How to Grill Burgers

Burgers are one of those essential foods to learn to cook at home. Despite the ubiquity of them on menus from drive-thru to fast casual to fine-dining establishments, a great grill reviews burger you create yourself is a staple for any home cook. On the surface, a burger is one of the easiest things to make: form ground meat, fish, or vegetables into a patty and cook it on a hot grill or skillet. All you need to do is break out the buns. But that doesn’t mean all of us haven’t been faced with burgers that are charred on the outside and raw within, or come out with the texture of rubber. Here are tips for shaping, seasoning, and cooking burgers, to help you have the best grilling nights all summer long.

Make sure you have enough fat in your burger blend
Whether you are making a standard ground beef burger, or getting fancy with chicken, turkey, fish or vegetables, the single best thing to do to up your burger game is to ensure that you have enough fat in your burger mix. The high heat cooking needs fat to melt into your burger or you will end up with dry, rubbery, bland burgers every time. Your basic ratio should always include 20% fat. And yes, even if you intend to serve your burger covered in gooey cheese and slathered with mayo, exterior fat cannot save the texture of a burger with too little fat within. If you are using ground beef, you can buy 80/20 at the store. For other proteins, add grated butter or shortening or ground bacon or other source of solid fat into the blend to make up the difference.

Press a dimple into the center of the patties
Ever wonder why your perfectly formed patty came off the grill looking more like a meatball? Simple. While the burgers cook, the heat shrinks the exterior, while steam and juices cause the center to swell. The result is that domed puffy burger that no longer provides a flat surface upon which to pile toppings. To avoid this shaping issue, you just want the center of your burger to be slightly less thick than the exterior dimension. Press down in the center of the parry to create a crater that is about 1/3 deeper than the rest of your burger. This tip does not apply to burgers designed to be cooked straight from frozen (which are most often docked when shaped to address this issue), or for smash burgers, for obvious reasons.

Season your burgers before you cook them
No matter how much stuff goes on top, you have one shot to get the seasoning right on your patty and that is before you cook it. If your patties are store-bought, season them well on both sides with salt and pepper before cooking. If you are forming your own patties, you can season the blend as you mix and shape them. If possible, season at least 30 minutes (and up to to two hours) before cooking to let that seasoning work its way into the patty. There’s no skipping this step: Unseasoned burgers will always taste bland.

Let your burgers chill before cooking
Burgers are a high-heat, direct-heat item to cook, so there is little room for error. You want a great crusty sear on the outside—some people use a grill press for that—but some control over the cooking temperature, especially if you like yours rare to medium-rare. Chilling the patties before cooking gives you a bit more control over getting that exterior well-browned and crisp before the interior goes too far, and help the patties hold their shape. Give them at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator to chill, but a few hours or an overnight rest is ideal. Then you can brown them well and still get a juicy pink center. If your burgers are less than 3/4-inch thick, consider freezing them for 30 minutes before cooking.

Grill them to just the right temperature
How long to cook a burger can feel like a mystery when you are staring at a hot grill, with friends and family all around you, waiting for their burgers. While you want to cook chicken, turkey, and veggie burgers all the way through, burgers made with beef, fish, or pork, require more temperature management. Here are some guidelines; use a meat thermometer for the most accurate grilling.

Medium-rare (warm, red center): 6 minutes, or 130°F to 135°F
Medium (warm, pink center): 7 to 8 minutes, or 140°F to 145°F
Medium-well (hot, slightly pink center): 9 minutes, or 150°F to 155°F
Well done (brown all the way through): 10 minutes, or 160°F to 165°F