Easy Homemade Hamburger

How to Make The Best No Fuss Hamburger — Less Is More

It may sound crazy, but quality meat, salt, and pepper is all we add to our simple burger recipe.

We’ve tried adding extras — olive oil, cream, mustard, and grated onion to name a few. While we liked some, none were as good as simply seasoned burger patties cooked in a little butter. Just in case you’re wondering what the extras did, here’s a quick summary:

Olive oil didn’t really add much and the texture went a little funny, they became a little grainy. Cream made the meat tender. We both really liked it, but not enough to specifically buy a whole carton of cream for a tablespoon (that’s all you needed to add). We loved the flavor of the mustard — we used Dijon and the onion was too strong for us.

So, even though we did like a few of the additions, in the end we came full circle and simple won. Think about a great steak — it’s most likely only been seasoned with salt and pepper. For us, hamburgers are the same.

The Best Meat For Burgers

For ease, we stick to ground chuck. You can get creative and use a combination of ground chuck and sirloin, though. (Some even grind up a little bacon and add it — that can’t be bad, right?). In a perfect world, we’d grind our own meat. This way, you always know the quality and it’s fresh. If you have the time and equipment (KitchenAid has a grinder attachment) then go for it, you won’t be disappointed.

We usually go for the next best thing — we buy the highest quality ground meat we can. 

Around us, that means a trip to the meat counter at Whole Foods, but if you have a butcher close by or another store you trust, go there. Choose meat with 15 to 20 percent fat. Any lower and you’ll loose some flavor and you risk the burgers becoming dry.

How to Form Perfect Hamburger Patties

We like 5 to 6 ounce burgers — they’re big, but not overwhelming. A kitchen scale can be useful for dividing the meat.

Here’s a trick — have you ever had a burger puff up in the middle while it was cooking? Before cooking, add a dimple to the middle of each burger. This stops it from puffing up in the middle and keeps things uniform.

One more thing, there’s no need to mix the salt and pepper into the meat. Just season the top and bottom (like a steak). The more you fuss hamburger meat, the tougher it will become when cooked. By the way, we season our burgers liberally.

Check out these over-the-top burgers: Queso Blanco Hamburger or our “Denver” Hamburger.

The Best Way to Cook Hamburgers

Our favorite way to cook burgers is in a cast iron skillet or on a flat top grill. We heat it over medium heat, add some butter and cook the burgers 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Done.

If you’re partial to grilling, go for it. If you feel like it, we’ve taken our cast iron skillet to the grill with us — we just love the sear you get on the skillet compared to grates. No matter how you cook it, make sure you allow the patties to rest for a few minutes.

Just look at that — moist, juicy and not too packed. A perfect burger.

How to Tell When a Burger is Done

In the photo below, you’re looking at somewhere between medium-well and well. We really like to shoot for medium. A great way to do this is to use a meat thermometer. I’ve shared the temperature of burgers when they are rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, and well-done below.

• Rare: Red in the center, 120 degrees F (50C) and below
• Medium-Rare: Very Pink in the center, 130 degrees F (55C)
• Medium: Pink in the center, 140 degrees F (60C)
• Medium-Well: Grayish Pink in the center, 150 degrees F (65C)
• Well Done: Gray, No Pink in the center, 160 degrees F (70C) and above

Note: The USDA suggests cooking ground beef to 160 degrees F, this is well-done. That’s just too done for us, which gives even more reason to buy the highest quality meat you can.

What to Serve With Burgers

• Take your burgers up a notch with homemade mayonnaise — it’s delicious! We’ve also got an excellent homemade ketchup recipe
• I love adding some pickled red onions to my burgers (they are so simple to make)
• Sliced avocado or a spoonful of homemade guacamole
• Sliced tomatoes or add a spoonful of this chopped tomato salad
• Greens like crunchy iceburg, arugula or butter lettuce
• Sliced or shredded cheese

More Burger Recipes

• Make vegetarian burgers using our tasty recipe. We spent days perfecting the perfect veggie burger.
• Swap out the beef and make turkey burgers. We add a secret ingredient so that they are delicious and juicy.
• Make this epic loaded burger with egg and ham!!
• Try our queso blanco burger with a homemade creamy queso sauce.
• Try our pan-seared (or grilled) salmon burgers with an agave glaze and chipotle mayo.

Recipe updated, originally posted June 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick recipe video. – Adam and Joanne