How to make the best burgers on the grill

When it comes to backyard barbecue, a good burger can make or break the party. We’ll go over creating patties and grilling burgers to perfection on your grill to achieve burger glory.

Best meat for burgers:

The long and winding road to burger glory starts long before it’s time to fire up the grill. The most important part of making the perfect burger is making sure you have the right meat for the job. When you’re using a recipe to make a burger, you’ll normally be told to use ground beef – but if you see something in the store that’s simply labeled ground beef, that’s normally just code for a random collection of cuts that have all been ground together.
We recommend opting for one of three more identifiable and consistent types of ground beef.
1. Ground sirloin – this cut will normally give you a flavorful and lean beef flavor, and because it’s cut from the midsection, ground sirloin tends to give you a fat content between 7 and 10 percent. That’s way too low, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
2. Ground round – normally lean and tough. The fat content here can be as low as 10 percent, which isn’t really enough to get the best flavor.
3. Ground chuck – knowing what we know about ground beef, sirloin, and round, that leaves ground chuck as the best choice. Ground chuck is cut from the shoulder and normally contains between 15 and 20 percent fat.
This is the ideal fat sweet spot to keep your burger from drying out while giving you the perfect amount of flavor. Ground chuck is tender and much richer in flavor. Your burger will only be as good as the meat you choose, so choose wisely. Lean beef makes for dry burgers.

Best seasoning for burgers:

Never forget: whenever you season a burger, less is more. The goal is to accentuate the meaty goodness of the patty.
You’ll stumble upon tons of simple burger seasoning recipes that are built solely around salt and pepper. A little minced dried onion, garlic, and brown sugar won’t disappoint either. From there, you might want to add some cayenne pepper or paprika to give it a smoky profile, and maybe some rosemary – but don’t go overboard.
Too many spices or coarse additions to a burger patty can make it more likely to fall apart when you flip it. The best solution to ensure you have the best burger seasoning is normally to use a beef rub that has been designed around the type of cut you’re using and how you’re grilling it.
Whatever seasoning you choose, try to keep it simple and play to your audience.

How to Make Hamburger Patties?

No matter how you choose to season, just wait until right before you plan to throw these bad boys on the grill. If you want that juicy bite that makes you drool, hold back your salt and pepper until right before you toss them on the grill.
This allows the rub time to adhere to the meat without starting to dry out. Add additional rubs or seasonings to your liking. After seasoning, it’s time to get down to business. Don’t overpack your burger. For a tender and juicy burger, we recommend not overpacking your meat.
With wet hands, gently form the meat into 1 ½ inch patties – but don’t overpack it. This isn’t Play-Doh, and the more you handle and squish the meat, the tougher it will be. As soon as your burger patties hold together, stop what you’re doing. No more. That’s it. You’re done.

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Burger patties size:

The thicker the burger, the juicier the burger. It can be tempting to try to spread the wealth and make thinner patties if you have a big barbecue to cook for – but if you lose size, you’ll also lose flavor. This means that when you’re sizing your patties, you need to make them big.
Classic burgers will normally range from a quarter pound to 6 ounces, but there’s no shame in bumping your portions up to 8 ounces, which will yield patties that are about 1 ½ inches thick. In fact, you should actually size your burgers slightly larger than the bun, whatever size you’re going for, to allow for a little shrinkage during the cooking of the meat.
This will lead to the perfect burger-to-bun ratio. Pro tip: use your thumb to make indentations in your patties before cooking. This step helps them hold their shape, so they stay flat and don’t puff up.

Temperature to grill a hamburger:

Making sure the grill is hot and allowing your grill to preheat is CRUCIAL. To grill burgers, you need to set the grill to the highest setting. Depending on the grill model, there may be a “High” setting (the temperature will range from 400 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit) or your grill may have the ability to set exactly to 500 degrees. One of the benefits of cooking on a wood pellet grill is that you can get a wood-fired flavor on your grilled burgers.
For smoked burgers, set the temperature to 225 degrees Fahrenheit or on Smoke or Super Smoke depending on the grill you have for 25-30 minutes. Once you have smoked your patties, remove the burgers from the grill and preheat your grill to the highest setting before grilling them. This will help you get the perfect sear on the outside, create a caramelized and flavorful exterior, and prevent the burger from sticking to the grill.
Since cooking time varies depending on the thickness of the burger patty, we recommend cooking to a internal temperature using a Digital thermometer kitchen, to ensure you don’t overcook or undercook your burger.
Safety first, and so it’s worth noting that the USDA recommends that burgers be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
But that’s well done, and we recommend opting for a healthy middle ground to achieve that optimal level of meaty goodness. | Cooking | Cooking Time Per Side | Internal Temperature | | Rare | 2 minutes | 125 °F | | Medium Rare | 3 minutes | 135 °F | | Medium | 4 minutes | 145 °F | | Well Done | 5 minutes | 160 °F |

Grill your buns:

This is definitely not sorcery. Toasting your hamburger bun will give you a beautiful crispy texture, a soft interior, and those sexy grill marks everyone loves.
The solution? As always, less is more. Spread a thin layer of butter with a bun butter wheel or sauce inside your bun and place it face down on the grill for the last minute (absolutely no more) of cooking. Not only will this give your burgers an extra crunch, but you’ll also retain enough moisture in the bun to hold all the flavor.

Butter your buns with this Bun butter wheel

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Melting cheese:

This is it: the pièce de résistance. The grand finale. The cherry on top. The perfect burger needs the perfect cheese, and that cheese needs to be melted.

When one side of your burger is done and the other is within two minutes of being done, your cheese should be the last thing to be added. Place the cheese on your burger to melt. You will normally get the best melt if you close the lid of the grill, and 2 to 3 minutes will be enough for most cheeses. From there, all you have to do is top your burger with your favorite fixings and enjoy!

HOW TO Cook Burgers on a Pellet Grill If you want your burgers to be the star of the show, you should cook them on a pellet grill. The flavor benefits are truly worth it, as you will get a bolder, smokier taste that perfectly accentuates the natural, meaty goodness of your well-selected ground chuck.

When you cook a burger with a pellet grill, it will just taste better. Logistically, pellets are also a simpler choice because they burn slow and hot, giving you excellent temperature and consistency control. A simple start-up also allows you to grill faster, while the convection heating process eliminates flare-ups and the need to keep the grill going.

So, what grill temperature should you set for burgers? You can grill your burgers at 450 degrees Fahrenheit or High setting on your grill. What grill temperature should you set for smoked burgers? 225 degrees Fahrenheit until the patties reach an internal temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit, which will take about 25-30 minutes.

Then, remove the patties, preheat your grill to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or High, and then put the patties back in to sear and grill to your desired doneness. Here you have a video where you can see how to do.