Learn how to make basic thick burgers, whether you’re using a grill or a pan. This simple recipe walks you through creating juicy, flavorful burgers with minimal ingredients. Perfect for a quick and satisfying meal. Whether you're a grilling pro or cooking indoors, this recipe is easy to follow and yields delicious results every time. Enjoy restaurant-quality burgers right at home!
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00This burger recipe is sponsored by Squarespace.
00:02Your basic, big, thick, juicy burger. Nice and flat, not all bunched up in the middle.
00:08I've been boning up on burgers lately and I'm gonna show you what I've learned.
00:11We'll do some outside on the grill and some others inside in a pan.
00:15I think thick burgers require totally different technique from thin burgers and
00:19different ingredients. For a thick boy, I want freshly ground, loosely packed beef.
00:24The stuff butchers generally grind in-house and comes out looking like worms.
00:28This stuff works far better for a thick burger than ground beef that has been vacuum-packed in
00:33a tight little brick. This is chuck, the classic burger cut. You can get way more creative with
00:38your cuts, but make sure whatever you're using is at least 20% fat. A thick burger is gonna be
00:42anywhere between 5 and 8 ounces, 140-230 grams raw weight. I'm at the top end of that spectrum
00:49here. And the key is don't try to mix seasoning into the interior of the meat. Do not knead the
00:55meat. Don't squish it really hard. Just gently pat it into a patty that's a little wider than how
01:00you want it in the end because it's gonna shrink as it cooks. I like to rotate it around and use
01:04my thumb to form a nice clean edge. When you pack ground beef really tightly, or knead it really
01:10aggressively, you make the cooked texture really dense and rubbery, and that effect is exacerbated
01:16if you work salt into the meat. There's chemical things that happen. Protein bonds formed in
01:21response to the salt, and also just the kneading and the smushing keep the internal texture as
01:26loose as possible for a thick burger. The only reason you can get away with kneading and salting
01:31meatballs in meatloaf is because there you're working in breadcrumbs and vegetables and other
01:36things that disrupt the protein matrix. That's great, but it's not a burger. That's a burger.
01:41And it'll cook even better if I depress the middle, try to work the patty into like a lens
01:46shape. Or I guess it's an inverted lens. I want the outer ring of meat to be thicker to slow its
01:52cooking. The rim has more surface area, so it gets more heat and is therefore liable to cook faster
01:58than the rest of the burger. When that happens, the rim of meat constricts and smushes the center
02:03of the burger, causing the center to bunch up in the middle. Then you have an elliptical burger
02:07that does not lie flat on the bun. Make that outer lip thick and you slow its cooking.
02:13Since we can't season the interior, we have to season the exterior really aggressively,
02:17especially for thick boys like these. You might not want that much salt, but I do.
02:21And I want lots of pepper. Remember, there's a lot of meat here. And then the burger seasoning
02:25that I swear by is garlic powder. I'm a fan of this stuff generally, but particularly on burgers.
02:31The meat will keep the granules kinda wet enough that most of them shouldn't burn.
02:35I've had my grill preheating and burning off the sludge from my last grilling.
02:39For a thick burger, I want moderate heat. On my gas grill, that means maximum heat.
02:45Gas grills are generally pretty weak compared to a charcoal grill. For charcoal,
02:49build a moderately hot fire. If you don't know how to do that, you just need to practice. Every
02:53grill is different. For the grill, I don't like to use any oil on the meat or on the grill grates.
02:58It just drips down and causes flare-ups. And on a thick burger, I think oil can make the exterior
03:03go too dark brown before the inside is cooked. Don't push the patty into the grill grates at
03:08all. That'll make it far more likely to stick when it's time to flip. Just gently plop it on
03:13and don't touch it. I'll season the other side now. I'm a fan of constant flipping when it comes
03:18to steak, but with burgers, you just can't. You have to let the first side totally solidify as
03:23hard as possible before you flip. If you don't, the burger could fall apart. All the good crust
03:28could stick to the bars. No good. And I like to leave the lid open while the first side cooks.
03:33That lets me cook the bottoms as firm as possible without overcooking the interior.
03:38When you close the lid, you trap ambient heat and turn the grill into an oven. It cooks from
03:42all directions. I just want to cook from the bottom at first. A nice spirited sizzle there,
03:47but nothing too crazy. If the grill was too hot, there'd be a bunch of smoke at this stage,
03:51you'd smell burning. If I was cooking this over charcoal, I'd pile my coals unevenly so I could
03:56move the burger from hot zone to cool zone if necessary or vice versa. I can feel that's not
04:02ready to flip yet. It's gonna stick. I got some time to go inside and think about toppings.
04:06It's Vidalia onion season, and my old friends at A&M Farms in Georgia sent me a box. Hashtag
04:11not an ad, just a fan. Vidalias are extremely low in pungent sulfur compounds, so they're great to
04:16eat raw on things like burgers. And I've got some lettuce and some pickles. That's enough.
04:21All right, these have been on the grill for seven minutes, and really no matter what you do,
04:24you'll need to scrape the burger a little bit to get it off the bars. Get every surface released
04:29before you flip or it's gonna break apart. Especially because we didn't overpack the meat.
04:33That loose internal texture is gonna make the burger much more delicious to eat,
04:37but right now it makes it more delicate to handle. Get every bit scraped clean off the
04:41bars before you flip. At this point, we're likely to have flare-ups, because lots of
04:46fat is rendering out now and dripping down and catching fire. A little flame char on meat goes
04:51a very long way. I don't want this to taste burned, nor do I want cancer, which is a thing
04:56with burned meat, so I will close the lid, mostly to deprive those flames of some oxygen. They're
05:01still flaming in there, but probably not as bad. I like to cook burgers most of the way on side one,
05:06to get them firm enough to flip safely. Side two needs half as much time. If you see a little
05:12juice pushing to the surface, that means the inside is gonna be about medium. If you see a
05:17lot of juice flooding the surface like that, that means the burger is gonna be cooked all the way
05:21through by the time it rests, which is how I want it. I am not a fan of pink burgers,
05:26and there's some health risk there too. Real quick, I gotta melt my cheese. Reconstituted
05:30American cheese really was made for burgers because it melts so easily, but I'm actually
05:36just using normal cheddar slices today. They're gonna melt just fine if I close the lid and turn
05:40the grill into an oven to trap the ambient heat. Give it a minute and then have a look. Eh, I like
05:45it a little meltier. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Ding! That was seven minutes on side A,
05:52four or five minutes on side B, including the cheese melting time, for a thick burger that's
05:56cooked all the way through. And for a thick burger, I like to let it rest on a plate for
06:01a couple of minutes. It's gonna push out some juice at this stage, and I'd rather that juice
06:05go out onto the plate instead of into the bun. I hate soggy buns. Fancy burger joints these days
06:11often make their burgers too juicy for my taste. They're a mess to eat. Speaking of buns, I'll turn
06:16off my grill just to toast my buns a little in the residual heat. If you want, you can butter
06:21the cut sides and you'll get an even nicer effect than I do here. I'll close the lid and let the
06:26buns steam through and get hot. After a minute, that's enough for me. I don't want the bread to
06:30taste burned. I mostly just want it to dry out so it can absorb some moisture without getting soggy.
06:35People often like to put mayonnaise on the bottom bun to serve as a moisture barrier — water
06:39doesn't mix with fat. But I don't especially like mayonnaise, so I prefer to use a single,
06:44solid piece of lettuce as waterproofing for the bottom bun. Get my sweet Vidalia's on there,
06:49straight from Lyons, Georgia. And a burger, to me, is mostly just a dill pickle delivery device.
06:54Mustard and ketchup. If you put your condiments under the meat, they actually hit your tongue
06:58before your tongue hits the meat, and it all comes together better in your mouth. I-M-H-O.
07:03And there we go. Perfectly flat, a little wider than the bun, which is generally how I like it.
07:07I don't like bread-heavy bites. And even though it's cooked well done, that burger just crumbles
07:11in the mouth, because we bought loose-packed beef and we didn't overwork it or season the interior.
07:17If you want a pink burger, pull it when you just start to see juice surfacing, and put the cheese
07:21on like right after you flip. You won't have much time to melt it.
07:24All right, a good thing for doing burgers inside is a big cast iron pan, but you can do a thick
07:29burger in any pan. Thick burgers are just generally easier to do at home, in part because you don't
07:34have to crank the heat as high as you do for thin burgers. I think that's a little too hot. Medium
07:38heat for thick boys. And these I will grease up. You don't have to worry about flame-ups inside,
07:44and some oil will get you a nicer crust that'll compensate for the lack of smoky grill flavor,
07:49and it'll guard against sticking, which is a bigger hazard on a pan that makes full
07:53contact with the meat. Same seasonings as before — salt, pepper and my beloved garlic powder.
07:58Slap it in there and we should hear a spirited sizzle, but nothing too crazy.
08:02Give the center a little push to make sure you don't have a steam balloon pushing the
08:06middle up and away from the pan. Plenty of fat is gonna render out for cooking side B,
08:11so I have no idea why I put more oil on there. I just wasn't thinking. It's totally unnecessary,
08:15but more seasoning is definitely necessary. After five minutes, I can feel that A, this is
08:20not ready to be flipped, and B, that spatula is gonna be too soft to scrape that off the surface.
08:26Honestly, I would do these in my nonstick if my nonstick was wide enough. Even in this huge cast
08:31iron, I can only do two patties at a time. Thank goodness they're each thick enough to feed one
08:35person each. There's a reason that thin patty burger joints especially favor a wide, flat-top
08:41grill. You just need more horizontal space. These look more than halfway cooked through.
08:45It's been seven minutes. It's now or never. A little scraping with something rigid,
08:49and she's free, ready to be flipped. And look at all that gorgeous crusty browning.
08:54Boy yeah, you can see I had plenty of fat in here to fry side B. No point in adding more.
08:58At this point, the flipping has introduced so much water into the pan that I can tell the
09:02temperature is dipping. I gotta boost my burner a little, and it takes a little longer to melt
09:07cheese in a pan, so I'm gonna put my cheese on right away.
09:10This is smoked gouda from the deli counter. It really compensates for the lack of smoky
09:14grill flavor in the meat. It just doesn't melt as readily, as you'll see. If you have a tight-fitting
09:20lid, go for it, but I have to make do with a foil tent. Gotta trap some heat and some
09:24steam in there to melt the cheese as best as possible. Alright, that's probably about as
09:28good as I can do without overcooking the burger. People use American cheese for a reason — it
09:32melts faster. I just like the taste of this. You can try to use a thermometer to gauge doneness,
09:36but burgers are really easy to eyeball once you've done it a few times and you know what
09:41your desired doneness just looks like on the outside.
09:44Alright, all that rendered fat and olive oil in there is gonna make the cut sides of these buns
09:49fry up really beautifully golden brown. This part works way better in a pan, but honestly,
09:54toasting the bun by any means available to you really improves any burger. Oh yeah,
09:58that's gonna be good. Fried bread down, lettuce, onions. I always try to make sure to push the
10:03toppings out to the edge. It sucks when everything is bunched up in the middle,
10:07the middle gets messy and the outside is bland. I got my pickles, ketchup and mustard,
10:11and I think the meat has rested just long enough when I can just pick it up with my fingers. It's
10:16just a minute or two of resting to purge the excess juice that would otherwise soggy my buns.
10:21Look at that nice crispy browning there. You don't get that on the grill. That's fried meat.
10:26Again, a nice yielding texture, even though we cooked this all the way through. I'll try to
10:30tackle thin patties at some point, but for a home-cooked meal, I think a thick patty is almost
10:36as user-friendly as Squarespace. Everything you need to build and run a website nestled within a
10:42toasted sesame seed bun. The bun in this case signifies the affordable monthly subscription
10:46you pay that covers just about everything. Covers Squarespace hosting your site for you.
10:51It also gets you so many tools for building a website, even if you have next to no technical
10:56ability. You just pick a template and start tweaking it. You can do this part for free.
11:00Throw together a simple personal portfolio site, or an event site, or even a store. I used
11:05Squarespace to sell my custom chef knife recently, and I will again once we've made more of them.
11:10This page took about as much time to throw together as it takes to cook a burger, seriously.
11:15And if you're selling your time rather than a product, Squarespace has schedulers you can
11:19drop right into your site. You can paywall content on your site. And if there's ever
11:24something you can't figure out how to do, there's a million help documents to consult,
11:27because a million people use Squarespace for doing whatever it is you're doing. You're not alone.
11:32Draft your site for free, but when you're ready to pay to publish or to register a custom domain,
11:37go to squarespace.com slash ragusea and save yourself 10 percent. Thank you, Squarespace.
11:42And thank you to everybody out there who nagged me for years now to make a burger video.
11:47I told you I'd get around to it.