by our good grilling fortune weather-wise. But even so, I’m pretty excited about summer grilling season. It’s a chance to relax, take an easy approach to dinner and eat out on the patio. Summer is so sweet.

Even if you don’t live on the West coast, we’re also deep into grilling season where you live, right? So let’s fire up the grill and keep the summer heat out of the kitchen. I don’t have air conditioning, so I look for every chance I can get to either cook outside, or minimize heat production in my kitchen during the sweaty summer.

And while we’re at it, let’s push the envelope a bit by trying something other than beef or turkey burgers. Of course they’re good, but we’re craving new flavors and ideas.

So we’ll do our taste buds a flavor (see what I did there?) and use ground pork. We’re lucky to have Farmer John based right here in California – the West Coast original since 1931, and available at local grocery stores including Vons and Ralphs. They make 100% fresh pork with no artificial ingredients, in a variety of versatile cuts, including boneless loins, chops, ribs, tenderloins, etc. that can be grilled, roasted, sauteed and slow cooked.

Today’s grilling recipe uses their ground pork, and since it’s summer, I’ve set my internal compass on vacation mode, island-style. I mentally riffed on what flavors went with the islands, and I came up with pineapple and ginger, of course.

We’ll start by making an amped up barbecue sauce…

…and we’ll mix some of that sauce into the burger mixture to keep it moist and flavorful. Of course we’ve added a few other aromatics to the burger mix as well.

A quick shape into patties (do you like my surfer plate?)…

…popped onto the grill…

…grilled to perfection…

…and rested inside a burger bun, followed by the rest of that pineapple sauce and a blanket of fresh basil leaves. The herbaceous basil is a nice counterpoint to the smoky, sweet burger. Who needs lettuce, anyway, when you have basil?

Round out the plate with some fresh fruit – anything you have, from more pineapple to mango, strawberries, even some avocado — whatever summer fruit suits your fancy.

Let’s make Island Pork Burgers!

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Farmer John California Natural Fresh Pork is available at local grocery stores including Ralphs, Vons, Food 4 Less, Smart & Final, Stater Bros. Markets, Safeway & Albertsons. Visit  Farmer John Fresh Pork for a full list of retailers near you, product information and more recipe inspiration.

Tagged as: basil, basil leaves, burger, crushed pineapple, Farmer John, grilling, ground pork, pineapple, pork, sponsored, summer