The Best Juicy Burger

The secret to a truly great hamburger is keeping it simple! You don’t need any extra ingredients for the best, juiciest burgers. Trust us. After years of testing and tasting, this remains our absolute favorite way to make them.

We love a great hamburger, so we spent a lot of time researching and testing methods to get the perfect patty. We experimented with all kinds of mix-ins like olive oil, mustard, even cream, but ultimately, we learned that less is definitely more. When you start with quality beef, you don’t need to add anything extra to the meat itself.

We love these burgers so much (especially topped with our family’s burger sauce or a spoonful of giardiniera). While this is our go-to, we have plenty of other hamburger recipes on the site to browse if you’re looking for some inspiration. Our smash burgers and chicken burgers are reader favorites, but we’ve included a full list of our top picks below.

Key Ingredients

• Ground Beef: For the juiciest burgers, use meat with 15%-20% fat. Any lower, and you’ll lose flavor, and the burgers will be dry. I usually buy ground chuck, but ground sirloin is a nice option, too. We also find the burgers cook more evenly when I take the meat out of the fridge 20 minutes before forming the patties and cooking.
• Salt and Pepper: We prefer to season our burger patties like a steak and sprinkle them with salt and pepper on the outside. There’s no need to mix the salt and pepper into the meat. That extra mixing can make the burgers turn out tough. When you season burgers, be generous. If you want more flavor, a good steak seasoning is ideal.
• Oil: Use a higher-heat oil for cooking (you won’t need much). Avocado oil or safflower oil is usually in our kitchen, but use what you have.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Burgers Like a Pro

Tip 1: Keep things simple. We’ve tried many hamburger recipes that claim to be the best by adding special ingredients, but in our experience, most mix-ins actually make the burger worse. For us, a really good burger has a light texture and turns out nice and juicy. Definitely not firmer or tender in the middle like our favorite meatballs.

Over the years, we’ve tried different mix-ins. Here’s what we learned:

• Olive oil made the meat feel grainy instead of tender.
• Mustard and grated onion tasted good, but they required more mixing, resulting in a dense, tough texture. These ingredients are better added as toppings after the burger is cooked.
• Cream was the only mix-in we liked, but it wasn’t worth buying a whole carton for just a tablespoon.

At the end of the day, we always kept coming back to that simple combo of beef, salt, and pepper. That mix, plus being careful not to over mix the meat, guarantees that light, juicy burger texture we love so much (see the photo below — see how it looks light in the middle, not dense or tough?)

Tip 2: Add a dimple to the patties. This one always makes me smile, because it really makes a difference. The burgers in our photos are 1/3-pounders, which means you’ll divide 1 pound of meat into three burgers. A kitchen scale is helpful, but you can always go by eye if you’d prefer it. Then, use a light hand to form the meat into patties. Before cooking them, press a shallow indentation, or a “dimple,” into the center of each patty. This prevents the burger from puffing up too much in the middle as it cooks, keeping a uniform thickness.

Tip 3: Season hamburgers like a steak. There’s no need to mix your seasonings into the meat. Instead, season them the same way you would season steak before cooking. Generously sprinkle salt and pepper over each side just before cooking. To season, avoid mixing anything into the ground beef.

Tip 4: Cook in a skillet or on a flat-top grill. You can absolutely grill your burgers, but our preference is to cook them either in a heavy-bottomed skillet (like cast-iron) or on a flat-top grill. This way the burgers get a chance to sear and brown on the outside, cooking right in their own fat. We like medium to medium-high heat, then let them get some color on one side before flipping. If you really want to get that sizzle, add a little butter after you flip.

→ To grill these, you can either use a cast-iron pan on the grill or cook them directly on the grates. If you do cook directly on the grates, make sure the grates are cleaned beforehand and preheat the grill for a while. Then add your burgers and leave them alone for a few minutes. Avoid pressing them (that just presses out all the juices), then flip when the first side has a good set of grill marks. Try to keep the flipping to a minimum, too. And as a last tip, keep a thermometer nearby (suggested internal temperatures for burgers are below).

Tip 5: Let burger patties rest. This one is important, no matter how you decided to cook them. Once your burgers come off the heat, let them rest, loosely covered with foil, for about 5 minutes. This lets carryover cooking do its job and gives the juices inside time to redistribute. It also protects your bun from getting soggy. If any juices run out while the burgers rest, they will run onto the foil, not your bun.

How to Tell When a Burger is Done

According to the USDA, the minimum safe temperature for burgers is 160°F (well-done). This is because any harmful bacteria are usually present on the surface of raw meat. Because we burgers require ground meat, there is a higher potential for that bacteria to get mixed throughout the meat.

If you do not wish to cook all the way to well done, I’ve shared a guide to temps below.

• Rare: Red in the center, 120°F and below
• Medium-Rare: Very Pink in the center, 130°F
• Medium: Pink in the center, 140°F
• Medium-Well: Grayish Pink in the center, 150°F
• Well Done: Gray, No Pink in the center, 160°F and above.ntil an internal thermometer reads 160°F. I still prefer medium, but I wanted to make sure that you know.

Serving Suggestions

We love upgrading our burgers with homemade condiments! Ditch the store-bought stuff, and make your own mayonnaise, ketchup, or burger sauce. Keep it classic with sliced tomato, iceberg lettuce, and sliced onions. I love cowboy candy (candied jalapeños) and pickled red onions on my burger (they’re super easy to make and add a lovely tangy crunch). Or, for something rich and creamy, go for sliced avocado or a sponful of guacamole.

For burger sides, you can’t go wrong with French fries and fry sauce or these homemade tater tots. My son also loves these easy sweet potato fries. If you’d prefer a classic salad, try our pasta salad, potato salad, or simple green salad with this balsamic dressing.

More Burger Recipes

• Turkey Burgers
• Pork Burgers
• Black Bean Burgers
• Chicken Burgers
• Salmon Burgers
• Veggie Burgers
• Smash Burger Tacos