Today's Case:
James Garner Chili Burger Redux
Re: James Garner’s Chili ‘Burgers’
From: Robin
To: Phaedrus
Date: 3/12/2025, 10:50 AM
On 3/8/2025 7:25 PM, Robin wrote:
Haven't been able to find this anywhere and then I discovered this forum so
I thought I'd give it a shot.
Years ago my Mom cut out an article from a newspaper featuring a recipe from
James Garner and we loved it. But alas both my Mom and the recipe are now
gone. (As is James Garner!)
It was a chiliburger recipe and as I recall you take chili and freeze it into patties.
Then you take the frozen patties and dip them in some sort of a batter and pan
fry them and serve them with a slice of red onion in a hamburger bun and dress
up as you see fit.
They were great back then and I would love to give them another try.
Hello Robin,
I've searched for this before. No luck. See: 9-16-2013
Oddly, 15 years ago, a request exactly like yours was posted here: Talkfood They had no success.
Today - again I had no luck. Garner's "Oklahoma Chili" recipe did appear in a Miami newspaper. I have a photo of that newspaper recipe, but it is not for chili burgers, just chili.
I was beginning to doubt whether such a chili burger recipe ever existed, but then I found this, on a James Garner Fan Facebook Page at : James Garner Recipe
"Jim had a different recipe that he shared one night on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Jim turned it into Chili burgers with a Bisquick batter. We are making an effort to find either the clip or the recipe, or both."
Well, I found four clips on YouTube of James Garner appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and I watched all four. Jim does not talk about chili or chili burgers in any of them. Maybe that episode is just not on YouTube or maybe it was another talk show. Jim was on a lot of talk shows during his life, and it may have been one of the others where he talked about chili burgers.
Apparently no one else has found the recipe or a clip from "The Tonight Show" of that conversation. Even Jim's children have never verified this exchange or the chili burger recipe. I can find no mention of it except for those two and a couple more that may have originated after someone read those earlier mentions.
I also looked for any chili burger recipe that called for Bisquick or mentioned making patties from chili and freezing them before making the chili burgers. Again, no luck.
Perhaps you might have some success by posting a request on that James Garner fan page at:
James Garner Fan Page on Facebook
Phaed
