If you have ever gone to Hawaii, you know that Loco Moco is a dish that originated there and that it is a burger patty topped with an egg and smothered in brown gravy and served with rice. So what the heck does Chicago have anything to do with this dish? Let me explain.
Chicago is known in the food world for many things…deep dish pizza, Chicago style hot dog, and beef sandwiches for example. They also happened to be known for a condiment called giardiniera which actually was developed in Italy and brought over by Italian immigrants to Chicago.
In Italy, the dish is a relish of pickled vegetables. Chicago style may include olives and will typically include cauliflower, carrots, bell peppers, and chile peppers all diced up and marinated in olive oil after the vegetables have been pickled.
I’m sure you are still wondering what the connection is. There is no connection until you put them both together! And that’s what I did for this recipe. I mixed some giardiniera into an 80/20 chuck beef patty with some great seasoning. Voila…Loco Moco Chicago Style.
We mixed the pickled vegetables into the 80/20 burger patty with some seasoning and then we browned the patty in a cast iron pan. The oil in the pan was then used to make a very seasoned shitake mushroom gravy. We then topped off the patty with a fried egg and gravy. Instead of using regular rice, we substituted into the dish a seasoned cauliflower rice.
Just to experiment a little more, we reduced the carbs in the gravy by using guar gum to thicken the gravy without using flour. Guar gum is like xanthan gum (a plant-based thickening agent). The end result of using cauliflower and guar gum was to make this dish a little more keto-friendly.
The spicy crunch of the giardiniera in the burger is a texture surprise that only tastes better when combined with a spoonful of our well-seasoned gravy and a bite of cauliflower rice.
Hope you enjoy this fusion of Chicago and Italy and as always, thanks for Spending Time in My Kitchen!
